Posted by TMS:

Posted by sebstar:

Alright, I cant for the life of me figure out why some here insist on tearing down 1st and 2nd year players. Zeke, yeah. Dolan, ok. Marbury, lets land a plane on his forehead. But Balkman and Chandler?? Both are works in progress and in Chandler's case he is barely getting his feet wet and the flashes we've seen from him have been more than encouraging.

both guys are still a huge question mark but i agree w/u in principle... there's examples of players all around the league that took more than 2 seasons to realize their full potential after not doing much as rookies or 2nd year players & mold themselves into more than just solid role players in the NBA... no one on this forum can speak from any position of authority that they really have any clue how good or bad a 2nd year player will be.

Balk isn't gonna be a superstar but he will be a serviceable player and he will hustle. There are plenty of guys in this league that don't shoot FT's well and hit jumpshots. Chandler will probably become a good mid level player. They are both victims of inconsistant floor time. It's Morris I'm concerned about. Why isn't he getting 20 Mins or more a night? The guys will learn by taking their lumps. Does Zeke consider him a bust?


[Edited by - Travla on 18-03-2008 22:01]

Posted by Travla:

There are plenty of guys in this league that don't shoot FT's well and hit jumpshots.
[Edited by - Travla on 18-03-2008 22:01]

You very well may be right, but right now I can't think of any who play at the SF position. I like Balkman, but I think for him to last he has to get some range on his jump shot. I think he can if he works hard on it.

Posted by JrZyHuStLa:

No matter how bad a team is, a player always gets a chance to showcase his talent. I have said this in the past and I can continue to say that David Lee is our best player. Why ? Because he takes advantage of the limited time he gets and produces every night whether or not he's scoring points or grabbing rebounds. He finds ways to be an impact player. He's a pretty good passer for someone his size, and is constantly looking for the open man. Now although Balkman hasn't gotten as close to any minutes that Lee has gotten, he's had some fair shots to build on what he did last sesaon, which was good. It's just not there this season. Maybe he hit a sophomore wall, I don't know. But the progress isn't evident. Balkman needs to put in some serious hard work this off-season.

i agree w/u, Balk needs to work hard on developing a jumpshot over the offseason, cuz his hustle & athleticism can only take him so far... but D Lee's jumpshot is also nonexistent, & he's a worse defender than Balk, yet he's still very effective in what he does, which is rebound, run the floor & finish... from the games i've seen, D Lee has developed some low post moves that he really didn't have last year... i don't see why Balk can't work on his game to improve either... the energy level he shows when he's on the floor indicates to me that he's not a lazy guy in the same way that Curry might be... Balk can do much of the same things D Lee can do if given the minutes, as we all saw in the latter part of last season... last season there were people around here talking about being willing to trade Lee for much of those same reasons in fact (not that i agree w/that - i'd rather keep Lee, but it was a thought that was being discussed around here by posters on both sides of the median line)