McLemore evaluation

[City of Trees]

He is playing too fast, rushing his shots and his confidence is low right now. Not a good thing at all.

this is true but the sad/scary part is Ben has actually slowed down a lot from say- when he got the starting job over Thornton. Not good.

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[Kings2013]

He is playing too fast, rushing his shots and his confidence is low right now. Not a good thing at all.

Confidence seems to be a key issue, I have no doubt. The question is would any of the say top 20 SGs in the league have had such a drastic confidence problem in their rookie seasons? In other words would a confidence this shakable lend itself to an overly productive career? Or it doesn't matter?

[KF10]

He is playing too fast, rushing his shots and his confidence is low right now. Not a good thing at all.

this is true but the sad/scary part is Ben has actually slowed down a lot from say- when he got the starting job over Thornton. Not good.

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Yeah, you are right.

The thing about Ben is that he is still adjusting his range from college to NBA. His shot looks picture-perfect but the results are not there yet.

It's hard to get into rhythm when he is bricking 3pter after 3pter. He should settle down and try to look other ways to score imo.

Right now, him & Thornton, are the weakest links whenever they are with the starting unit.

[KF10]

He is playing too fast, rushing his shots and his confidence is low right now. Not a good thing at all.

Confidence seems to be a key issue, I have no doubt. The question is would any of the say top 20 SGs in the league have had such a drastic confidence problem in their rookie seasons? In other words would a confidence this shakable lend itself to an overly productive career? Or it doesn't matter?

It's hard to say because Ben was characterized as passive and lacks a "go to" mentality. When dealing with these type of players, confidence is HUGE for them imo. They need to feel confident with their abilities to perform at the level of their talent. Right now, Ben's confidence is probably at its lowest and his shots looks a lot more rushed than usual lately. To me, he is having a difficult time adjusting the NBA's 3PT line imo. I can't explain it but there is no way a shooter this good is missing OPEN looks at a 3pter if it doesn't involves a combination of lack of confidence and adjustment of college's 3pter to NBA's 3pters imo.

[sacking123]

Honestly I am not too worried about Ben at the moment. Yeah it would be great if he was showing more, but I am sure the coaches are teaching him different skills that will eventually allow him to become a very good player. With a player like Ben I won't worry about him until about this time next season to be honest.
I think he is improving things, but we aren't at the moment and won't see the proof until at least next season. Just my opinion but I think he is quite tired after all of the workouts etc prior to the draft and everything between then and now and I think Malone will look to play him according to his condition for a while. So look for him to close out the season strong in the last 12-15 games or maybe more.

[SacKingsPejaFan]

There's nothing to worry about. Ray Allen averaged 13 points as a rookie. Harden averaged 9 points as a rookie and 12 points as a sophomore. Tracy McGrady averaged 7 points as a rookie, 9 points as a sophomore, and 15 points as a third-year. Steve Nash was garbage his first FOUR years in this league and he has 2 MVP's. With some simple googling I could go on and on and on. Most stars this league has seen took time to develop.

Hell, Zach Randolph averaged 2 points and 2 rebounds as a rookie, 8 and 4 as a sophomore. Jermaine O'Neal averaged LESS than 4 points and 4 rebounds for his first FOUR years in the league. I wouldn't be surprised if T-Rob turns into a beast later on. It's foolish to assume guys are going to suck forever just because they don't put up numbers early in their career.

[Big_Cat]

There's nothing to worry about. Ray Allen averaged 13 points as a rookie. Harden averaged 9 points as a rookie and 12 points as a sophomore. Tracy McGrady averaged 7 points as a rookie, 9 points as a sophomore, and 15 points as a third-year. Steve Nash was garbage his first FOUR years in this league and he has 2 MVP's. With some simple googling I could go on and on and on. Most stars this league has seen took time to develop.

Hell, Zach Randolph averaged 2 points and 2 rebounds as a rookie, 8 and 4 as a sophomore. Jermaine O'Neal averaged LESS than 4 points and 4 rebounds for his first FOUR years in the league. I wouldn't be surprised if T-Rob turns into a beast later on. It's foolish to assume guys are going to suck forever just because they don't put up numbers early in their career.

We've said that about so many of our rookies/young players the past few years. At some point we need to be realistic with expectations and redirect the course earlier instead of foolishly waiting for something that most likely will never occur (Not saying this specifically about McLemore...need to watch more of his tape...but in general)

[Brapman]

The problem with McLemore is that his unconfident, dispassionate and low IQ play were knocks on him coming into the draft. Also, I pointed out pre-draft (somewhere on the Real GM boards) that his agility numbers at the Chicago pre-draft camp were terrible. That's always the measurement I think of as the key measurement to look at by us fans when predicting whether guards will be great/bad defenders in the NBA. Finally, his handle coming into the draft was a massive concern: he sucked in that department, and that suggests that he's way more limited as a player than his size and speed and jumping ability would otherwise indicate. He's proving that these concerns about him might be accurate.

I don't think this kid has what it takes to be a great player, and said as much pre-draft. On the other hand, I do think he could become a great 3 pt shooter if he can gain confidence. Hard to do that when you are the 5th option on the floor, and have a hard time getting on the floor or the ball when he's on the floor given you've got gunner Gay, gunner Boogie, and gunner Thomas on the roster.

[SacKingZZZ]

He's still playing a role that isn't that of a 7th pick selected based on his offense. It's almost like he's being put into the role of a 36 year old Ray Allen after years of experience. They need to find a way to move him to the bench and find a way to get him into the offense or move him period, because his value will only decline in this role much like we've seen plenty of the last few years with similarly poorly utilized offensively players. I guess they could just wait if his value isn't super high because I think he has the potential to transition into the type of player they need but it's going to take a few years.

[YC42Balla]

I read the title as "McLemore Elevation." Haha. Wow.

[enderwilson]

There's nothing to worry about. Ray Allen averaged 13 points as a rookie. Harden averaged 9 points as a rookie and 12 points as a sophomore. Tracy McGrady averaged 7 points as a rookie, 9 points as a sophomore, and 15 points as a third-year. Steve Nash was garbage his first FOUR years in this league and he has 2 MVP's. With some simple googling I could go on and on and on. Most stars this league has seen took time to develop.

Hell, Zach Randolph averaged 2 points and 2 rebounds as a rookie, 8 and 4 as a sophomore. Jermaine O'Neal averaged LESS than 4 points and 4 rebounds for his first FOUR years in the league. I wouldn't be surprised if T-Rob turns into a beast later on. It's foolish to assume guys are going to suck forever just because they don't put up numbers early in their career.

We've said that about so many of our rookies/young players the past few years. At some point we need to be realistic with expectations and redirect the course earlier instead of foolishly waiting for something that most likely will never occur (Not saying this specifically about McLemore...need to watch more of his tape...but in general)

I agree with this, but only if we're talking about waiting until next year for the TEAM to improve. I'm one of the ones whose lost patience with the "wait for the draft" and "we'll turn things around next year" approach. All evidence points to this strategy being flawed when we're thinking about improving the team as a whole.

On and individual player basis however, I have to agree with SacKingPejaFan. Having a rookie, even one that is drafted high, come out and put up double digit points and filling the stat sheets is not the norm. The reason why we have ROY awards is to recognize the two or three rookies who are the exceptions. None of the players mentioned above were ROY but had the talent to become stars and super-stars once they found their way in the NBA. We all know that Ben is talented, he just needs to do more yoga or eastern meditation or something to "find himself" and be at peace with his game. It's scary to think about giving up on him not halfway through his rookie campaign and watch him find his inner super-star on some other team.

[Big_Cat]

I agree with this, but only if we're talking about waiting until next year for the TEAM to improve. I'm one of the ones whose lost patience with the "wait for the draft" and "we'll turn things around next year" approach. All evidence points to this strategy being flawed when we're thinking about improving the team as a whole.

Since Webber went down, this team has never fully committed to rebuilding. The plethora of picks we've received hasn't been because we were truly rebuilding, but instead simply because all of the decisions we've made have been absolute garbage.

Looking at how this team has performed the past few weeks (along with the rest of the league), I've fully accepted the fact that we're destined to end up as a treadmill team over the next half decade or so. Unless we become extremely lucky and find a star/superstar late in the draft (ie George/Parker/Manu/etc....but something you can never count on), we won't be receiving any game changing players via the draft. Since we're Sacramento, you can rule out free agency as well. So that leaves trades. I honestly think we might as well trade McLemore now and let some other team see if he reaches his potential, and just shoot for the 6th-8th seed spots over the next 2-3 years. Granted we'll be eliminated the first or second round every year, but that seems to be what the new ownership and what all the fans would rather see anyways.

At some point you just have to accept a championship isn't really obtainable for us and accept the next best thing.