2018/19 ROY/Rookie Discussion Thread (Pt 2)

[Paradise]

Rodions Kurucs continues to run away with the starting spot.

The Latvian AK47 guarded Kemba Walker and Tony Parker tonight.

13 Pts, 12 Rebs, 3 Asts, 3 Stls, 1 Blk.

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

Read on Twitter

[Young gun 6]

Ayton's defensive plays from OT:

Read on Twitter

?s=19

Read on Twitter

?s=19

Seems to be improving on defense every game. Marked improvement in rim protection.

Those who have been watching his games have seen the visible improvement since day 1 in his defense.

He’s already improved a heap in 35 games, can’t wait to see what he’s doing in 2 or 3 years.

But there is going to be heaps of people who watch none of his game and either just don’t like him because he was pick 1, try to bring him down to prop other guys up or simply just base their assumptions off the above two troll opinions, or off past no longer valid information (ie college).

[mcmurphy]

Rodions Kurucs continues to run away with the starting spot.

The Latvian AK47 guarded Kemba Walker and Tony Parker tonight.

13 Pts, 12 Rebs, 3 Asts, 3 Stls, 1 Blk.

Read on Twitter

The kid is good.
Outside of Doncic, Ayton and JJJ I don't know who I would certainly take before him...

a steal for the 40th pick

[Maze]

Ayton's defensive plays from OT:

Read on Twitter

?s=19

Read on Twitter

?s=19

Seems to be improving on defense every game. Marked improvement in rim protection.

Those who have been watching his games have seen the visible improvement since day 1 in his defense.

He’s already improved a heap in 35 games, can’t wait to see what he’s doing in 2 or 3 years.

But there is going to be heaps of people who watch none of his game and either just don’t like him because he was pick 1, try to bring him down to prop other guys up or simply just base their assumptions off the above two troll opinions, or off past no longer valid information (ie college).

The guy didn't start playing basketball until he was 14.His potential is enormous.3-4 yrs from now, I think he'll easily be the most dominant player in this draft class

[BoardCrusher]

Doncic getting the euroleague ref treatment already. All this media hype and cringeworthy stuff like Haleluka already paying off. 5/13 shooting but 12 free throws while AD shot 5 lol. That last bail out call where he lost the ball was especially ridiculous

Hard times for haters like yourself, lmfao

[mcmurphy]

Last 6 games of Doncic against:

vs SAC
@DEN
@LAC
@GSW
@POR
vsNOP

32mpg/ 24.3ppg / 6.5 reb / 7.8 ast / 1.3 stl / 2.3 to / TS=57.4% / USG= 28.5%

[guille_4]

Last 6 games of Doncic against:

vs SAC
@DEN
@LAC
@GSW
@POR
vsNOP

32mpg/ 24.3ppg / 6.5 reb / 7.8 ast / 1.3 stl / 2.3 to / TS=57.4% / USG= 28.5%

His turnovers are going down, that's good to see. Early in the season he was averaging almost a 1:1 Assist/TO and almost 4 TOs per game.

He's now down to 3.3 TOs and up to 5.1 Assists.

[Bob8]

Last 6 games of Doncic against:

vs SAC
@DEN
@LAC
@GSW
@POR
vsNOP

32mpg/ 24.3ppg / 6.5 reb / 7.8 ast / 1.3 stl / 2.3 to / TS=57.4% / USG= 28.5%

His turnovers are going down, that's good to see. Early in the season he was averaging almost a 1:1 Assist/TO and almost 4 TOs per game.

He's now down to 3.3 TOs and up to 5.1 Assists.

I believe his TO number will never be very low, like it's not low by others with similar usage/style of playing. His assists number will go only up, if RC plays him as Pg.

https://stats.nba.com/leaders/?Season=2018-19&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&StatCategory=TOV

[JPF]

Looking nice, since Crabbe went down and Kurucs is starting in the last 6 games he is avg, 12.8 PTS, 5 REB, while shooting 51/41/90 on 8.5 FG per game in that span.

And oh yeah he is 6'9'' guy who defended Oladipo last game pretty good and tonight his defense on Booker was outstanding.

Steal for the Nets at 40th pick this year.

Watch on YouTube

I am glad things worked like that for Kurucs.

Kurucs was considered as one of the most talented european players in junior competitions and was than predicted to do well in NBA as well. However at the transition from the junior competitions to senior Barcelona's team, he kind of got lost, didn't get many minutes and the hype around him was dissapearing.
I haven't watched him play a while and wasn't able to make a judgement on his potential on the draft day, but am glad that one of the most exciting european players from youth comeptitions found his place in NBA, while being pretty much neglected in Barcelona.

[The-Power]

Doncic is passing so well this game. I haven't watched all the game, but he has 9 assists in 3 quarters and I've seen 3 missed lay-ups on his passes... He should be at 12 assists at least.

Don't forget all the open shots they missed from his assists. Truly feels like he should be at 15+ already... His vision is just unreal for such a young age.

That is, again, because of perception-bias. Doncic had 13 potential assists according to stats.nba.com, meaning that his teammates converted all but three potential assists plus free throw assists. Luka's passing was exceptional and created great looks, but even wide open NBA players miss a good amount of their 3's and blow a couple lay-ups. Last night, his teammates already converted a much greater percentage of their jumpers than you can objectively expect while they missed a couple possible and-1's. Overall, 9 or at best 10 assists are probably a realistic average for the shots he created last night.

[stevegb]

Looking nice, since Crabbe went down and Kurucs is starting in the last 6 games he is avg, 12.8 PTS, 5 REB, while shooting 51/41/90 on 8.5 FG per game in that span.

And oh yeah he is 6'9'' guy who defended Oladipo last game pretty good and tonight his defense on Booker was outstanding.

Steal for the Nets at 40th pick this year.

Watch on YouTube

I am glad things worked like that for Kurucs.

Kurucs was considered as one of the most talented european players in junior competitions and was than predicted to do well in NBA as well. However at the transition from the junior competitions to senior Barcelona's team, he kind of got lost, didn't get many minutes and the hype around him was dissapearing.
I haven't watched him play a while and wasn't able to make a judgement on his potential on the draft day, but am glad that one of the most exciting european players from youth comeptitions found his place in NBA, while being pretty much neglected in Barcelona.

From what I've read Barcelona started hiding him once he made it known he wanted to move to the NBA, if I remember it correctly their quote was something along the lines of "we wont be a farm team for the NBA anymore"

[Archx]

Doncic is passing so well this game. I haven't watched all the game, but he has 9 assists in 3 quarters and I've seen 3 missed lay-ups on his passes... He should be at 12 assists at least.

Don't forget all the open shots they missed from his assists. Truly feels like he should be at 15+ already... His vision is just unreal for such a young age.

That is, again, because of perception-bias. Doncic had 13 potential assists according to stats.nba.com, meaning that his teammates converted all but three potential assists plus free throw assists. Luka's passing was exceptional and created great looks, but even wide open NBA players miss a good amount of their 3's and blow a couple lay-ups. Last night, his teammates already converted a much greater percentage of their jumpers than you can objectively expect while they missed a couple possible and-1's. Overall, 9 or at best 10 assists are probably a realistic average for the shots he created last night.

Lmao, c'mon..i said it FEELS like.. i wasn't 100% factual. Just a figure of speech.

Mavs offense looks so much better when he runs out. That's what i meant basically.

[BeibsInTheTrap]

Doncic needs to be more efficient.

[ellobo]

I've been very impressed by Kurucs. Even early in the season when he wasn't getting much run, he still stood out with his length, athleticism, aggressiveness, feel (and skills). Nice to see him producing consistently in more minutes.

I was an Ayton skeptic going into the draft and season, but he's winning me over.

Overall, I'm really enjoying this rookie class. I check in on this thread to stay up with all the excellent performances that I didn't get to watch, and ignore the stupid fanboy/hater pissing match BS.

[Stribor]

I've been very impressed by Kurucs. Even early in the season when he wasn't getting much run, he still stood out with his length, athleticism, aggressiveness, feel (and skills). Nice to see him producing consistently in more minutes.

I was an Ayton skeptic going into the draft and season, but he's winning me over.

Overall, I'm really enjoying this rookie class. I check in on this thread to stay up with all the excellent performances that I didn't get to watch, and ignore the stupid fanboy/hater pissing match BS.

Absolutely! I had Luka as 1, but love all of them including Trae. Kurucs is a nice surprise. All in all enjoying young guns and am not allowing different fanboys to annoy me.

[Bob8]

Looking nice, since Crabbe went down and Kurucs is starting in the last 6 games he is avg, 12.8 PTS, 5 REB, while shooting 51/41/90 on 8.5 FG per game in that span.

And oh yeah he is 6'9'' guy who defended Oladipo last game pretty good and tonight his defense on Booker was outstanding.

Steal for the Nets at 40th pick this year.

Watch on YouTube

I am glad things worked like that for Kurucs.

Kurucs was considered as one of the most talented european players in junior competitions and was than predicted to do well in NBA as well. However at the transition from the junior competitions to senior Barcelona's team, he kind of got lost, didn't get many minutes and the hype around him was dissapearing.
I haven't watched him play a while and wasn't able to make a judgement on his potential on the draft day, but am glad that one of the most exciting european players from youth comeptitions found his place in NBA, while being pretty much neglected in Barcelona.

From what I've read Barcelona started hiding him once he made it known he wanted to move to the NBA, if I remember it correctly their quote was something along the lines of "we wont be a farm team for the NBA anymore"

totally untrue. the problem for young players in the best clubs in Europe is, they're competing against the best players in Europe. they play only if they are better than them. nobody cares about their potential, they have to be better than players in their prime at this moment. Kurucs was simply not good enough. that's why nobody under 22 plays in Euroleague. Luka was just an exception.

[The-Power]

Don't forget all the open shots they missed from his assists. Truly feels like he should be at 15+ already... His vision is just unreal for such a young age.

That is, again, because of perception-bias. Doncic had 13 potential assists according to stats.nba.com, meaning that his teammates converted all but three potential assists plus free throw assists. Luka's passing was exceptional and created great looks, but even wide open NBA players miss a good amount of their 3's and blow a couple lay-ups. Last night, his teammates already converted a much greater percentage of their jumpers than you can objectively expect while they missed a couple possible and-1's. Overall, 9 or at best 10 assists are probably a realistic average for the shots he created last night.

Lmao, c'mon..i said it FEELS like.. i wasn't 100% factual. Just a figure of speech.

Mavs offense looks so much better when he runs out. That's what i meant basically.

And I'm trying to explain why it feels like it and what's factual.

Of course I agree with your overall point that Luka's playmaking has been amazing recently, and that the offense really runs smoothly when he handles the ball. Recently, his passing game has been as good as we've hoped for and even better. He's an amazing playmaker and luckily, he's now being able and allowed to show it consistently. Some of the passes and reads he makes are amazing – not overly flashy but extremely surgiccal and effective, Harden/LeBron-esque indeed – and he's already a savant at creating some of the highest percentage shots regularly (corner 3's and PnR dunks/lay-ups). Let's see if he can hit cutters consistently once the Mavericks adjust the rosters (of course they might just decide to continue to build a spread-out PnR offense around him – we know he'll produce in those).

[The-Power]

Doncic needs to be more efficient.

He needs to finish his lay-ups better (some of that has to do with his preference to switch to his right hand imo) and to learn how to make use of catch-and-shoot situations (he often refuses to fire away in those). He leaves too many points and opportunities on the table in these situations. Those would be my main areas of focus right now, along with some physical improvements.

His step-back hasn't been falling as well as it did in the beginning, but I'm not worried about them. He'll always have that as a solid option to score, but it'll also likely never be a 40+% shot for him (not sure anybody in the league can them convert at such a rate consistently). We know he can get into the paint with his strength but too often he resorts to a shot outside of 3ft. He can make those and will also continue improve his floaters but he should try to get a bit more at the rim. One or two off-season training programs should help him in this regard and he could also sharpen his spin-moves and eurosteps to create a bit more at the rim.

That said, Doncic is efficient (especially for a Rookie) because he knows how to draw fouls. And those are not fluke fouls either. He bullies smaller opponents towards the rim or in the post, and he knows how to get them to jump or reach on his fakes and hesitation moves. He'll continue to draw fouls at a high rate much like Gallinari has been able to do throughout his career. This will always help his efficiency. With a respectable jumpshot (at least), a good touch on his floaters and an understanding of what are good shots, I can't imagine Doncic ever being not an efficient scorer going forward. Of course whether he's going to be in the 55-60% or rather the 60-65% TS area will depend on his improvements as a shooter, slasher and finisher.

[Texas Chuck]

Doncic getting the euroleague ref treatment already. All this media hype and cringeworthy stuff like Haleluka already paying off. 5/13 shooting but 12 free throws while AD shot 5 lol. That last bail out call where he lost the ball was especially ridiculous

He attacked more than AD. He deserved more FT's. I can also assure you he still struggles to get calls even with this run he's on getting to the line.

[clyde21]

people already complaining about how the refs treat Doncic?

looks like he's made it.