Windy City Bulls

[rowseyna]

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[waffle]

do we know if lavine is going to play at all tomorrow?

[rowseyna]

do we know if lavine is going to play at all tomorrow?

No way.

[rowseyna]

The WCB beat the Maine Red Claws today 145-107 to move up to 5-6 on the year.

Antonio Blakeney - 31 MIN, 16-24 (66.7%) FG, 5-9 (55.6%) 3P, 9-9 (100%) FT, +36, 8 REB, 7 AST, 2 STL, 1 BLK, 46 PTS

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Kay Felder - 28 MIN, 6-13 (46.2%) FG, 2-5 (40%) 3P, +36, 4 REB, 6 AST, 15 PTS

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Ryan Arcidiacono - 30 MIN, 4-6 (66.7%) FG, 2-3 (66.7%) 3P, 3-3 (100%) FT, +30, 2 REB, 7 AST, 2 STL, 1 BLK, 13 PTS

Other notables: Tyler Harris (19 PTS), Daniel Ochefu (16 PTS), Karrington Ward (14 PTS), Brandon Wood (12 PTS), and Mychael Mulder (12 REB).

[rowseyna]

WCB fell to 5-7 on a 122-112 loss to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers last night.

Antonio Blakeney - 36 MIN, 11-26 (42.3%) FG, 5-5 (100%) FT, 7 REB, 4 AST, 1 STL, 31 PTS

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Kay Felder - 39 MIN, 9-16 (56.3%) FG, 6-7 (85.7%) FT, 5 REB, 3 AST, 1 STL, 26 PTS

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Ryan Arcidiacono - 39 MIN, 4-8 (50%) FG, 2-4 (50%) 3P, 6 REB, 7 AST, 4 STL, 10 PTS

[DarthDiggler69]

Blakeney's killing it there. Hope Bulls can find him a little more time on the first team

[suckfish]

Blakeney is the truth. Pure scorer and you can see buckets just come to him so easily. Would rather see him playing with the real Bulls.

[GimmeDat]

Felder is a D-League god as well. I think something he should work on is that he's really comfortable in the mid-range, and that's great, but at his height he needs to be doing the same thing from the 3 point line. Whenever he has shot 3's I thought they've looked good, he just prefers to take the step in.

[GimmeDat]

So I've watched a good chunk of the game today. No Felder, no Archy, it's been Blakeney bringing it up every possession. No Stone or Eddie either.

With the understanding that a) Blakeney is an NBA level scorer without a doubt, and b) He's 20, so lots of time for improvement, I want to cover a couple of things about what I've seen.

- Blakeney will rack up a few assists due to the result of his scoring magnetism at this level, but don't let the numbers fool you.. Blakeney has the absolute blinders on. They're not playing with a PG so he can't play off-ball, so his score-first/score-second mindset is more flagrantly on display, but this was my major concern with chucking him in the D-League; it's just encouraging his habits. I've seen his teammates in this game look actively frustrated at him for not moving the ball a couple of times.

I can't blame him, any Bulls player that goes down is given the absolute green light, and he does put up a lot of points, but we need to be helping him adapt to playing as one of many options on a team, not being the #1 option, because he'll never be that in the NBA. If he is going to play down in the G-League I think playing with a full squad, with Archy/Felder, as well as other main pieces like Eddie and Stone, instead of trying to be a 1 man wrecking ball on a depleted team.

- Tying in to this, he is a tough shot maker. The elevation on his shot means he can get it up and not be affected even when contested. This is obvious a positive thing, but it also means he can take some bad shots because he can. Unless he's a 40%+ 3 point shooter in the NBA, I don't think you want him taking the looks he does here.

- For an undersized SG, he plays very 'straight-line'. He's athletic so it works but you have to think some shiftiness laterally and a break down handle would do wonders for his scoring game. Even his rudimentary dribble is extremely weak - he's lost the ball countless times on drives, and I can count like 6-7 times in this game he's been stripped driving in to a defender. It's like the #1 thing that stood out in this game, it's bad guys.

Just to back this up, yes he's scored 40/13/7, but he went 14/31 from the floor, but had 6 TO's (including a TO in the backcourt with less than a minute remaining which basically cost WCB the game) and was blocked 7 times (I think they may have counted some of those 'strips' as BA's).

-

Blakeney has potential, but he needs to learn to be more of an off-ball player.. being a prolific spot up shooter and diversifying the variety of ways in which he can take and make 3 point shots, having that one dribble pull up or drive when closed out, and protecting the ball and being an athletic cutter/slasher with quick and divisive moves.

Play-style wise it's not a perfect comparison, but production wise, his best bet is becoming a Kevin Martin pure scorer type, imo. He's not as diverse in his ability to score but he's obviously prolific in his own way, and has a lot of room to expand and become more well rounded.

[ArizonaBullsFan]

Coming into tonight's game (he had only played 4, so take that into account), he was shooting .462 taking 10 3's a game. That's pretty good, it's the same distance.

He came in with a 37.6 PER and .690 TS%, even for the G-League that's goddamned impressive. (By the way, Gatorade being their sponsor is a nice coincidence, but really it's no longer called the D-League because there is no D. None at all for the most part)

I see your point about the blinders, but when you look at the stats of the other guys, he probably should be taking every shot he can get.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/gleague/teams/WCB/2018.html

And I see your point about working on his passing, but when he's in the league, he's going to be here for his scoring, and pretty much nothing else. So I can sorta understand why the Bulls just let him work on scoring down there.

And since he's on a 2-year 2-way deal, maybe this is the year he works on nothing but scoring, and next year he works on his floor game?

Plus, nobody in the G-League draws many fans, maybe their FO is trying to get folks in the building by featuring the league's leading scorer?

[RSP83]

So I've watched a good chunk of the game today. No Felder, no Archy, it's been Blakeney bringing it up every possession. No Stone or Eddie either.

With the understanding that a) Blakeney is an NBA level scorer without a doubt, and b) He's 20, so lots of time for improvement, I want to cover a couple of things about what I've seen.

- Blakeney will rack up a few assists due to the result of his scoring magnetism at this level, but don't let the numbers fool you.. Blakeney has the absolute blinders on. They're not playing with a PG so he can't play off-ball, so his score-first/score-second mindset is more flagrantly on display, but this was my major concern with chucking him in the D-League; it's just encouraging his habits. I've seen his teammates in this game look actively frustrated at him for not moving the ball a couple of times.

I can't blame him, any Bulls player that goes down is given the absolute green light, and he does put up a lot of points, but we need to be helping him adapt to playing as one of many options on a team, not being the #1 option, because he'll never be that in the NBA. If he is going to play down in the G-League I think playing with a full squad, with Archy/Felder, as well as other main pieces like Eddie and Stone, instead of trying to be a 1 man wrecking ball on a depleted team.

- Tying in to this, he is a tough shot maker. The elevation on his shot means he can get it up and not be affected even when contested. This is obvious a positive thing, but it also means he can take some bad shots because he can. Unless he's a 40%+ 3 point shooter in the NBA, I don't think you want him taking the looks he does here.

- For an undersized SG, he plays very 'straight-line'. He's athletic so it works but you have to think some shiftiness laterally and a break down handle would do wonders for his scoring game. Even his rudimentary dribble is extremely weak - he's lost the ball countless times on drives, and I can count like 6-7 times in this game he's been stripped driving in to a defender. It's like the #1 thing that stood out in this game, it's bad guys.

Just to back this up, yes he's scored 40/13/7, but he went 14/31 from the floor, but had 6 TO's (including a TO in the backcourt with less than a minute remaining which basically cost WCB the game) and was blocked 7 times (I think they may have counted some of those 'strips' as BA's).

-

Blakeney has potential, but he needs to learn to be more of an off-ball player.. being a prolific spot up shooter and diversifying the variety of ways in which he can take and make 3 point shots, having that one dribble pull up or drive when closed out, and protecting the ball and being an athletic cutter/slasher with quick and divisive moves.

Play-style wise it's not a perfect comparison, but production wise, his best bet is becoming a Kevin Martin pure scorer type, imo. He's not as diverse in his ability to score but he's obviously prolific in his own way, and has a lot of room to expand and become more well rounded.

Haven't been following Blakeney in the G-League, do you think he has Lou Williams type potential? Seems like a talented scorer, but nothing else.

[GimmeDat]

Haven't been following Blakeney in the G-League, do you think he has Lou Williams type potential? Seems like a talented scorer, but nothing else.

Well, again, I'd stress that he's 20 (actually i just checked and he just turned 21), so there's time, but he's definitely got the physical attributes to turn in to an alright defender, and hopefully with experience he becomes a more well rounded offensive player.

But yeah, right now he's a pure scorer, and doesn't bring much else to the table. He's 2 inches taller than LouWill, has a 6'7 wingspan, and is a lot more athletic, but LouWill is a way more advanced shot creator/ball handler. Blakeney basically shoots, pulls up, or straight line drives at this stage, with only basic in and outs and the occasional cross.

I don't know exactly what he can become but obviously if he ever became any bit as good as Williams, you've hit gold on an undrafted player.

[ArizonaBullsFan]

Haven't been following Blakeney in the G-League, do you think he has Lou Williams type potential? Seems like a talented scorer, but nothing else.

Well, again, I'd stress that he's 20 (actually i just checked and he just turned 21), so there's time, but he's definitely got the physical attributes to turn in to an alright defender, and hopefully with experience he becomes a more well rounded offensive player.

But yeah, right now he's a pure scorer, and doesn't bring much else to the table. He's 2 inches taller than LouWill, has a 6'7 wingspan, and is a lot more athletic, but LouWill is a way more advanced shot creator/ball handler. Blakeney basically shoots, pulls up, or straight line drives at this stage, with only basic in and outs and the occasional cross.

I don't know exactly what he can become but obviously if he ever became any bit as good as Williams, you've hit gold on an undrafted player.

If you're saying that Lou was a better shot creater/ball handler at 21, cool.

If you're saying he is right now, I'd say of course, he's 10 years older than Blakeney. If Blakeney was LW-level creating shots and dribbling right now, he'd have a 1st-round pick.

[rowseyna]

WCB fall to 5-8 with a 117-116 loss to the Lakeland Magic.

Antonio Blakeney - 45 MIN, 14-31 (45.2%) FG, 5-7 (71.4%) 3P, +3, 13 REB, 6 AST, 40 PTS

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Other notables: Brandon Wood (24 PTS & 8 AST), Jaylen Johnson (23 PTS & 11 REB), and Karrington Ward (16 PTS).

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Watch on YouTube

[rowseyna]

Antonio Blakeney's G-League Stats:

4 G, 37.3 MPG, 53.7% FG, 46.2% 3P (9.8 3PAPG), 87.8% FT (10.3 FTAPG), 7.8 RPG, 4.5 APG, 1.8 SPG, .5 BPG, 39 PPG, 37.6 PER, 69% TS, 63.2% eFG, 129 ORtg, 105 DRtg, 1.1 WS, .352 WS/48, 11.1 BPM, .8 VORP

[GimmeDat]

Haven't been following Blakeney in the G-League, do you think he has Lou Williams type potential? Seems like a talented scorer, but nothing else.

Well, again, I'd stress that he's 20 (actually i just checked and he just turned 21), so there's time, but he's definitely got the physical attributes to turn in to an alright defender, and hopefully with experience he becomes a more well rounded offensive player.

But yeah, right now he's a pure scorer, and doesn't bring much else to the table. He's 2 inches taller than LouWill, has a 6'7 wingspan, and is a lot more athletic, but LouWill is a way more advanced shot creator/ball handler. Blakeney basically shoots, pulls up, or straight line drives at this stage, with only basic in and outs and the occasional cross.

I don't know exactly what he can become but obviously if he ever became any bit as good as Williams, you've hit gold on an undrafted player.

If you're saying that Lou was a better shot creater/ball handler at 21, cool.

If you're saying he is right now, I'd say of course, he's 10 years older than Blakeney. If Blakeney was LW-level creating shots and dribbling right now, he'd have a 1st-round pick.

No, I meant young Lou. If Blakeney had that he'd have been a first rounder, for sure, but some guys develop skills later on and that's what we should hope for with Blakeney - he's still young.

[Hangtime84]

30+ shots omg!!!

[ArizonaBullsFan]

Well, again, I'd stress that he's 20 (actually i just checked and he just turned 21), so there's time, but he's definitely got the physical attributes to turn in to an alright defender, and hopefully with experience he becomes a more well rounded offensive player.

But yeah, right now he's a pure scorer, and doesn't bring much else to the table. He's 2 inches taller than LouWill, has a 6'7 wingspan, and is a lot more athletic, but LouWill is a way more advanced shot creator/ball handler. Blakeney basically shoots, pulls up, or straight line drives at this stage, with only basic in and outs and the occasional cross.

I don't know exactly what he can become but obviously if he ever became any bit as good as Williams, you've hit gold on an undrafted player.

If you're saying that Lou was a better shot creater/ball handler at 21, cool.

If you're saying he is right now, I'd say of course, he's 10 years older than Blakeney. If Blakeney was LW-level creating shots and dribbling right now, he'd have a 1st-round pick.

No, I meant young Lou. If Blakeney had that he'd have been a first rounder, for sure, but some guys develop skills later on and that's what we should hope for with Blakeney - he's still young.

Cool, I got ya, thanks. Agree 100%.



Williams was a HS draftee, had 800+ minutes his first 2 sesaons before his age 21 year, so it's expected that he was way ahead of Blakeney at the same age.

But Blakeney is getting all kinds off way-beyond-Chuck-Holiday free reign to score as much as humanly possible right now in the no-D League, so he should have plenty of time to work on things.

[rowseyna]

WCB beat the Canton Charge last night 110-105 to move up to 6-8 on the season.

Antonio Blakeney - 41 MIN, 13-25 (52%) FG, 4-4 (100%) FT, +7, 8 REB, 7 AST, 1 BLK, 32 PTS

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Ryan Arcidiacono - 42 MIN, 6-10 (60%) FG, 2-4 (50%) 3P, +14, 3 REB, 6 AST, 3 STL, 14 PTS

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Other standouts: Tyler Harris (23 PTS & 11 REB) and Jaylen Johnson (18 PTS & 12 REB).

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[MC3]

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8M of waste capspace next 4 years in fricking d-league. On other hand

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