I think the thing to do with him is hammer home that his minutes will come from playing great D, rebounding, passing and pushing the ball. We have a lot of scorers. We dont have a lot of lightning quick 6'11 shot blockers.

I would seriously invoke the old high school rule with him... cant shoot until you have passed twice

Bippity10 wrote:Ecstatic that this guy is on our team. His talent is immense. It looks like when he gets going he has the ability to take over a game and dominate. But you can tell why he has struggled to get minutes. He is a ball stopper. The ball was zinging around the perimeter, he would catch it and it would stop and he would jab step and try to make a move even though the guy next to him was wide open. At one point in the first half a ball was swung to him, he caught it and tried to dribble through a double team even though the natural swing was wide open. That's maddening for an offensive coach. He's young and has plenty of time to learn but I see this lack of natural understanding on the offensive side of the ball as the main obstacle to stardom

AR is so talented that he's got to be a bit selfish in order to get going, but he can't break the flow of the offense and take bad shots. He'll calm down and realize that he doesn't have to force it. Let the game come to him 1st and then he can start to exert some dominance. Just give it time.

I think that's an encouraging sign actually. Mike seems energized to make this team into a contender instead of just surviving the season.

iSergio wrote:I just want Anthony Randolph to rebound and protect the rim and play within the team on offense. I don't want him taking long jumpers, pull-up jumpers or dribble the length of the court pretending to be Magic Johnson.

No no no. Don't want to discourage anyone from taking a GOOD jumper and why shouldn't he be able to pick and choose moving the ball up court--go look at some previous highlights at LSU and GS. You want to slowly enhance that skill--not thwart it. Play hard and smart but don't remove skills from the game. Do I want AR to sit out 20 feet from the basket and shoot J's--no. If he takes 2-3 good J's along with 7-10 close opportunities will he be successful--yes. Should he be able to push the ball off a rebound--that is basketball--I hope gallo or anyone who has the ability to push the ball off the rebound does it.

Allanfan20 wrote:To me, AR doesn't resemble Al Harrington at all. AR moves without the ball, chooses a mid range shot to a layup over a long range jump shot and is always aggresive, plus he plays defense and blocks shots. Not really the same with Al.

Yes, AR needs to improve his passing and needs to stop trying to be the PG. I agree with that. And there's ALWAYS room for improvement on defense with everybody. However, he's a finisher before a passer, and that's what his game SHOULD be.

You do know Harrington used to play defense right?

I know we will see plenty of the Amare-AR frontcourt but the only way it works is if one of them dedicated themselves to doing the dirty work.

AR is more focused on his offense than his defense. Sure he will block shots with his help D but i dpn't think he will focus on his poor man D -- and not calling out picks is just plain dumb and will get you benched.

Bippity10 wrote:Ecstatic that this guy is on our team. His talent is immense. It looks like when he gets going he has the ability to take over a game and dominate. But you can tell why he has struggled to get minutes. He is a ball stopper. The ball was zinging around the perimeter, he would catch it and it would stop and he would jab step and try to make a move even though the guy next to him was wide open. At one point in the first half a ball was swung to him, he caught it and tried to dribble through a double team even though the natural swing was wide open. That's maddening for an offensive coach. He's young and has plenty of time to learn but I see this lack of natural understanding on the offensive side of the ball as the main obstacle to stardom

You figure that Randoph, given his athletic ability, was allowed to do anything he wanted in HS and amateur ball, and probably had a lot of freedom on a poor LSU team. I just wish that he had picked up some better habits on GS, but I'm not surprised that he didn't

I've always felt that Beasley had the same problem on offense in terms of slowing down the flow of the game when his team has the ball, although he is a more polished offensive player.

MDA and teammates just have to encourage him and help his evolution as a player.

Bippity10 wrote:Ecstatic that this guy is on our team. His talent is immense. It looks like when he gets going he has the ability to take over a game and dominate. But you can tell why he has struggled to get minutes. He is a ball stopper. The ball was zinging around the perimeter, he would catch it and it would stop and he would jab step and try to make a move even though the guy next to him was wide open. At one point in the first half a ball was swung to him, he caught it and tried to dribble through a double team even though the natural swing was wide open. That's maddening for an offensive coach. He's young and has plenty of time to learn but I see this lack of natural understanding on the offensive sid.e of the ball as the main obstacle to stardom

He may not be al or JC...but he is a one on one player that tends to think he's playing for And 1 MIX TAPE...CMON you think don nelly is going to banish talent like that for no reason..he's 21 so let's hope he grows out of that..al an jc never did..

Was it me or was amare dribbling way too much..at times I thought he was AR