Post#1867 » by aminiaturebuddha » Sun Aug 8, 2021 10:50 pm
Really good sign that the two guys for the Raps who will be rotation players this year were clearly the two best players - Flynn and Barnes.
Flynn was easily the best player on the court, and I can't wait to see him get minutes with some of the other rotation players like Trent and Birch. I think they're both going to benefit a lot from the openings he creates.
Barnes has a ton of potential. He'll have his ups and downs as we go, but the work ethic and willingness to improve should help him come close to realizing a lot of that potential. And you just have to love the guy. He'll be fun to cheer for.
I like the defensive activity of both Champagnie and Johnson. It's funny though that Champagnie was noted for his rebounding but didn't record one all game. Just a weird stat anomaly I'm sure. Nice that he hit a couple of 3s.
Really rough game for Gillespie. He's shown more in real NBA games, so I hope that's just an outlier. He might never be a full NBA rotation player, but he should be better than he was today. It was ugly.
Speaking of ugly, Banton had some terrible turnovers, and it's clear that the game at this level is too fast for him right now. However, he also had some great defensive plays and a few examples where he showed good vision. He'll get lots of time in the G-League. We'll see what he's able to put together.