cjbulls wrote:GimmeDat wrote:cjbulls wrote:
Love and Bosh’s efficiency went down when they switched teams: care to explain?
I’m not sure what you mean by sensational in their roles? Both Bosh and Love were perceived as not pulling their weight and subject to trade on their new teams. Both were sensational on their old teams, just like Cam was on his.
Read the quotes from Bosh. It’s a difficult change. Reddish went from point guard in HS/AAU to the fourth ball handling option. And he made the change as an 18 year old kid off on his own for the first time. The other two at least had maturity, past success and money.
I would accredit that to the fact that their roles required them to take more jump-shots as they were playing off of others more. It also didn't help that when Bosh first came to Miami, he hadn't stretched his shot out to 3 point range yet. There is always a level of sacrifice to changing roles, you have to give up more on-ball wrinkles to your arsenal, I would be the first to concede that.
But the thing with Reddish.. he took 16 attempts per 40. His usage was barely less than RJ or Zion - he didn't really have to compromise that much. And if the argument is that he had foresaken the 'PG/initiator' role, then why did he look really bad whenever he had the ball in his hands, with a poor handle and 3.6 TO's to 2.6 assists per 40? These are things that shouldn't have been an issue given his role.
I don't want to write off Cam, I had massive hopes for him out of HS and thought the same way about his skill-set. I do hold hope for him, but if I try to delve in to that hope, it's hard to find any objective reasoning to explain how he can go from the season he just had at Duke to the player people thought he was in HS. It seems like a poor bet.
Or you can look at it the other way: other than this one 35 game sample, he has been a good player. Most players would just go back to school or transfer. It’s just rare for someone to struggle but then still be talented enough to go so high that they enter the draft.
It’s still types of shots that’s matter. You said it yourself. Most of his shots came off-ball. And it could be a confidence thing as the year goes on and he feels more and more pressure. It’s why I think it would help for him to go somewhere like the Cavs where he can have more free reign.
He obviously struggled. But in many ways he can improve, like his handle and drive. He’s going to have trainers and coaches and everyone else studying his tape and working to improve that. He is said to have the most “natural talent” in the draft. He just needs the right situation to try to unlock it.
HS is such a murky level to evaluate talent though, and even out of HS there was concerns about his motor/mentality, among other things. It was pretty well established he was a big swing guy that could be polarizing.
Quinten Grimes was 8th in the top 100 before the season - now he may not even get picked in the same round. Ditto Naz Reid, who was 12th in the top 100. EJ Montgomery and Moses Brown were 14th/15th and are not top 60 prospects in this class. Are we making the same mental hurdles to justify their pre-season rankings?
'Talent' is a bit of a misnomer. He has tools in terms of looking the part in a workout setting, combined with HS pedigree. But there's been a lot of looking deep in to his play and people are finding tangible issues with his game which are issues going forward. He didn't shoot well, for instance; that's something I'm not totally concerned about. I've seen some critique his release point, but generally speaking I think his form is excellent, he looks balanced and poised shooting off the dribble.. I think he'll get that aspect of his game together. His 'stiffness', as described in a tweet on the other page, his seemingly poor ability to read the game as it's happening and make good reads or premeditate moves, his complete lack of explosion athletically and his total adversity to contact at the rim, as well as a lack of even substantial passing/handling flashes for someone in which that is a large part of his sell, all do concern me.
My personal prediction is that he'll be an NBA caliber player, he'll play good defense, be able to play multiple spots, and will have his moments as a shooter, though somewhat hampered by assertiveness and consistency. But the absolutely massive statistical red-flags in terms of finishing, the issues handling/passing, etc., all make me believe that those aspects to his game doing a back-flip and becoming assets in the NBA are not non-existent, but realistically extremely poor bets.
