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Best of Eric Gordon yet to come
Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 3:27 am
by mkwest
"He's the guy that's always there," Griffin says of Gordon, referring to that moment and the 2010-11 season in general. "He's the guy that has hit big shots for us -- big shot after big shot after big shot. It's great to always have him right there, and as a player, you love to have a guy like that backing you up, somebody you can kick it out and know he can make a play."
In short, he has experienced what is commonly called a breakout season.
"I think I've had a pretty good breakout year, but that's what I expected, that's what I was planning on," Gordon said recently. "I thought I was more comfortable and playing hard every night and trying to bring success to this team. That's what I look forward to, even next year. I hope we make it to the playoffs."
He's gonna score the ball -- he's too strong, too gifted, too powerful not to," says Del Negro, who coached MVP candidate Derrick Rose in Chicago for two seasons and witnessed what he says is similar growth from the two guards. "But he's gotta get a midrange game, he's gotta work on his left hand, his handle, different things. That's why he's a young player. But at the same time, that's the exciting thing about guys like Eric. They're very good players, but they also have a lot of growing to do and a lot of understanding of the game and work habits that hopefully we can help him with to become an elite 2-guard in the league.
"He has the potential to do it."
Pedro Moura,
ESPN Los Angeles
Re: Best of Eric Gordon yet to come
Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 6:52 am
by DangerCurtis
mkwest wrote:"But he's gotta get a midrange game, he's gotta work on his left hand, his handle, different things. That's why he's a young player. But at the same time, that's the exciting thing about guys like Eric. They're very good players, but they also have a lot of growing to do and a lot of understanding of the game and work habits that hopefully we can help him with to become an elite 2-guard in the league.
"He has the potential to do it."
That was a very encouraging article to read and I think that last tidbit pretty much nailed what Eric is right now. He's already a dominant player, but as fans, we know his potential is so much higher, especially maintaining control of the ball and not turning it over so much in late game situations. Even though the current season just ended for the Clippers, but I'm super excited for next season.
Re: Best of Eric Gordon yet to come
Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 6:48 pm
by thanumba2clippersfan
The good thing is that Eric doesn't have much that he needs to work on his game. We all know that his ball handling can be better, but I think he struggled with it once he got back because of his wrist. He also needs to work on his mid range shooting. Other than that EJ is almost unstoppable. I know he will work hard over the summer. I'm hoping that he becomes an all star sooner rather than later.
Re: Best of Eric Gordon yet to come
Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 11:35 pm
by mkwest
Eric has always had a need to improve his ball-handling and it did improve this season. The poor handling and all of the turnovers down the stretch were a result of the wrist injury. He's gotten a lot of complaints about his play after returning from injury, but we can't forget how he played in the summer, nor how he started the season. He had great numbers and percentages despite having a terrible start from beyond the arc and at the free-throw line. When it all comes together at the same time, you're going to be hard-pressed to find more than a couple of 2 guards that are better than him. A large part of that reason is that most of them don't play defense, whereas EJ does.