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In-Depth Flynn Analysis By a 'Cuse fan

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bballboy44
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In-Depth Flynn Analysis By a 'Cuse fan 

Post#1 » by bballboy44 » Sun Jul 19, 2009 1:33 am

Hello Timberwolves fans. I'll start out simply by saying that I'm not a Wolves fan, just a huge fan of Jonny Flynn. I've followed him since his senior year of high school when I found out he was seriously considering coming over to play for my 'Cuse. Then when he agreed to play for the Orange, I was thrilled, and loved him since his first game his Freshman year. He is truly a phenomenal player. I also have a website, which I made probably a half year ago now, and here is an article I wrote on Flynn in early May:

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An In-Depth Look At Jonny Flynn
By MVP (that's my name over there)

Jonny Flynn has established himself this season as one of the NCAA's elite guards. He finished his season at Syracuse off with great averages of over 17 PPG and almost 7 APG. But the truly amazing part about this? Flynn manages great numbers and each time he is out on the court, you hardly ever see him sweat. He is in fantastic shape.

While Flynn is small, just 6'0" 190 lbs, he is still quite the fiesty defensive player. He almost always has speed and athleticism over his opponent, but plays very aggressive defense, and is able to rise up with his defense when his team needs him most. The defensive stats don't show it, as he is only averaging slightly under 1.5 SPG, but he is great mechanically.

You would think that when a player such as Donte Greene leaves the Orangemen for the NBA and not much new talent coming in, the team would get much worse. Well no, Jonny Flynn would not let that happen. In 07-08, with Greene (and including tourney play), the Orange finished the year with a final record of 21 wins and 14 losses (and did not even make the tournament): A .600 winning percentage. In 08-09, without Greene, the Orange finished the year with a final record of 28 wins and 10 losses: a .736 winning percentage. Much better, and most of that was due to Flynn's fantastic play and leadership.

A huge part of being considered a great player is being clutch, rising up in the moments when your team really needs you, or stepping up your game against better competition. Well, Flynn has definitely done a great job of that. Despite Georetown having a disappointing season, the whole Hoya crew came ready to play in mid-February because they know that Syracuse-Georgetown is a big rivalry. Well, Jonny Flynn was determined to not leave the game with DaJuan Summers, Greg Monroe, and the Hoyas celebrating. Flynn lit the building up with one of his best outings of the season in the Orangemen's 98-94 OT win. He had 25 points and 13 assists. However, Jonny Flynn had one game that was better, in my opinion...

Thursday, March 12, 2009 - Big East Tournament quarter finals, the #4 Connecticut Huskies playing the #20 Syracuse Orange. A close game the whole way through, with Flynn and Paul Harris leading the way for the 'Cuse in the longest game in Big East Tournament history. The game lasted 3 hours and 46 minutes and went 6 OT's before Syracuse finally took the victory 127-117. Flynn played an astounding 67 minutes in the whole game, and even though he was probably dead tired, he never even showed it. He finished the game with 34 points, 11 assists, 6 steals, and was 16-16 from the free throw stripe, knocking them down when they needed him to.

My favorite Jonny Flynn moment, though, has to be his slam over Rutgers' Mike Rosario. Wow that was nasty. This is just one of the kid's great jams. But hey, they call him Jonny "Upstairs" Flynn for a reason. This dude has some major hops!

For the draft, Flynn has really impressed scouts. He started the season off with a projection of being drafted from 22-30, but slowly and steadily he improved his stock, and has been impressing in his workouts. Despite his size, he is showing a lot of fearlessness out on the court and scouts are loving him. His current projection is anywhere from 10-18. Some teams that I see seriously looking at Flynn are the Milwaukee Bucks, who is looking for a leader at the PG, but also a guy who could set up Redd and also score on their own, the Charlotte Bobcats, who have been trying to trade Raymond Felton and will need another PG besides DJ Augustine, the Phoenix Suns, who will need a replacement for the old Steve Nash, and the Philadelphia 76ers, who are likely to lose Andre Miller to free agency this summer. Which ever team lands Flynn, they won't regret it. He has star potential.

LINK TO ARTICLE


Keep in mind, that last paragraph, I wrote his projection is 10-18, and I got a lot of smack for it over on the forums of my site saying that there is no way he goes higher than 18, but since then, he improved his stock so by draft day, he was pretty much in a 4-10 range. I also made this YouTube mix, showing his full game (great passes, fast breaks, dunks, threes): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U65I6UB9og .

Now, flashback to draft day, like I'm sure most of you were, I was confused as heck when I saw the T-Wolves taking Rubio 5 and Flynn 6. I understand that the Wolves main target was Ricky Rubio, and since he fell to 5, they sure as heck weren't going to pass him up. However, taking Flynn at 6 really got me thinking. Personally, I felt that at 6, as big of a Flynn fan I am, should have been DeMar DeRozan. He's athletic, talented, and I honestly believe has more potential than anyone from this draft, even Blake. He and Ricky are both good on both ends of the floor and have a lot of potential. That would be a sick backcourt. Then imagine how awesome a fast-break would be with Ricky lobbing one up for DeMar! Just something to think about...

Anyways, my opinion on the pick hasn't changed from Kahn's letter to the fans, and really, I haven't liked the pick until maybe two days ago I felt a little better about it seeing Flynn on ESPN talking really positive about the full situation there, and he's saying that no matter where he was drafted, there would likely be another star, so he would have to play off the ball anyways, so he thinks it will be a good experience. I think that Kahn has a ton of guts to take to PGs, but if Rubio gets his situation worked out, I'd like to see that backcourt for a year. I think their plan is to have Flynn guarding opposing PGs and Rubio guarding opposing SGs, but have Ricky play PG on offense, and Flynn play the SG on offense, when the two are on the floor together. If both players prove to have bright futures, but the backcourt thing doesn't work out, fine, trade one, easy as that. It is a good experiment, IMO (though I still feel DeRozan should have been the pick). I hope I gave you some good insight on Flynn from someone who has watched him for a couple years. If you have any questions for me on him, fire away.

Thanks.
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Re: In-Depth Flynn Analysis By a 'Cuse fan 

Post#2 » by Klomp » Sun Jul 19, 2009 3:14 am

First off, I want to let you know that I enjoyed reading your piece. I write sports for my small-school newspaper at times, so I enjoy reading pieces like this. Having said that, working for the newspaper makes me notice some things. I hate being nitpicky (most of the times, anyways), and I understand what you were saying here, but the below part could be confusing to some. It took me a couple times through to understand what you were saying.

bballboy44 wrote:In 07-08, with Greene (and including tourney play), the Orange finished the year with a final record of 21 wins and 14 losses (and did not even make the tournament): A .600 winning percentage.


Sorry, just thought I'd point that out. Thanks for your input on Jonny Fly (my personal nickname for him). We LOVE him here.
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Re: In-Depth Flynn Analysis By a 'Cuse fan 

Post#3 » by bballboy44 » Sun Jul 19, 2009 4:02 am

klomp44 wrote:First off, I want to let you know that I enjoyed reading your piece. I write sports for my small-school newspaper at times, so I enjoy reading pieces like this. Having said that, working for the newspaper makes me notice some things. I hate being nitpicky (most of the times, anyways), and I understand what you were saying here, but the below part could be confusing to some. It took me a couple times through to understand what you were saying.

bballboy44 wrote:In 07-08, with Greene (and including tourney play), the Orange finished the year with a final record of 21 wins and 14 losses (and did not even make the tournament): A .600 winning percentage.


Sorry, just thought I'd point that out. Thanks for your input on Jonny Fly (my personal nickname for him). We LOVE him here.

Sorry, by that I meant by including tourney play, I meant NIT tournament and did not even make the tournament, I meant March Madness. I see the confusingness (lol, not a word) in that, thought, but it was made in May, as I mentioned, too late to go back and fix.

Quite a game Flynn had today. I checked the box score earlier, don't remember it by heart, but I think something like 24 points, 4 boards, 4 assists? Quite the breakout game, he will be great a player one day.
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Re: In-Depth Flynn Analysis By a 'Cuse fan 

Post#4 » by Klomp » Sun Jul 19, 2009 4:25 am

bballboy44 wrote:Quite a game Flynn had today. I checked the box score earlier, don't remember it by heart, but I think something like 24 points, 4 boards, 4 assists? Quite the breakout game, he will be great a player one day.


Yeah, I know some like him a lot more than Rubio around here. Thats how wellliked he is here. Definitely a Minnesota type of guy
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Re: In-Depth Flynn Analysis By a 'Cuse fan 

Post#5 » by The J Rocka » Sun Jul 19, 2009 6:18 pm

Rubio who??

All i see is Flynn at pg :D

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