fifthstop wrote:-= original quote snipped =-
I like Nick. He's a very solid draft choice. Obvious talent and big-time program leads one to think he'll be ready in big-time situations (BTW we saw the contrast for a while there with DMac who was not ready for the bright lights). A more than solid mid first-round pick.
Allow me to digress for a moment and muse that a '96 vintage Calbert Cheaney would be the perfect piece for this team. 6'7" or whatever. Scarey southpaw handle. Lightning fast. Decent rebounder. Team leading 3pt%. But best of all a truly elite defender. In fact MJ once said Calbert was the only guard he did not relish facing. Whatever head games Bobby Knight played that wrecked Calbert seemed to wash away when he faced Jordan and he had a few career nights on both ends of the floor against His Airness.
For some reason, Calbert's career arced in the opposite direction from normal: "blue chips" talent-->very good rookie-->solid sophomore-->solid rotation guy-->decent piece-->role player-->journeyman. I have a few theories: 1) he got more intereseted in his family than in b-ball; 2) Bobby Knight yelled and screamed the love of game out of him; 3) He was on a team with such a bunch of talented knuckleheads that he was just never motivated to improve his game. I tend to think it's all three. Thoughts?
Calbert would have been something special on a team led by Jamison, Tough Juice, Etan, and Gilbert.
Having said all that, N1 is a very nice piece. He's the lightning in the bottle an elite team needs. As someone said, the offense is about creating mismatches for talented ballers, which N1 certainly is. What I think will really set him apart is when he learns the second part of the offense--seeing when the offense also creates mismatches in other parts of the floor (eg a rebounder has both size and position advantage) before pulling the trigger. Then his trigger-happy ways will be about applying pressure on a defense rather than sending fast-breaks the other way. He's learning well, though, and I would grade him as better than satisfactory (say a B).
with apologies for the continuation of a thread hijack
I don't see how we can blame BK for what happened as CC's
career went on in the pros. It pretty much argues for the opposite
(I agree with your description completely). My thoughts are that
with CC, it was all about confidence. Once he started to second
guess himself, it was a downward spiral.
N1 appears to have confidence in great abundance.
Having attended last night's breakout vs MIL, it seemed to me that
this was not only a breakout in terms of point output, but also in
terms of his impact on team. We'd seen games where his O would
look good but his +/- would still be sucky. I've not looked at the
boxscore but I bet his +/- was pretty good last night. This is
obviously good news. That and (knock on wood) the fact that
he is healthy!
