MEDIC wrote:Brinbe wrote:Ingram will be a big help in terms of freeing IQ up to play a bit more off-ball and benefit from being a finisher instead of a creator. Also think something that shouldn't be discounted is that 1) he played with way better screeners in NY when he had the likes of Randle/Robinson/Hartenstein even Toppin/RJ/Hart to give him space to operate and get a step on his man. He's only really got Yak here as well as RJ and otherwise is/was expected to just beat his man off-the-dribble a lot of the time, which isn't totally a strength of his, though he can do it against more mid-tier opposition. 2) he had better outlets to kick out to with Grimes, RJ, Hart, Randle, etc. Here so far he's had RJ and that's about it. At the very least he'll now have Ingram as a high-level option now.
You can really see it here.
Also think having loads of better defenders will allow him to also not have to take the toughest POA assignments where he can tend to be overmatched physically.
I just think having a consistent run of games and quality teammates will naturally lift his game. And that will go for a lot of guys who seemingly have question marks hovering over there. Rising tide will lift all boats sort of situation. Will he be totally live up to his contract? I don't know about that, that's a high threshold, but he should at least be a positive contributor.
That's a great point. I think Quickley will have the most to gain playing with BI. Quick isn't a true on ball creator. He seems to excel off the ball more than he does on the ball.
I could also see RJ & Poeltl getting some easier buckets.
Scottie......I am not so sure. They need to figure out how to maximize production in that partnership.
Yes, exactly. And I think that's where BI's underrated playmaking ability will show up quite a lot. His ability to comfortably operate and score in the mid-range will solve a lot of spacing issues.
As for Scottie, I don't want to muddy things up too much since this is the IQ thread, but this is a bit of a nerdy analogy but follow me here. I think last year was an obvious developmental year so they overloaded Scottie and tasked him with doing a lot. Akin to DBZ where they would do a lot of gravity training to get stronger.
Of course we see a lot of actual training done like this but I think it's not dissimilar to what they did with Pascal as well as OG in terms of giving them hard reps to broaden their skillset. And so with Scottie last season.
So I believe that Scottie, when cast back into a role where he's not necessarily expected to be number one or play with a mis-matched lineup, will absolutely thrive thanks to that experience. Now maybe that'll be a disappointment because he's not fulfilling certain expectations in terms of being a 1A guy, but I think it'll still be fruitful in terms of getting him where he needs to go in the end.
The competiton wasn't the strongest, but we did see some of that at the end of the year when he was healthier.
And in terms of a partnership with IQ, just being able to be a better/more effective screener in an off and on-ball capacity for IQ (and others) as well as getting back to being a roller and rim runner at times will be a huge benefit to their potential chemistry. There's definitely a way to make it work where they're setting each other up for good looks, which is the ideal.
