The OFFICIAL Rookie impressions thread pt. II

[JustinSane]

Lillard had a bad shooting night and it's tough to get layups against Detroit when Drummond is in. It happens; Lillard is still awesome.

Singler is really good, particularly given that he's playing out of position. Going into the draft a year and a half ago, there was question whether he was quick enough to guard NBA 3s, and he's starting at the 2. Singler will be a very good 3 for 10 years IMHO. He just does everything right - hustles, takes good shots, makes them, plays good defense, moves well without the ball, and seems to have about .5 seconds worth of precognitive ability. He's always moving to where the ball will be. Very smart player.

[Blkbrd671]

Knight had little, if anything, to do with Lillards shooting. If anything, it was your guys length at the rim that got to him, he had plenty of open shots and good looks that usually go down.

Now, props to Knight for getting around Lillard, no one is claiming Lillard is even a decent defender. But Knight's D was only marginally better, Lillard got around him almost any time he wanted.

i disagree about knights defense but to each his own. defense at pg position is pointless debate as they are screened off 90% of the time any ways

[Blkbrd671]

Lillard had a bad shooting night and it's tough to get layups against Detroit when Drummond is in. It happens; Lillard is still awesome.

Singler is really good, particularly given that he's playing out of position. Going into the draft a year and a half ago, there was question whether he was quick enough to guard NBA 3s, and he's starting at the 2. Singler will be a very good 3 for 10 years IMHO. He just does everything right - hustles, takes good shots, makes them, plays good defense, moves well without the ball, and seems to have about .5 seconds worth of precognitive ability. He's always moving to where the ball will be. Very smart player.

nice post

[kurtis48239]

Knight took lilard out of his game tonight,I think the way knight was going at it ,he got into lilards head early and it showed ,but like blk said hes a rook and this isnt the end all for him.

[deepeeenn]

From my POV, It wasn't entirely Knight's D and to be quite frank it was rarely just him that wore on Lillard. It was Detroit's pressure when Damian had the ball.

Coming off the screens, the defending big showed hard and slowed Lilliard enough to either let Knight recover or he'd get doubled/trapped then flustered. This didn't allow him to have many clean looks from deep, as he'll take shots from behind his screener/pick or off the side where the defending big is supposed to show. This is Damian's 1st option (from what I've seen) on offense if he can free himself out top on a PnR.

Detroit did not give him many clean opportunities, the ones that were clean looks, he didn't hit. Detroit's D forced him to drive and he was really struggling finishing at the hoop. I think that's partly because Detroit's bigs have very good length BUT he was also chucking up garbage at the hoop. He is not known to be very good at finishing at the hoop currently. He will get better but is probably something he's struggling with transitioning from small ball college to the NBA. Many of these shot were kind of head-scratchers which made you think he was either looking to draw the foul and it never came and he was trying to sell it or he was getting fouled and no calls were made. He had almost no problem getting around Knight but mainly when using a pick or after transition.

So bad shooting night? Yes.
Brandon Knight's D? Yes, A little.
Detroit's big men doing what they need to do on D? Mostly.
Did Knight's offensive stats make this match up look worse? Yes. But he was hot while Lillard was cold.

[Goldtop]

Knights D was very good on Lillard. The Pistons team D was even better. But maybe the biggest factor in Lillard's 4-18 wasn't defense at all, rather Knight's 26 pts.

Kelser mentioned it in the broadcast, that one of the first things you have to do to defend a great scorer is make them work on defense too. I thought Knight took it to him on offense right from the start, and I think Lillard maybe got a little frustrated on defense himself and allowed it to carry over to his offense. Where he was also pressured heavily by Knight and other Piston defenders on top of it.

If you start out the game 0-6, 1-7. I'd understand a bad shooting night. But 0-12 FG to start the game is not just a bad night shooting. Its a bad night shooting combined with a great defensive game plan and your opposing PG going for 26 making you work on defense too.

[scrop32]

Knight had little, if anything, to do with Lillards shooting. If anything, it was your guys length at the rim that got to him, he had plenty of open shots and good looks that usually go down.

Now, props to Knight for getting around Lillard, no one is claiming Lillard is even a decent defender. But Knight's D was only marginally better, Lillard got around him almost any time he wanted.

i disagree about knights defense but to each his own. defense at pg position is pointless debate as they are screened off 90% of the time any ways

^ but Knight has poor defensive awareness, he also offers little resistance to opposing players especially starting guards.
dude has a f***** 0.3 steals/game

[orangeparka]

Damn, Lillard got owned hard lol.

Not to worry, he's just a rook and he'll bouce back. Another stepping stone for him.

[ManualRam]

Gotta say, I am bit shocked by how well Kyle Singler has played so far this year.

your not the only one. ppl forget how good he was in college

he wasn't that good in college though. he was seen as a player who regressed after his sophomore year.
i think it was the his experience in europe that really helped him.

[Cro_Ruption]

Damn, Lillard got owned hard lol.

Not to worry, he's just a rook and he'll bouce back. Another stepping stone for him.

well put

[BeasleyTheBeast]

Kyle Singler has really impressed me.

this

is he a keeper or is he going to get screwed once teams take him seriously?

If you're asking for fantasy, idk anything about how that works, but he's definitely a keeper in reality, because he doesn't need shots to be effective. Its hard to stop a player from doing intangibles like he does.

Tonight he only needed 7 shots to get 16 pts, 10 rebs, and 5 asts.

He's almost like a perimeter version of Varejao. He just makes the right plays at the right time, hustles hard, plays D, and limits mistakes. There's not a lot a defense can do to stop a player like that.

Yeah I was speaking in reality, I was a big fan of Singler when he was a senior in high school.

[Shem]

Knight had little, if anything, to do with Lillards shooting. If anything, it was your guys length at the rim that got to him, he had plenty of open shots and good looks that usually go down.

Now, props to Knight for getting around Lillard, no one is claiming Lillard is even a decent defender. But Knight's D was only marginally better, Lillard got around him almost any time he wanted.

Bingo!

[Shem]

Yeah I was speaking in reality, I was a big fan of Singler when he was a senior in high school.

Are you from Oregon?

[Kabookalu]

At the Raptors board we're going through a meme trend and thought I'd share this one that I made that I thought was funny.

[Shem]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5VOBanp_zM[/youtube]

[JungleCat022]

Waiters 16 points, 7 assists, 7-20 shooting.

[BIG FURB]

Waiters 16 points, 7 assists, 7-20 shooting.

20 shots to get 16 points

[Kabookalu]

[EvanZ]

I assume that's Ross?

[JunkYardSubs]

Yeah he had a great game tonight. Played excellent defense. Shot the ball well (9-17... I'm going to say 9-16 since the last FGA was a desperate attempt at a putback) and just slammed the ball home constantly