The OFFICIAL rookie impressions thread pt.III

[willbcocks]

I disagree that this class has disappointed. I think it was billed as a strong class, and it has lived up to its billing. Of the top picks, Davis, Beal, Waiters, Lillard, and Drummond have all had very strong Rookie seasons. MKG's also played decently.

One other thing that was discussed in the article and also in the past on this thread is how much of a load different rookies have carried for their teams. It's worth noting that Beal has been the Wizards leading scorer for the season and logged the most minutes on the team. He might have the lowest PPG and MPG of any player who leads his team in those categories, but it shows the role he has on the team.

[wackywabbit]

Beal is really heating up. Not just his shooting, he's doing a little bit of everything.

[dlts20]

Beal with 20pts, 6rbs, 2ast, 1stl on 8-13fg 2-3 from deep, and 2-2ft

[GhostsOfGil]

^ That article has "stats are my source" written all over it.

[Bskey]

I have tried to make a point on more than one occassion to state that many of the Blazer fans have been very cool, and actually calling out their own on more than one occassion. Can't disagree with anything you said really.

Like this?

Why is it surprising that I or anyone would compare to Lillard? He has been the Blazer fans self proclaimed rookie of the year, no comparison, not even close, from like the second game of the year. I don't think it's strange when comparing top rookies to include Lillard.

But never fails, it's always a slew of Blazer fans that lose their mind when you level the playing field. I don't think there is a person on this board that doesn't like Lillard. Unless we are talking defense, I think you would have a hard time searching the entire board for a disparaging remark towards Lillard.

Comments like this don't even make sense anyway. Unless you believe Blazers fans are somehow running sports media. It's like when Oden was getting hyped and people blamed Blazers fans. Lillard is considered the front runner by a large majority of the media. THEY are the ones saying he is ROY and basically calling the race over. Blazers fans recognizing that fact does not make them homers. They don't pick ROY they can only go along with what the actual voters do. Stop taking it out on fans, it's childish.

As hard as this may be to believe, all of my posts aren't pointed towards the Blazers.

It's not hard to believe they aren't all pointed towards them but it wasn't hard to find an example of you going after the fanbase.

This thread is just getting ridiculous though, and it's not your fault or any other individual's alone but, it's supposed to be about tracking rookies, not fanbases.

I've gotten in trouble over joking about LeBron's past playoff performances but apparently all of the baiting and fanbase bashing (talking about the thread as a whole, not you inidividually Jon) is A-OK here.

[deadfeather]

I haven't posted in this thread yet but have been paying attention to it since the beginning of the season. In respect to Lillard this has been building for a while.

Nobody here is knocking Lillard on purpose. But there is a growing resentment of the attention he has received which has resulted in a lot of back handed compliments. We as sports fans love competition. We want to see players battling it out. This years ROY race has been very disappointing as we are already half way through the season and the media has already anointed Lillard the award victory. Fans don't want to see someone handed an award half way through the season. It makes Lillard look like a media darling and Portland fans as entitled.

To go along with that, it can be frustrating to see a player like Lillard gain recognition over players like Davis, MKG, Beal and Drummond. Lillard is not an athletic freak. He is down right boring to other fans other than Portland. On top of that he is much older and seasoned than anybody else in this discussion which kind of rubs people the wrong way as he is a 23 year old rookie with a four year head start on much more exciting players. He is also producing with the most minutes than any other rookie. He has earned those minutes, but he has earned those minutes from experience he earned in college. Drummond and Davis play nearly half the minutes and have twice the wow factor on court. It's easy to fall in love with the idea that if Drummond and Davis were playing upwards of 38 minutes a game they would be trampling Lillard in every statistic. There isnt much proof that this would actually happen but we can all day dream about the notion and per stats are an easy way to fuel those day dreams with some sort of tangible evidence. We all want to see Davis and Drummond break out into superstars.

Lillard on the other hand, we have seen what he can do this year. There isnt much to day dream about. Even further in the minutes he has been given he hasn't floored anybody with an amazing show of athleticism or an amazing scoring tear. Lillard gets a consistent 18 points a game scoring off of jumpers. The only flashy part of his game is the occasional brilliant pass but he doesn't get those at nearly the clip Rubio does.

Posting constant highlight clips of a point guard knocking down jump shots isn't always exciting and when beaten to death it can be down right irritating sometimes.

The truth is, this isn't a race anymore unless you take Lillard out of the equation. But, once you do that, this year's ROY race could very well be exciting. A competition between 2 or 3 19 year olds who can all jump through the roof and get you up out of your seat. Adding Lillard into the equation you are adding in a player who is much older, much less athletic and is given minutes of a veteran. With the minutes he gets, too fans of other teams, that may seem like the card deck is stacked in his favor and maybe just might be ROY in name only.

But Portland fans should be used to this. Portland had a rookie back in 2007 that was a four year player who entered the league the same age as Lillard who also ended up winning the ROY award. Of course his potential wasn't near the pure force that was a 20 year old Andrea Bargnani. So keep your chins up, take the hate with class and enjoy Lillard for what he is, no matter what is trending on realgm at the moment.

[whatchaknow]

Beal with 20pts, 6rbs, 2ast, 1stl on 8-13fg 2-3 from deep, and 2-2ft

Since Davis was going to be off the board i was praying for a miracle that Beal would fall to Portland at 6 but after i saw the Wiz workout he had i knew they were gonna take him. The guy can ball and i love his rebounding for a guard.

Also Moe Harkless might turn out to be the Kawhi Leonard of this group. The perfect role player/glue guy... HUGE fan of his since i watched a lot of Big East ball.

Piston fans when is the big fella supposed to be back from his injury??

[ComboGuardCity]

Team doctors say as Early as next week. He better be 100% though.

[whatchaknow]

Team doctors say as Early as next week. He better be 100% though.

Thanks ... agree also no need to rush the guy back (no pun intended)

[IGotDaMagicInMe]

The rookie of the year race doesn't suck, its just that everybody is handing it to lillard because of all the candidates, he scores the most, and is on the best team. Drummond and Davis both should be ahead imo, and I don't even care that Drummond has an injury

[dolphinatik]

that article appears to be written by someone that doesnt watch games or follow rookies at all. Beal, Waiters, Lillard, Drummond, Vucevic, Nicholson, Sullinger, Shved, Barnes , Singler, Ross have all been worth following. Add Jeff Taylor to that list. Lillard has been good but as I think about it he also is the rookie in the best situation and team than the rest of the contributing rookies.

Those three rookies backcourt in Orlando are interesting. A couple bigtime veteran free agents and Orlando could be a force.

Lillard jumped out to the early lead but I think the rookie race is still yet to be decided.

[rockmanslim]

Lillard is not an athletic freak. He is down right boring to other fans other than Portland.

Lillard on the other hand, we have seen what he can do this year. There isnt much to day dream about. Even further in the minutes he has been given he hasn't floored anybody with an amazing show of athleticism or an amazing scoring tear. Lillard gets a consistent 18 points a game scoring off of jumpers. The only flashy part of his game is the occasional brilliant pass but he doesn't get those at nearly the clip Rubio does.

Posting constant highlight clips of a point guard knocking down jump shots isn't always exciting and when beaten to death it can be down right irritating sometimes.

I'm not a Portland fan and I love watching Lillard play. When he's on, there's nothing boring about his play. It's not like he's Steve Novak out there just knocking down spot up jumpers. He can get his own shots off the dribble. Watching perimeter guys who can get their own jumpers off the dribble is anything but boring, but maybe that's just me. It takes a confluence of abilities to be able to do so. You have to have the quickness and ball handling to create your own space, to get defenders to sag off to respect your drive. You have to have the stroke and touch to knock down the J once you create that space.

What's boring to me is the guys who have no jumper and thus have to get theirs by barreling into the paint every time looking for calls, often while traveling or carrying the ball in the process. What's even worse is when they're anointed as stars. That's boring and ruins the game. Refball = boring.

[willbcocks]

I love what Orlando's done since trading Dwight. They'll be in for a long rebuilding period, but they'll have a few high picks and can take flyers on a bunch of mid level picks if they play their cards right and absorb some bad contracts for picks.

The challenge is not to abandon the rebuild too early. I'm a Wizards fan and I think we made that mistake.

[Blkbrd671]

The rookie of the year race doesn't suck, its just that everybody is handing it to lillard because of all the candidates, he scores the most, and is on the best team. Drummond and Davis both should be ahead imo, and I don't even care that Drummond has an injury

it'll be interesting, when Dre comes back he'll more than likely be starting, if that happens and detroit starts winning games because of dre's impact, there will definitely be a case for ROY. i just hope they don't rush him.

[orangeparka]

Beal's a beast.

[Dame Lizard]

Meyers Leonard is probably the rawest player in the draft, but no doubt the most intriguing as well.

He's a 7'1, athletic centre who shoots 86% from the free throw line.

He needs to drastically reduce his fouls and increase his rebounding (which I expect to improve over the off-season with some extra pounds), but that free throw shooting is nothing short of crazy in the NBA.

Granted it's over 49 FTA so it isn't the biggest sample size (it did correspond in Summer League and pre-season as well mind you), but how many athletic big men in the league can shoot at anywhere near that clip? Infact how many athletic big men can shoot at over 70%? ...... let alone as an incredibly raw rookie.

There's a random fun fact for y'all!

[Bskey]

Meyers Leonard is probably the rawest player in the draft, but no doubt the most intriguing as well.

He's a 7'1, athletic centre who shoots 86% from the free throw line.

He needs to drastically reduce his fouls and increase his rebounding (which I expect to improve over the off-season with some extra pounds), but that free throw shooting is nothing short of crazy in the NBA.

Granted it's over 49 FTA so it isn't the biggest sample size (it did correspond in Summer League and pre-season as well mind you), but how many athletic big men in the league can shoot at anywhere near that clip? Infact how many athletic big men can shoot at over 70%? ...... let alone as an incredibly raw rookie.

There's a random fun fact for y'all!

I think Leonard will surprise people with his offense eventually more so than his defense. His defensive instincts are kind of suspect and it's comical to watch him box out with his back to the ball and hoop sometimes.

Athletically though there is a lot of potential. He stayed agile and quick even after his growth spurt that moved him from guard to center. He's very quick and has a good frame to build some strength on, and with a shooting touch or at least a good free throw percentage he could turn into a nice offensive weapon.

He seems like a smart enough guy off the court to figure things out though so here's hoping he's not another all potential no fulfillment guy.

[GhostsOfGil]

The rookie of the year race doesn't suck, its just that everybody is handing it to lillard because of all the candidates, he scores the most, and is on the best team. Drummond and Davis both should be ahead imo, and I don't even care that Drummond has an injury

it'll be interesting, when Dre comes back he'll more than likely be starting, if that happens and detroit starts winning games because of dre's impact, there will definitely be a case for ROY. i just hope they don't rush him.

So far, I think Lillard deserves it over Davis and Drum. But if Drummond comes back as a starter and continues to produce, I don't see why he shouldn't be considered for it.

Also heres Beal's highlights from last night. Love how he can give you 20 without dominating the ball. You can definitely see the Wall/Beal chemistry in this reel.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ_rTJcsIbc[/youtube]

[TheBigThree]

Man, I missed that face up jumper over Ross during the game last night. If he can consistently do that too I'd be ecstatic.

[Illmatic21]

Beal has such a smooth game.. just glides across the court and shoots/scores effortlessly.

Not amazing off the dribble yet, but that's actually a good thing imo. At age 19, he's already learning to focus on what takes guys years to learn - that the most effective and efficient way to play within the offense is to move without the ball and get to his spots. He doesn't have that annoying "1-on-1 iso streetball" streak in him. Just get to your spots and you'll get yours, simple.