Smart cant dribble with his left and Young cant dribble with his right

[GratefulCs]

And Bradley can't dribble with either!

That was a layup


(Or a deep two)

[Celtics4ever]

Lots of guys favor one hand,  lots of guys who can dribble with both hands are not in the NBA.

I think it is something to work on but is hardly the whole predicator of success at the NBA level.   The globe trotters are some of the best dribblers ever, and I do not see them in the NBA.

[moiso]

I am not concerned about Smart developing at all.  Look how much he has gotten better since the Summer League??  His ability to knock down 3's and run the offense have gotten so much better since then it's crazy.  Smart is a tireless worker that will maximize his talents which I think will eventually land him on multiple All-Star teams...

Just a hunch but I bet Smart makes a huge jump next season....

This is true except some of his "getting better" is just him becoming more comfortable with the NBA.  Same with Olynyk last year.  He started horribly, and while he got a little better, the main thing was that he became more comfortable.

[clover]

I suppose guys can improve a little but I would not expect huge gains.  Frankly, 19 years old is ancient in basketball development terms.  Because my son plays competitively now (and has since he was seven), I have insight into what kids can do at a young age.  The best kids could pretty much do what they can do now when they were kids.  The biggest difference is strength and size.

So yeah, smart and young will improve like bradley did.  Take that for what it's worth.

I don't think this is accurate at all. You have plenty of examples the other way of players that have improved significantly even from college. Players like Curry, Klay, Leonard, J.Butler, Lowry, Dragic, Lillard, etc. would be playing closer to their draft position, rather than their current all-star level status if what you said was accurate.

completely agree with you - guys like Jordan, Bird and Kobe would add something to their game every year to improve their overall game.  Just for an example, Jordan and Kobe going into the post latter in their careers??  Guys improve all the time, it's the ones that put in the time...

That's exactly the message Stevens said he tried to share with his team from the Super Bowl: Brady a 6th-round pick has become arguably the greatest of all time, Edelman as a late 7th-rounder, and Butler who went undrafted were the biggest heroes in winning the Super Bowl because they worked hard to keep improving.

[KeepRondo]

I suppose guys can improve a little but I would not expect huge gains.  Frankly, 19 years old is ancient in basketball development terms.  Because my son plays competitively now (and has since he was seven), I have insight into what kids can do at a young age.  The best kids could pretty much do what they can do now when they were kids.  The biggest difference is strength and size.

So yeah, smart and young will improve like bradley did.  Take that for what it's worth.

I don't think this is accurate at all. You have plenty of examples the other way of players that have improved significantly even from college. Players like Curry, Klay, Leonard, J.Butler, Lowry, Dragic, Lillard, etc. would be playing closer to their draft position, rather than their current all-star level status if what you said was accurate.

completely agree with you - guys like Jordan, Bird and Kobe would add something to their game every year to improve their overall game.  Just for an example, Jordan and Kobe going into the post latter in their careers??  Guys improve all the time, it's the ones that put in the time...

That's exactly the message Stevens said he tried to share with his team from the Super Bowl: Brady a 6th-round pick has become arguably the greatest of all time, Edelman as a late 7th-rounder, and Butler who went undrafted were the biggest heroes in winning the Super Bowl because they worked hard to keep improving.

Too bad none of these guys have a chance at being the Tom Brady of the NBA.

[kozlodoev]

Too bad none of these guys have a chance at being the Tom Brady of the NBA.

The closest you're going to get to TB of the NBA is Paul Pierce, but even that isn't really close enough. The NBA draft is a lot more about false positives than it is about false negatives.

[MBunge]

Marcus Smart shot under 30% from three in college.  He's shooting over 35% from three in the NBA.  So, just in between his last college and first pro seasons, Smart made himself a better 3 point shooter than Rondo could in his first 8 1/2 years in the NBA.  And if you think Rondo's hot streak from 3 is going to continue in Dallas, think again.

Mike

[Boris Badenov]

So....the natural conclusion is that if we super-glue Smart's left arm to Young's right arm, we'd have a guy who could defend, shoot 3's AND handle the ball.

[Rosco917]

What do you expect, nobody stays in college to complete their basketball education. Never mind get a degree. It's a one and done mentality. The college coach never got a chance to totally evaluate and say, "son your off hand is weak, lets work on it"

Now its up to the pro coach to finish process. I believe its up to Coach Stevens and the organization to make suggestions/demands, and get it done. 

[Tr1boy]

What do you expect, nobody stays in college to complete their basketball education. Never mind get a degree. It's a one and done mentality. The college coach never got a chance to totally evaluate and say, "son your off hand is weak, lets work on it"

Now its up to the pro coach to finish process. I believe its up to Coach Stevens and the organization to make suggestions/demands, and get it done.

Hopefully they can but in reality it's going to be hard.  It's something they needed to develop when they were younger. Not even at college level. Look at KO. His Dad strictly made him use his left hand to dribble when he was very young.  Now he prefers to go to his left though he shoots with his right

I'm sure it's still possible at this stage of their development, but it's to take extra hard work. Jeff Green tried for many seasons and he still can't go left comfortably