Trevor booker is now knocking down threes in preseason

[Wizkids12345]

Trevor booker has been hitting the three point shot with the jazz. He said his new coach Quin Synder told him to start working on it. Randy wittman has been a guy that has told his players to work on the midrange game, and sometimes abandon the three point shot completely (like he told kevin love to not shoot threes at all his rookie year). We now know how inefficient this shot is and watching the wizards offense can be painful. It is one of the simplest offenses in the league and is often designed to get mid ranged shots. How much is this hindering the development of our young players?

I can assure you during trevor bookers time with the wizards randy wittman told him to only work on the midrange shot. One season later he's already hitting threes. What if he told him from the beginning to start working on the three point shot? Luckily kevin love was only coached by randy wittman for one season.

As you might know, John Wall and bradley beal were 2 of 3 players to shoot more than 7 mid range pull up jumpers a game and shoot less than 35% on them, incredibly inefficient. But instead of eliminating this shot and working on ways to get three pointers and lay ups, bradley beal has said he has been working on his midrange game all offseason. I'm sure this is because randy wittman has told him to do this. John wall does need to develop some kind of inbetween game for the pick and roll, but he needs to shoot a lot less pull up mid range jumpers out of rhythm, and I can't trust randy to tell him not to do this. How much is he hurting the development of out young players to play basketball in this league in 2014?

[hands11]

Trevor booker has been hitting the three point shot with the jazz. He said his new coach Quin Synder told him to start working on it. Randy wittman has been a guy that has told his players to work on the midrange game, and sometimes abandon the three point shot completely (like he told kevin love to not shoot threes at all his rookie year). We now know how inefficient this shot is and watching the wizards offense can be painful. It is one of the simplest offenses in the league and is often designed to get mid ranged shots. How much is this hindering the development of our young players?

I can assure you during trevor bookers time with the wizards randy wittman told him to only work on the midrange shot. One season later he's already hitting threes. What if he told him from the beginning to start working on the three point shot? Luckily kevin love was only coached by randy wittman for one season.

As you might know, John Wall and bradley beal were 2 of 3 players to shoot more than 7 mid range pull up jumpers a game and shoot less than 35% on them, incredibly inefficient. But instead of eliminating this shot and working on ways to get three pointers and lay ups, bradley beal has said he has been working on his midrange game all offseason. I'm sure this is because randy wittman has told him to do this. John wall does need to develop some kind of inbetween game for the pick and roll, but he needs to shoot a lot less pull up mid range jumpers out of rhythm, and I can't trust randy to tell him not to do this. How much is he hurting the development of out young players to play basketball in this league in 2014?

Booker has been improving his range the last few years so I wouldn't be surprised if he extends it more.

What if we told him to work on it from the beginning ?

Do you remember his shoot the first year or so ?



As for Wall. He improved his 3 ball. He shot .351 last year and made 108 of them.
Beal shot .402 and made 138 of them.

We were one of the best 3 point shooting teams in the league.

Just stop.

Booker should have shot more 3s

[80sballboy]

I'd still rather have Hump and Blair. Book will always be a tweener. Unless he works on his handle and becomes a three, he'll be a situational and athletic four who might be a stretch 4 with 3-point range now. He's not going to get any taller.

[JWizmentality]

[hands11]

I'd still rather have Hump and Blair. Book will always be a tweener. Unless he works on his handle and becomes a three, he'll be a situational and athletic four who might be a stretch 4 with 3-point range now. He's not going to get any taller.

Im watching the game. Utah is actually beating LAC.

Booker looks like a nice fit there. Its a young team and he is a mid aged athletic player that matches their style.

Good for him. I hope he has a great season with them.

Rudy Gobert is looking great.

20 mins 18 rebounds, 11 pts

He had a good summer league. He might open some eyes

http://espn.go.com/nba/player/gamelog/_ ... udy-gobert

[jangles86]

I was going to say the same thing. When the hell did Trevor Booker get range?

[J-Ves]

I'd still rather have Hump and Blair. Book will always be a tweener. Unless he works on his handle and becomes a three, he'll be a situational and athletic four who might be a stretch 4 with 3-point range now. He's not going to get any taller.

Im watching the game. Utah is actually beating LAC.

Booker looks like a nice fit there. Its a young team and he is a mid aged athletic player that matches their style.

Good for him. I hope he has a great season with them.

Rudy Gobert is looking great.

20 mins 18 rebounds, 11 pts

He had a good summer league. He might open some eyes

http://espn.go.com/nba/player/gamelog/_ ... udy-gobert

That team is stacked with talent. Gobert is the steal of the 2013 draft, its going to take him a few more years to be the defensive force he can be, but hes already an awesome rebounder and shot blocker. I can't believe he went 27th in what was considered a terrible draft class.

Booker extending his range to three isn't that surprising. By the end of his time here he was hitting the midrange jumper more often then not, although he didn't take that many because of his slow release.

[hands11]

I'd still rather have Hump and Blair. Book will always be a tweener. Unless he works on his handle and becomes a three, he'll be a situational and athletic four who might be a stretch 4 with 3-point range now. He's not going to get any taller.

Im watching the game. Utah is actually beating LAC.

Booker looks like a nice fit there. Its a young team and he is a mid aged athletic player that matches their style.

Good for him. I hope he has a great season with them.

Rudy Gobert is looking great.

20 mins 18 rebounds, 11 pts

He had a good summer league. He might open some eyes

http://espn.go.com/nba/player/gamelog/_ ... udy-gobert

That team is stacked with talent. Gobert is the steal of the 2013 draft, its going to take him a few more years to be the defensive force he can be, but hes already an awesome rebounder and shot blocker. I can't believe he went 27th in what was considered a terrible draft class.

Booker extending his range to three isn't that surprising. By the end of his time here he was hitting the midrange jumper more often then not, although he didn't take that many because of his slow release.

I say what I always said.

It wasn't a terrible draft. It was just injured and had some longer term projects.

Time will show that.

[nate33]

I thought Booker's shot was much improved last year. He had a quicker release and his range seemed to increase from about 17 feet to 20 feet. I don't think he had the form to develop a 3-point shot until last season though. In his first three seasons here, his shooting form was a mess.

I don't think it's fair to indict Wittman for Booker not shooting 3's when with the Wizards. I think it's just a matter of progression. He worked from being a non-shooter to a competent mid-range shooter over his first 4 years. He now has the foundation to work on increasing his range.

I always liked Booker though. I'd rather have him than one of Hump/Blair. Though to be fair, Booker costs $5M a year and Humphries and Blair are each cheaper.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I watched Utah beat the Clippers. Gobert looked terrific. He's long, has good hands, moves exceptionally well. Trey Burke looked much-improved.

I never understand why Booker wasn't played some at SF. I bet Quinn Snyder, Jazz coach, will experiment with the idea.

Booker cannot replicate what Blair does every playoffs. Blair is a better player despite being a worse athlete, foul prone, and having his shot blocked often. Trevor makes jaw dropping, athletic plays. Blair is a grinder who has a tremendously high basketball IQ. Trevor does not have a high basketball I and he often coasts through games.

For years I have been a Blair fan. I am confident even the biggest Booker fans will come around. Blair is the better player.

Sent from my SGH-M919 using RealGM Forums mobile app

[Dat2U]

Getting a 3pt shot won't improve Booker's help defense which is probably the biggest reason he's not in DC anymore.

[Ruzious]

I'd still rather have Hump and Blair. Book will always be a tweener. Unless he works on his handle and becomes a three, he'll be a situational and athletic four who might be a stretch 4 with 3-point range now. He's not going to get any taller.

Im watching the game. Utah is actually beating LAC.

Booker looks like a nice fit there. Its a young team and he is a mid aged athletic player that matches their style.

Good for him. I hope he has a great season with them.

Rudy Gobert is looking great.

20 mins 18 rebounds, 11 pts

He had a good summer league. He might open some eyes

http://espn.go.com/nba/player/gamelog/_ ... udy-gobert

That team is stacked with talent. Gobert is the steal of the 2013 draft, its going to take him a few more years to be the defensive force he can be, but hes already an awesome rebounder and shot blocker. I can't believe he went 27th in what was considered a terrible draft class.

Booker extending his range to three isn't that surprising. By the end of his time here he was hitting the midrange jumper more often then not, although he didn't take that many because of his slow release.

Gobert's a more interesting topic at this point. I was surprised he did so little last season. He's as compelling a physical talent as Javale McGee was. Or is? Is Javale healthy now?

[Illmatic12]

Trevor booker has been hitting the three point shot with the jazz. He said his new coach Quin Synder told him to start working on it. Randy wittman has been a guy that has told his players to work on the midrange game, and sometimes abandon the three point shot completely (like he told kevin love to not shoot threes at all his rookie year). We now know how inefficient this shot is and watching the wizards offense can be painful. It is one of the simplest offenses in the league and is often designed to get mid ranged shots. How much is this hindering the development of our young players?

I can assure you during trevor bookers time with the wizards randy wittman told him to only work on the midrange shot. One season later he's already hitting threes. What if he told him from the beginning to start working on the three point shot? Luckily kevin love was only coached by randy wittman for one season.

As you might know, John Wall and bradley beal were 2 of 3 players to shoot more than 7 mid range pull up jumpers a game and shoot less than 35% on them, incredibly inefficient. But instead of eliminating this shot and working on ways to get three pointers and lay ups, bradley beal has said he has been working on his midrange game all offseason. I'm sure this is because randy wittman has told him to do this. John wall does need to develop some kind of inbetween game for the pick and roll, but he needs to shoot a lot less pull up mid range jumpers out of rhythm, and I can't trust randy to tell him not to do this. How much is he hurting the development of out young players to play basketball in this league in 2014?

1) Wittman coached Love for the whopping first 19 games of his rookie season before being replaced by Saunders. The whole "Wittman told Love to stop shooting threes, he was going to ruin his entire career" etc is overblown. Flip Saunders didn't let him shoot threes for the remainder of that season either. Love didn't start taking a high volume of threes until his 4th season, coached by Rick Adelman.


2) Wall is aware that he needs to work on his in-between game, he's been talking about developing his floater all summer. He is also aware that the team needs to get to the basket more, he even says in the interview below that he knows that Washington took the most midrange jumpers last season (@1:44)

http://www.monumentalnetwork.com/videos ... e-10-12-14

3) You are putting way too much emphasis on coaching and not enough on player development. If players want to stick around in this league, they have to personally find ways to improve and diversify their games every year. Booker went from not being able to shoot at all, to having a marginally serviceable midrange game, and now he's working on extending his range further (which we have yet to see in regular NBA action). Good for him, but what I see there is a guy trying to develop his game and don't see how it has has anything to do with Wittman. Wittman not using Trevor Booker as a stretch four was the least of his problems, in terms of coaching this team.

[Dark Faze]

Hump is better than Book so I don't really care about what Book is doing.

General philosophy Wittman has on the other hand is kind of disheartening.

[Nivek]

Not that Booker was great or anything, but he was criminally underrated by DC fans. He got hurt too much, but he was productive while with the Wizards -- even with meh (and worse) defense.

Honestly, aside from injuries, I think Booker's biggest problem was not looking the way people think basketball players should look. He's built like a defensive end -- right down to having no neck. He's fast and quick and explosive, but he doesn't look like he is (like, say, John Wall). If Booker looked like Kwame Brown, fans would probably have been clamoring for him to be in the lineup, and he'd probably have gotten an extension from the Wizards.

Humphries is "about the same" overall as Booker. Blair hasn't been as productive. That said, Humprhies AND Blair are combined getting paid about what Booker is getting in Utah. The Wizards needed depth up front, and for the cost of Booker, they got two guys who can do more or less what he did.

[Dat2U]

Not that Booker was great or anything, but he was criminally underrated by DC fans. He got hurt too much, but he was productive while with the Wizards -- even with meh (and worse) defense.

Honestly, aside from injuries, I think Booker's biggest problem was not looking the way people think basketball players should look. He's built like a defensive end -- right down to having no neck. He's fast and quick and explosive, but he doesn't look like he is (like, say, John Wall). If Booker looked like Kwame Brown, fans would probably have been clamoring for him to be in the lineup, and he'd probably have gotten an extension from the Wizards.

Humphries is "about the same" overall as Booker. Blair hasn't been as productive. That said, Humprhies AND Blair are combined getting paid about what Booker is getting in Utah. The Wizards needed depth up front, and for the cost of Booker, they got two guys who can do more or less what he did.

What's the point of being productive if your giving that productivity right back to the opposing team? Calling Booker's defense meh is being generous IMO.

[Nivek]

What's the point of being productive if your giving that productivity right back to the opposing team? Calling Booker's defense meh is being generous IMO.

Except, he wasn't just giving back what he produced. Overall, accounting for the totality of what he did while on the court, he was a decent player in Washington. Would have been more valuable as a reserve where he could go against backups more often, but that wasn't possible much of the time because Nenê was hurt so much. In my evaluation, Booker was above average overall, but a bit below average for a starter.

Doesn't matter much now that he's gone, and that the Wizards have gotten a couple guys who pretty much do the same work (including shaky defense).

[Dat2U]

There's varying degrees of bad defense. Blair & Humphries aren't good defenders but to me their more meh than anything. Booker's defense was simply bad. He was a good offensive rebounder and ok mid range shooter but with very low usage. I don't think his offensive rebounding and efficient scoring offset his limitations offensively in terms of spacing. Basically he was a net negative offensive & defensive player IMO. Adding a 3 pt shot is nice, but unless he's using it enough and hitting it at a decent clip, teams will still dare him to hit it.

[verbal8]

Honestly, aside from injuries, I think Booker's biggest problem was not looking the way people think basketball players should look. He's built like a defensive end -- right down to having no neck. He's fast and quick and explosive, but he doesn't look like he is (like, say, John Wall). If Booker looked like Kwame Brown, fans would probably have been clamoring for him to be in the lineup, and he'd probably have gotten an extension from the Wizards.

EG would have given him a max deal.

[Sluggerface]

The mid range hate is reaching obscene levels in today's game after all the stat pushing analytics die hards and morey neophytes are doing.

Beal had an abysmal mid range game, why wouldn't he work on it? He has no problem getting his shot off at the 3, but those shots aren't always going to be there, and they're especially going to be harder to come by against elite defenses that run 3 point shooters off the line and force people into rim protectors. You have to be versatile in this league. Playoffs are about match ups. You ride the hot hand, even if that hand is lighting it up from the least value space on the court. Everybody saw this when we blew up Chicago and Portland wrecked Houston.