Two Lingering Issues Regarding Phoenix. A Bailey Dabble Production
There are two lingering and linked issues regarding the Fake Phoenix Suns that persist in holding back what the public expects Phoenix to accomplish in the upcoming hypothetical season.
8 ) Doc Rivers (a pretty smart guy) has publicly mentioned a dislike for playing two "lane clogging" bigs together. Your two starting big men are classic lane cloggers, with Big Al a poor jump shooter, and Biedrins maybe the worst shooting big man in the NBA (he shot .153 eFG% on jumpers!)
a) Can they co-exist?
b) And with them filling the lane, how is Rondo going to be able to penetrate, especially when teams dare him to shoot (with his second-to-worst eFG% on jumpers among starting point guards)?
A) I don't think Al Jefferson is as poor a jump shooter as you say. He still hit 37% of his jump shots outside the painted area. Tim Duncan hits 41%, that's better, but not amazingly better. When you combine that with a really nice one dribble jump hook move that as Hollinger says is "Accurate up to 10 feet" from the basket, he's not exactly useless out there. He's also good enough so that players can't just leave him alone.
Biedrins is another story, but so is Perkins, and I bring him up because of how he's used. Perkins has really two big duties on offense, and that's to set picks at or around the free throw elbows and to get the easy baskets off the roll. Perkins does still shoot a better midrange J. Biedrins is really bad at this.
With Biedrin's size and mobility he'll be able to move more quickly and catch the ball higher in his movement to the hoop than Perk. Biedrins is a highly efficient finisher, and although he doesn't have all the fancy post moves that Al Jefferson does, he's gonna beat his man if he has a step.
B) Rondo may be second to worst last year, but he's improved his shooting each season. You pointed out that Rondo actually shot worse last year, but he shot a lot more, so that's expected in the growth of a player. The key word here is growth. I think his jumpshot this year will be better than his jump shot last year. I think his jump shot next year will be better than his jump shot this year. I don't think he's going to be Ray Allen, but he could be Tony Parker or Jason Kidd.
9) Building on the previous question, do you have concerns -- like Doc does -- about Rondo's shooting and scoring? Also, do you question (like Danny Ainge did) his maturity, stubbornness, and failure to show up on time for playoff games?
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Rondo has been fighting this pigeon hole his entire life. "You can't have a franchise point guard that can't shoot a jump shot". Its a state of mind that I think I might have agreed with a few years ago, but after watching what Rondo can do, I think we can throw that out the window.
What am I doing wasting space rehashing what I just said though. I believe I can turn to my good friend and fellow GM Roy Hobbs to sum it up more sufficiently.
But he is not a franchise player, you can't have a franchise player who can't shoot.
It's difficult, but not impossible. Gary Payton wasn't much of a shooter, either.
I fully expect Rondo to improve his shot, though.
Like Roy I fully expect Rondo to improve his jumpshot. I'm glad for once we agree on this.
As far as concerns about his maturity, well he's 23. At 23 I wasn't the most mature. Also in real life he plays with 3 guys who are all possible hall of famers. He's a competitive guy, and he wants to be seen as the best. I think when he's a primary leader on his own team (like he would be on my squad), he'll have to settle down and stop spending so much time annoying people and actually start leading them. We saw in the Chicago series that he's capable of it on the court, with time he should grow into it off the court.
Orlando took a similar approach with Dwight Howard. They surrounded him with players who would defer to his leadership, and it payed off. I didn't think it would work initially, but you can't argue with results. Howard might be a more dominant player than Jefferson, but I think the comparison to structure is valid.
Topic: CB Draft '09 Mock Press Conference: Pacific Divison (Read 70916 times)