All for it, though I'd rather see TD getting time at the point, mistakes and all. That's where he needs experience. I know he can shoot the ball -- where he needs gametime experience is facilitating. I wanna see him bring the ball up under pressure, get deep in the lane and attempt to create something for himself or others, drive & kick, attempt to run the pick & roll...Some of those things obviously don't come natural to him but I'm not ready to say he can't do it yet. Outside of a small cup of coffee here and there along the way operating as the PG, he hasn't gotten any kind of a chance yet.
And of course, I want to continue to see more Jordan Hill. I am glad he's getting a little bit of a run now.. Though I gotta admit, he really didn't look too good against the Raptors last night. He had that one nice hustle play where he ran back and blocked a shot from behind but other than that, I thought he looked terrible. Almost like he regressed a little bit. He looked like he was giving effort but that blown layup/dunk attempt was embarrassing and I was even more disappointed in the lack of rebounding. He looked like he was battling for position but he really looked overmatched attempting to rebound the ball last night. That's what really surprised me the most and I don't really have an explanation for it. He's still playing a little tentative and a little tight overall it looks like. Unlike pre-season, at least he now appears to be grasping D'Antoni's concepts of starting out up high, setting screens and then diving to the basket (which doesn't surprise me because they had him do this in college a lot and he executed it well -- to be fair, I haven't seen anyone hit him once with a pass off that high screen & roll yet) but for whatever reason, he still looks uncomfortable to me. He's not the same guy I saw play may times last year. At Arizona, he had that quiet confidence going for him, almost a little bit of a swagger, where all his skills were on full display every night. Scoring inside and out, posting up, moving well w/o the ball, rebounding, some shot-blocking. In college, he was a go-to guy; here he's sort of an afterthought...I know we don't really call any set plays for anyone and the offense is pretty free-form, but they gotta figure out a way to get this guy more involved. Just because he comes in for Jeffries at times doesn't mean we have to use him like Jeffries. This is a guy they could actually call some plays for or at least look for. He's not a floater -- the more they involve this guy, the better he'll play in every area I'm thinking. I've maintained that right from the beginning and I still feel that way. It might be just that simple... I tell ya, if I didn't watch him closely in college, I'd be a little disappointed with him right now so I can understand some of the frustration out there. I'm not worried though. There are still many elements to his offensive game we just haven't seen yet (one being his deadly turnaround jumper in close)...I have faith that he'll eventually become a steady contributor here. And it's not all on the team & D'Antoni -- he's got to pick up his aggression a little bit. Enough of the 'I'm happy to be here' mentality, you know? Go take some aggression out on your opponent... Some questionable shot selection, blown dunks etc., are gonna happen from time to time I guess, esp. for a rookie (that blown attempt in close irks me even more now, the more I think about it -- come on Jordan, one dribble and go up strong and ram that thing home there young fella) but he's at least gotta get after it on the backboard. That was the strangest thing watching him play last night. I haven't seen the box score yet, but it wouldn't surprise me if he didn't get credit for even 1 rebound. In his mind, he should break it down to the basics -- rebounding and defense. D'Antoni's decided to give him a shot now -- to stay in the rotation, he'll need to produce in those two areas. Just go out and think 'every rebound is mine' and 'this guy isn't scoring on me.' Start there. They really don't expect him to score the ball right now anyway. And that's the best part of his game (his offense), which leads me to believe the best is still yet to come for this young man...
When you think about it, it's a little disappointing that these two guys aren't going to the rookie/sophomore game. I wish the commitment had been there for these two right from the beginning. We'd be better off -- they would've been that much further along in their development (which to me is extremely important, crucial in fact - a lot more will be asked of these guys next year - this whole year should've been devoted to getting them ready) and I don't think the team would've suffered one bit in terms of wins and losses.. Mike's gonna insist on doing it his way though, so we'll all have to continue to be patient..
1/29/2010 10:15 AM
