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Hi Guys, new to this forum, just wondering how big Nate is going, I'm from Australia and the news on him over here is limited and kinda biased. I see he has had a few minutes so far, is there any chance that he will see more?

I do think he just needs to get more experience, he is such a natural athlete, that a few less kg's (pounds) and a bit of court time, and i think he has the ability to have an impact in the NBA.

Chocolate Thunder from down under.

revprodeji wrote:Chocolate Thunder from down under.

He'd probably like that better than 'baby Shaq'

From looking at the box scores he's only been getting limited minutes, 4-5 mins a game.

While Love is out for the next month or so this is his best opportunity!

I am willing to bet his minutes are limited while he is improving his conditioning and knowledge of the offense.

its good to see that they have been playing him at the 4, or at least rating him at that, im not sure if its been mentioned yet, but for 6'10 and 130kgs, hes very quick on his feet, and will have the strength to out muscle most of the leagues power forward, and has soft enough hands to finish around the basket. Can anyone tell me if in his minutes so far they have played him as a 4 or 5?

Mostly the 4, but in the offense they seem almost interchangeable so I would not look into the position much.

He seems to have touch, and a good awareness. Right now he seems soft inside. I wonder if that is the conditioning or his style.

i think as hes conditioning gets better hes mins will go up

Another thing i've noticed with him is he's got a knack for offensive rebounding. He would get plenty of points from tip ins and hustle play around the basket if he got more minutes. He's never got more than 4-5 minutes per game in the nba, so it is hard to tell how he's progressing.

He's a powerful dunker to, something we definitely haven't seen from him in the nba. When he played for Cairns (Australia) he would to try to tear the rim down with his dunks, which was part of the reason for the baby shaq nick-name.

It would be nice to see him get more minutes, especially when the losses begin to stack up. I think once he gets a bit more comfortable, and gains a bit more confidence he could certainly hold his own at the elite level.

is there any footage of Jawai's game anywhere?

Reminds me of Zach Randolph that Jawai guy.

I haven't seen Randolph alot aside from those well known "highlight" reels but I don't think you can compare Jawai to Randolph. Jawai's hands are made of stone when catching the ball while Randolph seems to have a better touch. plus I can't recall Jawai taking a lot of J's.

basti wrote:I haven't seen Randolph alot aside from those well known "highlight" reels but I don't think you can compare Jawai to Randolph. Jawai's hands are made of stone when catching the ball while Randolph seems to have a better touch. plus I can't recall Jawai taking a lot of J's.

Just jugging from their appearance, not on-court performance
I haven't seen anything from Jawai so far.

Jawai has awful hands and no idea what he should be doing on the court. His points have come almost exclusively (if not exclusively) from put backs. He is a physical presence but he doesn't know how to use it. I've come to dread the end of the first quarter every game when Rambis inserts Jawai.

I don't think Rambis knows what to do with him, he played him in garbage time for the first few games, then he put him in first off the bench for three minutes and benched him the rest of the game. Then he gets 20+ minutes against the Blazers, and performs pretty well (yes, he did fumble the ball). It will be interesting to see how he backs up the game against the blazers in tonights game.

Knows what to do with him? The guy is not a basketball player. The only coach in the Twin Cities who would know what to do with him is Brad Childress.

Well he put up 16 and 6 against the Blazers, so he must have a shread of talent. It's not like we have a long line of talls waiting to come off the bench.

deeney0 wrote:Jawai has awful hands and no idea what he should be doing on the court. His points have come almost exclusively (if not exclusively) from put backs. He is a physical presence but he doesn't know how to use it. I've come to dread the end of the first quarter every game when Rambis inserts Jawai.

Man, how could you write that after last night's game? Obviously it was just one game, but he showed a great deal of craftiness and touch around the basket.

He could at least be what Craig Smith was for us IMO. He's played in what? 10 NBA games in limited minutes? He's shown a really good touch around the basket. I'm sure he'll get better once he becomes more comfortable with the offense. That could be said for our entire team though.

He showed neither craftiness nor touch around the basket. I don't know what game you were watching, but he was constantly out of position and on more than one occasion was in the way of teammates.