Ettorefm wrote:Great post. I love this kind of discussions. i'll dive into each segment:
1. I completely agree. Nash is my favorite player of all time, I'm a Suns fan, btw. I'm all in favor of playing your strengths and not forcing the issue. The thing is , Nash was never a great scorer. An EFFICIENT and prolific scorer who could go HAM in the playoffs, but he was a 15 ppg scorer in his career. I think Doncic has potential to be a higher scorer for sure.
Yeah, I love Nash as a player, could watch him whole day. I think that if Nash was entering the league today, he would have been scoring considerably more, making top 20 in scoring. Different league.
2. I don't understand your point, honestly. What do you mean by "if you're taller, there is no reason to go for for the layup"? Why would you do a stepback jumper instead of finishing at the rim when you're 6'8, and leave layups to guys who are 6'2? Shouldn't it be the opposite; guys who can easily get blocked by being shorter should use moves like midrange shots and floaters to prevent getting blocked?
What I am thinking of are shots from inside the post, but not necessarily going all the way under the basket. On top of everything it's more difficult in Europe as they don't have the 3 second violation. There is always heavy traffic. Examples
https://youtu.be/U79SnAoV7MM?t=149
https://youtu.be/U79SnAoV7MM?t=232
(the last one having also the contact, that you say he is avoiding at all costs, but I see this type of contact all the time this season)
What I think he doesn't have to be doing is this:
https://youtu.be/U79SnAoV7MM?t=306
In this case he did it because the post was empty, no typical Euro big men party.
He doesn't necessarily need to do this for me to say he is driving in:
https://youtu.be/U79SnAoV7MM?t=199
In this case he did it because the PnR created a great mismatch.
There's quite a few other drives in this game, including being fouled at it so I don't know... I don't see this game as being reason to be frustrated with his selection of shots is what I guess my point is.
He's extremely crafty and plays like a vet, making defenders commit and then drawing a stupid foul. It's not like he's going hard to the rim and guys can't do anything, so they have to foul him. I honestly don't understand where you're comin from, because if there is one guy that will do ANYTHING not to shoot a contested layup with contact, it's doncic.
Even if you are right, this is a skill that I think is relatively easily translatable to NBA. By skill I mean being able to draw fouls without defenders being "forced" to commit one. I'd say that drawing fouls is one of the most important skills of any NBA star player. I think we will have to wait and see how successful he will be in NBA at drawing fouls. A player that was athletically much less gifted than Doncic, Dejan Bodiroga, had no problems drawing fouls against more athletic players. What was the reason he was able to do so? I'd say... technique. And if you are able to draw a foul because of your superior skill, it gets slightly dodgy to say that players were not forced to foul him.
You know what, I wanted to post this but then, under impression of the Olympiacos highlight video, which I thought was not showing exactly what you saw (are we looking for different things maybe?), I decided to check his shot selection in first 12 rounds of Euroleague. Basically what interested me mostly was how many 2-pointers did he attempt from outside the post. For me when a 6'8 player gets inside the post and is able to shoot relatively uncontested he should do so, doesn't matter if layup or a hook or even a jumper (although he doesn't do many of those, it's mainly one leg one handers). If the shot was around the FT line, I counted is outside of post, even if it was inside.
Shots taken from inside the post: 57 (FG% 70.2%)
2P shots taken from outside the post: 17 (FG% 41.2%)
So he takes 77% of his two point shots from well inside the post. That's smart and I'd say that he uses his length and technique well enough.
