ESPN - Weekend Dime: What The Advance Scouts Are Seeing And Saying

[Shine88 89]

quote:

East scout on the sleeper in his conference

 

"I think Orlando is the best team in the NBA that's not being talked about. Everyone loves Portland right now, so everyone talks about them. Orlando is racking up the road wins again, and they're going to be a legit player in the Eastern Conference if they can get that No. 3 or [No.] 2 seed and avoid Boston in the second round. I know people say they have no bench, but once you get to the playoffs you only play seven or eight guys anyway.

 

"Look at what they do have: Rashard [Lewis] and Hedo [Turkoglu] to spread the floor and one of the few legit big guys out there [in Dwight Howard], even though he's not a great scorer. And Jameer Nelson

[Shine88 89]

quote:

East scout on the sleeper in his conference

 

"I think Orlando is the best team in the NBA that's not being talked about. Everyone loves Portland right now, so everyone talks about them. Orlando is racking up the road wins again, and they're going to be a legit player in the Eastern Conference if they can get that No. 3 or [No.] 2 seed and avoid Boston in the second round. I know people say they have no bench, but once you get to the playoffs you only play seven or eight guys anyway.

 

"Look at what they do have: Rashard [Lewis] and Hedo [Turkoglu] to spread the floor and one of the few legit big guys out there [in Dwight Howard], even though he's not a great scorer. And Jameer Nelson

[no_ma'am 0]

averaging 21 pts per game and he's not a legit scorer...i can't wait to see what happens when he becomes legit.

[Kramer 0]

quote:

Originally posted by no_ma'am:

averaging 21 pts per game and he's not a legit scorer...i can't wait to see what happens when he becomes legit.

 

He isn't a legit scorer. He is probably the easiest superstar in the NBA to scheme to stop. Trouble is when you scheme to stop him, it opens it up for all our other good scorers.

 

He doesn't really have a skill set to ever become legit and frankly, we don't need him to be. Just rebound, defend, and score when you can

[Shine88 89]

quote:

We proceed nonetheless after it was brought to our attention that there are nine first-round picks in the 2009 draft owed to someone else as part of a previous trade

[Shine88 89]

quote:

Originally posted by no_ma'am:

averaging 21 pts per game and he's not a legit scorer...i can't wait to see what happens when he becomes legit.

 

He said Howard isn't a great scorer, and he absolutely right. Amare Stoudemire and Tim Duncan is what you call great scoring big men.

[no_ma'am 0]

quote:

Originally posted by Kramer:

quote:

Originally posted by no_ma'am:

averaging 21 pts per game and he's not a legit scorer...i can't wait to see what happens when he becomes legit.

 

He isn't a legit scorer. He is probably the easiest superstar in the NBA to scheme to stop. Trouble is when you scheme to stop him, it opens it up for all our other good scorers.

 

He doesn't really have a skill set to ever become legit and frankly, we don't need him to be. Just rebound, defend, and score when you can

 

lol...you can say that about anyone. If you triple team kobe every time he touches the ball, he would probably be fortunate to get double digits. You can scheme to stop any player...but why scheme to stop them if they aren't legit scorers? I don't care how he gets his points, he gets them and at a very high % i might add and that makes him a legit scorer. If 21 pts at 60% isn't a legit scorer to you, then what is? 25pts at 43%?

[Osprey 199]

At 6 Mil he would definitely be a bargain. However, if he continues to play at the level he is currently on, adding a new wrinkle to his game every month or so, that $8 million contract will look like a bargain, compared to what other PG's in the league make. I may be one of the handful of people on here that want Jameer to be more of an option on offense than he is now.

 

The writer is dead on correct when he says Dwight is NOT a true SCORER. He puts up points. It is an interesting dichotomy and there is a huge difference between the two.

 

When Nolan Ryan came up into the big league, he recorded a lot of strike outs, but he wasn't really a PITCHER yet, he was a THROWER. Same thing can be applied to Dwight.

 

However I do believe one day Dwight will become an elite SCORER as well, and the rest of the NBA will cower in fear when that day comes.

[Kramer 0]

quote:

Originally posted by no_ma'am:

quote:

Originally posted by Kramer:

quote:

Originally posted by no_ma'am:

averaging 21 pts per game and he's not a legit scorer...i can't wait to see what happens when he becomes legit.

 

He isn't a legit scorer. He is probably the easiest superstar in the NBA to scheme to stop. Trouble is when you scheme to stop him, it opens it up for all our other good scorers.

 

He doesn't really have a skill set to ever become legit and frankly, we don't need him to be. Just rebound, defend, and score when you can

 

lol...you can say that about anyone. If you triple team kobe every time he touches the ball, he would probably be fortunate to get double digits. You can scheme to stop any player...but why scheme to stop them if they aren't legit scorers? I don't care how he gets his points, he gets them and at a very high % i might add and that makes him a legit scorer. If 21 pts at 60% isn't a legit scorer to you, then what is? 25pts at 43%?

 

He isn't a legit scorer because a decent defensively team can scheme to stop him a thousand times more effectively than say a Kobe Bryant. Legit scorers have sufficient range to make double teams essentially useless and hurt the defense more than the offense. You can't triple team at a Kobe Bryant because if you throw three defenders at him 20 feet away from the basket, it is an easy pass to the hoop for a lay-up. With Dwight, by throwing defenders at him, all you do is crowd the paint and that opens up shots and that is what teams do. Basicaly triple teaming a legit scorer opens up the paint, triple teaming Dwight clogs the paint.

 

The other evidence that he isn't a legit scorer is that he really can't get hot yet. I mean aside from free throw shooting, its a matter of making lay-ups and hustling for offensive rebounds to get him points. When legit scorers get "hot" they start making the outside jumpers that defenses pray they take, and then they become unguardable. There scheme to stop great scorers is to force them to take jumpers and if they make them, they beat the scheme. If Dwight ever tried that bank shot 5 times a game and he was feeling it that night, he'd become unguardable and then I'll call him a legit top scorer. Until then he plays off of other people and uses good footwork to dominate soft double teams. No complaint here

 

Another point of emphasis that I may be alone in believing is, I don't want Dwight to get a really developped offensive game. I want him to continue to have to earn his points and let everyone around him play off of his athletic post moves. I'd love to see Jameer and Rashard to take up larger roles because when offensive players get to make shots, they apply themselves defensively more. If Dwight can continue to be the leader on this team and play tough defense and rebound no matter what, then we can let our offensive players get what they want and reap the benefits of happy scorers when they are collecting occassional offensive rebounds and defending tougher

[magic berto 0]

IMO, "legit" and "great" mean very different things.

 

21.5ppg can be legit but great? No.

[Secretly Space Jesus 670]

2 points I'll hit really quickly:

 

1) There's a difference between being a "good scorer" and being a "dominant scorer". Dwight is the former. Dirk is the latter. I'm not worried about Dwight being the former because, well, so is Tim Duncan. Scoring is only one way to dominate a game.

 

2) I don't know what planet this scout is living on where Jameer makes 8m this season, but it isn't Earth. Jameer's contract won't hit the 8m mark for 3-4 years. He's making under 6m right now.

[Berto 338]

I'm pretty sure Jameer's only making 5.5 this year.