WaltLongmire wrote:callmened wrote:any thoughts?!?! would love to hear from the group. here are mine:- both are going to be great STRETCH 5s (which is what this league is evolving into)
- both are great defenders - especially KP with the blocked shots
- both are great shooters for their size. however KP might have the advantage cuz of his height (hard to block)
- Towns is a better passer but KP isnt bad
- Towns is more polished offensively, especially with dribble drives
- KP has obvious advantages due to his size.
- OVERALL: i feel like the NBA is evolving to Stretch 5s and im happy we have one of them
PS - it wouldnt surprise me if Towns is a knick some day. He'll do his 7 yr sentence with minnesota (oops i mean rookie deal plus extension), then sign with the knicks at age 25 or so ---- hopefully!
One of the two players under discussion had 3 assists yesterday, the other had 0. Can you guess who had 0? They both average 1APG, by the way, but one of them happens to be a more fancy passer.Towns is much more confident as a shooter at this point with a quicker release. He also has some inside moves we did not see yesterday- only saw his hook, once, I think.
As a shooter, KP has to develop some moves or areas on the floor where he is in auto mode, and he can't be taking 3s when he is 5ft beyond the line.
Towns did not have a defensive impact or presence in yesterday's game, IMO, and this surprised me. You get the feeling that other teams actually have to adapt to KP's ability on D, not sure the same thing is true for Towns at this time.
Stretch 5's? I do fear for the game of basketball if this is a trend. It will surely make BB boring to watch. One player dribbling behind the 3pt line...his 4 teammates hanging behind the line. Is this really where the game is heading...5 players missing, on average, about 72% of their shots? This is why Pops...not only Phil, has shed tears over how the 3 pt shot perverts what can be a beautiful game that at one time required players do more than stand around.
This becomes a trend and you will be having 1 dimensional players coming into the NBA. This is similar to all those quarterbacks coming out of college who have trouble playing in a pro-offense because they've been playing simplified quarterbacking in dumbed down offenses their entire career.
The reason you like a guy like Towns is that he has a well developed interior game along with a good J. Calipari made him more of an interior player last year, but you can see that Towns' dad did a good job making sure that his son had a more complete game.
KP has, for the most part, been a stretch 4 in Europe, and you can see that his inside came is underdeveloped. And no, mreinman, you don't want KP banging down low in the post all the time, but you can
see some early limitations in his game because he did not do enough in the post over in Europe.
I have no doubt that he will develop a good game down low in the upcoming years, but the problems you see him having down in the pit can be directly linked to the kind of ball they had him playing in Spain.
Don't listen to me, though...I got them olde tyme ideas which need to be eradicated from the game.
KP could not really bang too much in the post since he was a twig. As it was, he could not get near rebounds because he was being tossed around so violently.
KP needs to get stronger and must/will develop a low post game. Towns is WAY ahead of him here. To be a true stretch big you need to have both the deep range and the post game (like Love). One without the other just leaves you multidimensional and too easy to defend and gameplan for.
Now they often put 3's on KP so that they can chase him deep. When he will learn to post these smaller guys and dominate them then defenses will have no answer other than double and double often. When this happens, KP has the IQ to be a great passer out of the post.
KP is the clear number #1 talent right now and has a far bigger upside. For a rookie to play the kind of defense that he played last night, not only blocking shots without fouling but keeping them inbounds and having them lead to transition points is just beyond comprehension at his age.
so here is what phil is thinking ....
12/18/2015 12:07 PM