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JohnWallace44
Posts: 25119
Alba Posts: 1
Joined: 6/14/2005
Member: #910
USA
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Day 2 Morning
- Danilo Gallinari shouldn't be chest-bumping or ass-bumping anybody, if you ask me. Gotta protect that back. Stick with the classic high five.
- Darko Milicic is, as many have said before, a very strong lefty. He prefers to finish left on either side of the rim, and isn't the most ambidextrous of dribblers.
- Eddy Curry wasn't present today because of that strained calf.
- Jordan Hill, for all his youthful pitfalls, runs the floor like a pro. He's fast for a big guy, and appears to be pretty well-conditioned. These full-court drills look absolutely exhausting, but Jordan was able to keep up at full speed. He also looked much more adept at stopping on a dime and hitting the short jumper today.
- Al Harrington and Jared Jeffries made a point of screaming "AHHH!! AHHH!!" and "IT HURTS!!!" while doing the strength drills on balance balls.
Couple things I forgot to mention from yesterday: The players have personalized smoothies with their names on them, each calibrated to fit their nutritional needs and flavor preferences. In the lost interviews, Warren Carter told me his was peanut butter flavored, and Darko Milicic said his was made of "English fruit", whatever that is. Sun Yue's, incidentally, was labeled "#32, CUTTINO MOBLEY". He didn't seem to mind. (Insert "I drink your milshake!" joke here.)
- Also last night, I overheard Eddy Curry and Chris Duhon discussing how strenuous Mike D'Antoni's full-court drills were. Both agreed that it was harder than anything Scott Skiles had ever made them do.
Day 1 Evening
Day 1 of training camp is finished, and I just got to watch about an hour of five-on-five scrimmaging. I did a couple interviews which I'll probably post very early tomorrow morning. In the meantime, I'll type up these notes for y'all and tell you what I saw:
Eddy Curry- You've probably already read it elsewhere, but Eddy appeared to aggravate his injured right calf while grabbing a rebound. He limped off the floor about ten minutes into scrimmages and didn't return. He said it's just a strain and he's day-to-day.
Danilo Gallinari- Gallo kept moving well in the full-court scrimmages, and continued to show off his offensive repertoire. He wasn't all that active off the ball, but after a catch he wasn't just settling for jumpers. There were a couple nice fakes and dribbles for short jumpers, a spinning lefty layup (that rimmed out), and a couple vicious dunks, including one complete facial on Jordan Hill (prompting David Lee to put his thumb to his forehead and yell "The Rooster!"). As for the jump shot, Gallo wasn't quite as automatic as he'd been in practice. He missed a few early, and angrily ripped the bandage off his right hand following one brick. It's not like he was shooting poorly, though. Anything less than perfection from the field surprises me when it comes to Gallinari. I did get a chance to see the cut on his hand up close and it ain't no scratch.
Alan Hahn mentioned to me earlier that he envisions Gallinari as more of a shooting guard than a forward, and he might very well be on to something. On defense, Gallo spent a lot of time guarding the likes of Joe Crawford, and on offense he pretty much chilled outside the arc and waited for a pass. Sounds like a two-guard to me.
Wilson Chandler- Chandler, meanwhile, seems to be fancying himself more and more a forward. He caught plenty of passes at the perimeter, but didn't just hoist up threes. Wil attacked the basket at times, swung the ball at others, and shot when he was open. That's a good sign from someone who's been accused of being a bit of a chucker.
Larry Hughes: Speaking of which, Hughes forced more than a couple threes and just couldn't connect. He was also a little lazy with his passes. But hey, go get 'em tomorrow, Larry.
Jordan Hill- Hill's game looks very much like it did in summer league (duh). He runs the floor well and generally knows what to do with the ball. It's when he goes up to shoot that problems emerge. His takeoff is slow, indirect, and sort of feeble, and he got his shot armpit-blocked more than once. The flipside of it is that he'll probably draw a lot of fouls.
Toney Douglas- Toney's shot looked much nicer than it did in Vegas. He swished a couple threes, and tried out that righty floater as well. He obviously wasn't handling the ball nearly as much as he did this summer, but looked steady and confident when doing so. Toney also stuffed a Gallinari jumper, which would be awesome if it weren't blasphemy.
Al Harrington- Al looked his best this evening. His jumpers were falling, but he didn't rely solely on that. Instead, when faced with a mismatch, he would bully his defender right down to the rim. Sun Yue, for instance, just didn't have a chance.
Sun Yue- Give Sun credit, though, for being pretty goddamn silky with the ball His form looked solid, and his handles completely defy his size. I'd guess that one of the reasons he hasn't made it quite yet (besides the aforementioned weight disadvantage) is that his English isn't great, and he keeps pretty much to himself throughout these things. At first glance, though, I'd say he's got a shot.
Joe Crawford- I'd be able to tell you more about Joe Crawford's performance if I hadn't been admiring his beard (which is now cut short) the whole time. Might have to solicit some grooming tips.
Jared Jeffries- I'm not gonna jump to conclusions, but let's just say a whole pod of seals died this evening.
David Lee- At this point, we pretty much know what to expect from Lee. He does appear to be making a more concerted effort to block shots, though. I also saw him nail 4 of 5 threes in practice.
Nate Robinson- Nate is, as you'd expect, the most animated and energetic player on the floor. He talks to everybody, including teammates, refs, and himself. That said, I didn't get many notes on Nate's play. I'll key in on him next time around.
Chris Duhon- Same deal. Threw a couple nice passes off the pick-and-roll, but I didn't get much else.
Darko Milicic- Darko set a lot of picks, but wasn't getting his touches when he rolled. It was frustrating for both of us, because we both wanna know if that jumper's gonna fall in a game setting. For his part, Darko took it in stride and didn't shred any clothing.
Alan Hahn:
Nate Robinson has been on a ridonkulous scoring tear lately (remember when he couldn't hit Jerome James with a Big Mac in early January?)
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10/1/2009 9:22 AM