cupcakesnake wrote:dballislife wrote:lol ya thats right blame keegan failing on other players lol...he hasn't added any skills to his game since day 1...he started out pretty good year one, and year 2 was exact same and now year 3 hes the exact same player
he cant dribble, cannot pass, and has no moves lol
he has good size and shoots the 3, we knew that since year 1 and hes literally that same player today
I feel 2 ways about it, and think it's a little more complicated than the scouting report you're giving here.
On one hand you're right, there are limitations to Keegan's game and we haven't seen skill development in an obvious sense. His fall off as a 3-point shooter has been pretty damaging, and he hasn't been a positive efficiency scorer without it. That 3-point shot gave him a nice basement as an offensive player, but now the basement has collapsed without him meaningfully adding to the ceiling.
However, Keegan showed some really interesting stuff working hand off action with Sabonis last year.
He's a very aggressive driver who's big enough to finish in traffic (fairly elite at this actually). He has fantastic elevation on his jumper and can reliably counter on drives into a very solid pull up game. He's also a very sneaky, high-motor cutter, so he's a nice guy to pair with Sabonis (and to a lesser degree, Fox) who is always ready to throw interior passes.
The other thing that Keegan is very good at is posting mismatches. Mike Brown talked a lot last offseason about putting in a post up package for Keegan, but then the Demar trade happened and that guaranteed the end of that dream. In general, accommodating Demar's game requires Keegan to do a lot less. Demar needs those spots, and while Demar can do some playmaking, he's not adept at finding cutters in the interior. He's much more of a drive and kick playmaker, so Keegan's shooting woes are making the Keegan/Demar fit even worse. Can't blame Demar for Keegan's shakey outside shooting, but it's pretty straightforward why the Keegan drives are less efficient next to Demar. There's just way less room in this offense for Keegan's game to grow, so until further notice, he'll have to live and die by his 3-point looks.
Defensively, Demar makes his life a bit harder as well. They give him the defensive dirty work, and now there's a lot mroe dirty to work covering for another wing liability. Harrison Barnes was actually trash on defense last year, but the Kings still made him do stuff. With Demar it's more undertood he has to be hidden, which means Keegan guarding more shooting guards so Demar can be stashed. I think the defense has been super solid, but I'd prefer him to be able to play closer to the rim, where he's a very solid extra rim defender who can make Sabonis less damaging.
There are things Keegan will probably never do. Play-make off the dribble or be a high volume pick & roll creator. He's not that find of player, he's an off-ball cutter, secondary driver, spot up guy who can be a big matchup problem with his power forward size and strong ability to score at the rim off drives and post ups. He also never turns the ball over.