..................................

For Tyler, a turning point came in early March in back-to-back games in Tokyo against the Akita Northern Happinets. Aggressively scrapping for loose balls and rebounds in the first game got Tyler in trouble with Japanese referees, opponents and Hill, who benched him at key points of a double-overtime loss.

After watching video the next morning, Hill said, he lambasted Tyler and pointed out his mistakes.

“I’ve been really hard on him, really hard, right in front of the whole team,” Hill said. “Maybe he thought he wanted to kill me. I was pretty critical of him during the film session. He took it. He took advantage of the opportunity to learn.”

The next night Tyler scored 24 points in a victory that improved the Apache to 20-14.

“When he talks, you listen,” Tyler said after slurping down some postgame noodles with chopsticks. “Yesterday wasn’t a good game for me. Before this game he yelled at me so hard. You know he’s not doing it because he doesn’t like you. He just wants you to do your best. That’s exactly what I need in my life.”

....................................

Hill said he has tried to wean Tyler off a permissive American grass-roots basketball culture that, he said, is “at an all-time low” in terms of grooming prodigies for the adult rigors of basketball life.

Too often, young players are told how great they are, Hill said.

“Young 17-, 18-year-olds believe it,” he said. “Jeremy is a product of that to some degree. I’ve had to break him. I’ve had to get to a point where he says, ‘That was my fault,’ to take accountability for his actions. He’s finally there. It’s taken eight or nine months, and I’m proud of him. He’s going in the right direction.”

Though Tyler still has too many fouls and turnovers, Hill said he made significant progress over the final two months, and has always been a consistent rebounder. Tyler averaged 9.9 points and 6.1 rebounds this season coming off the bench.

...................................

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/21/sports/basketball/21iht-BASKETBALL21.html

....................................

Tyler is certainly a better player now than two years ago but at least one Knicks official said the young big still needs emotional seasoning. While a great talent and incredible measurables, the official said that Tyler is behind upperclassmen like Nolan Smith and Shelvin Mack, who were also at the team's facilities yesterday.

“Those guys are definitely NBA ready,” the source said of the guards. “He’s [Tyler] just 19 and you could see him getting down on himself too much if he made a mistake. But he’s competitive and can definitely help a team with the right surroundings and coaching staff…I like him and I think he can be a player."

.....................................

Source: http://www.metro.us/newyork/sports/article/881756--nba-draft-jeremy-tyler-under-the-radar-after-playing-overseas--page1

Not the best route to take is it?

Hope he makes it.

It ain' t that he don't like hummus is the reason he left Israel after ten games!

TheGame wrote:The fact that this guy made all those mistakes of judgment is the only reason he might be available when we pick. If he had gone to college for a year, he probably would be a top-10 pick. I am not saying we should grab him, but the Knicks should at lease bring him in for a workout and see if he might be able to play center next to Amare.

Bingo. Knicks already worked him out.

DrAlphaeus wrote:I'm glad you made this thread Anubis, I was wondering about this guy because I stumbled on a bookmarked Times article from '09 about him. Very interesting to read that stuff about him reacting positively to Bob Hill's criticism and leadership after a rocky start to his career. There's a good article about him from NBA.com here:

http://www.nba.com/2011/news/features/scott_howard_cooper/06/07/jeremy-tyler/

The video in this article is interesting.

Tyler WANTS to play for the Knicks - he says it.

Claims to be a defensive-first type of player.

He seems like a charming kid. well spoken for someone his age, background.

Let a real organization try to groom him (San Antonio/Utah)... he will not succeed here.

I did like his interview though. From the video I saw of him playing in Japan, he is out muscling them.... he seems like he has a decent jump shot but we need to see how he rebounds and boxes out in traffic against real competition

I like his potential, but he is a project. If we draft, people need to realize that he is about two years away.

MaTT4281 wrote:VERY impressive interview. And as martin said, he flat out states the Knicks as his favorite team, so that doesn't hurt.

I really don't know much about JT, but I look forward to reading how the remainder of his workouts go.

Having the 2nd highest body fat % worries me a little with several off-seasons of out of shape players fresh in my mind, but definitely someone NY needs to keep their eye on.

His measurements are still great for a guy carrying around 260 pounds. I dont see the guy being any worse than Deandre Jordan or Javale McGee.

BigDaddyG wrote:He shot 45% percent from the free throw line in Japan and finshing short shots inside according to this article: http://www.nbadraft.net/jeremy-tyler-enigma

I like his potential, but he is a project. If we draft, people need to realize that he is about two years away.

Interesting article. In Amare and Anthony we do have two veteran stars who could take a kid like him under their wings and school him a bit, about life both on and off the court.

You have to worry about the temptations of NYC, though.

I softened up a bit about picking him up based on the article, but there are still a lot of red flags with this guy.

We already had him in... right? Wonder how he looked?

.............................

From the start, Tyler’s experiment was more difficult than even he thought. Not only did he not work his way into the starting lineup in Israel, he scored just one point in his first two games and barely played. He averaged only 2.1 points and 1.9 rebounds in 7.6 minutes per game through 10 games. During one game, he walked out on his team at halftime, frustrated over his lack of playing time. He spent the last three games sitting on the bench in street clothes after being left off the roster. Eventually, he left Israel and returned home to San Diego.

“It just got really bad,” Tyler said. “I wasn’t playing at all and barely even practicing. [Haifa coach Avi Ashkenazi] wouldn’t even use me for practice or anything. I didn’t have gym time to go to on my own. It was just a bad situation.”

In a 2009 New York Times article, Ashkenazi called Tyler out of shape. The team captain also called him soft. Tyler was portrayed as naïve and immature. He was also fined $1,000, the largest penalty the club levied in three years, for missing a workout and showing up late for an interview.

“The question is whether he’ll take responsibility of his career,” Ashkenazi told The New York Times. “If he thinks he’s going to be in the NBA because his name is Jeremy Tyler and he was a very good high school player, he will not be.”

Tyler now says the experience humbled him. He has worked to become more professional.

“It was definitely a learning process and a building year,” Tyler said, “a lot of misunderstandings with me just kind of getting into the game of professional basketball. The work ethic was there. I worked hard every day and came to work every day. There were little things that were blown out of proportion, being late to an interview or being late to a practice because I didn’t have a ride.

“At the end of it, it doesn’t matter the reason why. There are no gray areas, either. It’s black or white. I took everything out of that year that I was supposed to. Everything I did wrong that year, I focused on not doing it the next year.”

...............................

Hill sees Tyler as more of a power forward than a center and thinks he has the footwork to guard small forwards.

“He got better across the board in Japan,” Hill said. “He really matured on the floor a little bit. He’s still a 19-year-old kid and he’s on his way to realizing what he can become as a basketball player.”

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=mc-spears_jeremy_tyler_2011_nba_draft_051811

The more I read the more I want this guy.