RookieStar wrote:Soooo.... now that we are impressed with our shiny new toy in Cole, how does everyone else feel about our "new" toy that we receieved last year but only recently opened in Okeke?
Love them both. I’m starting to see Chuma do these little things that add up, like passing better than you’d think. Defending very well. Not afraid of anything on offense, shooting or driving.
Cole is showing a lot more fire and will than I thought. I absolutely love seeing him test himself and challenge himself on drives, and he shoots with insane confidence. Him (and Bacon to a smaller degree) really have released this pressure valve on the team’s sleeping offense that used to pass around the perimeter for 20 of the 24 second shotclock. We don’t need that kind of play no more. And I think the ORL Scouts were given some bigger respect by the FO to make that draft acquisition happen. It also seems like the FO’s type is anyone who’s had, or has, #1 pick potential. Amen to that.
(I’ve said my peace on Luka. He was our Hedo again, at worst. But very likely a franchise star that needed a big push all the chips in to acquire. I literally even said his unique playstyle would have been loved and needed in ORL. But no need to bring it up w he gets news. We’re inferior to DAL’s FO. Get over it. Think like we’ll improve and get the next franchise star, or make too many good moves that snowball us into elite contender. I believe it.)
Markelle is still the most intriguing player to watch though (with no JI). I hate to do player comps now, but where Elfrid Payton was a demonic monster in his rookie year, then scouted and game-planned around, he slowly and completely fizzled out from there. But with Markelle I see the complete opposite effect. He’s continuing to impress me more and more, slowly but surely. He had this fake-out, hesi jumper right below the FT line in the first CHA preseason game that was absolutely insane. He has this handle and sly craftiness that gets him buckets in the paint, buckets in the short and mid range. He has some physicality and some positional size for it too. He is an absolute passing connoisseur on top of that. And I’m starting to feel that if he never gets his dangerous shooting back, he’s still going to hit All Star at least once or twice with something like 16-18 ppg, 8-10 apg, and 5-7 reb. And it’s going to be at really nice efficiency and PER numbers, 3 PT shot or not.
