Andrea Bargnani has never fouled out of an NBA game

[zong]

didnt he get 10 fouls in a game in the summer league?

[notic101]

It's easy to say let him play til he fouls out, until the next game when we get outrebounded 48-23, and lose 15 pts on offensive boards. Thus costing us the game, and the complaints start anew.

What Bargnani has to do is learn how to bend his legs. It's not his fault, his shot comes off so easily he hardly needs to get but an inch or two off the floor when he shoots, yet transfer that same inability on the defensive side of the floor, and that's when you get in trouble. To his credit, he seems to be playing a little tentatively knowing he has the hook, hanging over his shoulder, and should he play more aggressively the refs will call him for chippies. That insecurity of the progression of minutes played, mounts frustration and also attributes to his drooping FG% because he wants to get his shots up when he touches the ball.

Face it, he won't ever be a defensive dynamo. People have to put the Nowitzki expectations to rest. His entire repetoire is and always will be set up from his offence, first.

Consistency is a beyotch, and that's to be expected with improved scouting reports, and the often dismissed absence of Garbajosa, to take some pressure off Bargnani to perform. Still, he has to get it together on his own, there's honestly no other way. He has to develop a mean streak, to make it his priority to set up his game inside THEN out.

From there, the refs should ease up on the whistle, and his confidence will start to reform, both offensively and defensively. A sound idea for an equally frustrated Mitchell, would be to set him up, on the pick and roll early, and let Bosh get started late in the first, if not the second quarter.

Regardless, I'm not giving up on him yet. Hopefully not making it in to the Rook-Soph challenge will turn on those tube lights.

[Tony Massenburg]

Bargnani's last 5 games: 16 Total Points and 15 Total Fouls

[Joker]

Bargnani's last 5 games: 16 Total Points and 15 Total Fouls

That's bad, right?

[reck0n3r]

Bargnani's last 5 games: 16 Total Points and 15 Total Fouls

Colangelo must be ecstatic.

[I_Like_Dirt]

To his credit, he seems to be playing a little tentatively knowing he has the hook, hanging over his shoulder, and should he play more aggressively the refs will call him for chippies. That insecurity of the progression of minutes played, mounts frustration and also attributes to his drooping FG% because he wants to get his shots up when he touches the ball.

(a) How is that "to his credit" (unless you meant it in a bad way)?

(b) Those "chippies" everybody keeps referring to are usually pretty obvious fouls in the middle of the court where the refs can't help but see them. They have to be called. Nobody else is committing those same fouls on the same scale. This isn't a bias against a younger player, this is a younger player with issues.

(c) Getting frustrated because of his drop in minutes and then trying to make up for it by shooting more isn't a good thing. While pile on another problem area by dropping your fg% when you've already got enough of them to fix? That doesn't speak very highly of his bball IQ.

(d) If Andrea wants to stay on the floor he needs to play better defense and stay more in control on offense which would result in fewer fouls. And trying to rebound more often than once a month would be a positive, too. Oh, and so would passing the ball within the offense more than once a week.