Post#579 » by doclinkin » Fri May 20, 2011 10:47 pm
I only got to watch the guard workouts on yesterdays combine footage so I'm still chewing on it.
--(and good gawd the ESPN talking head panel sucks, the production values are worse than the Zards broadcast, with graphics obscuring all the action, windbags jabberjawing inanely while the camera follows someone else entirely, players mis-identified, Chad Ford looking more and more like the actor who played Max Headroom, or Jim Carrey)--
But I was impressed with Charles Jenkins, who worked out with the point guards, but is clearly a combo guard -- that is, a combination of two different human beings grafted onto a single body. Dude has the upper arms of a 250lb power forward spliced onto a 6'2" PG frame. He looks like someone injected a dacshund into his triceps. And he operates with the seriousness of purpose of a cyborg, totally focused and emotionless.
I also was pleasantly surprised to see that one of my sleepers, sniper Andrew Goudelock proved faster than expected and able to guard his match-ups. Having seen snippets or heavily pixelated feed only, I figured he might be one of those one-trick-ponies only able to gun from waaay outside the 3-line. Used to look a halfstep slow. But kid has transformed himself in a few short months of work. Seeing him skitter back on the one-on-three defense drill, he was able to double on the interior then skip out to interfere with the perimeter shot in an eyeblink. Ranged accuracy combined with speed are good, if you can also defend you'll definitely earn minutes.
Not sure what the hell is happening with the DX Dbase though, they've got doubled numbers up and down the board. That's probably the PIT tourney numbers and current measurements together. If the numbers are accurate then the players who helped themselves the most are Goudelock, defensive stretch Damian Saunders, and Big Man Rick Jackson, who tore up that agility drill, burning the times posted by of most of the guards in the field.
These time differentials are more notable to me than the flat measures of other players, since one of the key measures of success and professionalism in the NBA is the ability to adjust and improve. Players who can put in work to fix their shortcomings (in short order) will edge out those who expect to rely on talent alone. That's the difference here between seniors and raw prospects. They know how to put in the work.
