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I still think the Tony Parker comparison is the most accurate. Struggled mightily his rookie year but showed that great first step. What does Parker have that Rivers can't develop? If I was his coach, that is the guy I make him watch tape on every day
@mcnamara247
I was impressed tonight. I wanna see more. I'm not gonna get excited till I see this more often. But I loved what I saw.
What did he do. The one time i fall asleep twice i mess them winning a game. Yeh i seen't that thread on realgm earlier today
Ballin
It is not just because of last night, but he is going to be a great player, once this season is over. compare his stats to Harden's his rookie year. i have a feeling they are going to look very similar if not better.
You guys can't be serious saying Rivers is anywhere near Lillard right? Lillard has the ball in his hands 100% of the time, and runs the first team offense and always faces the first team defense. That's a little different than Rivers running the 2nd team offense for the Hornets. I'm as big a Rivers fan as you'll find, but lets b real here. I think he has all the potential in the world, but he's no where near Lillards level YET.
I was against the Rivers pick as my impression watching him at Duke was that he was a ball-dominating chucker and we have one of those already. I wanted to trade back and take young big to pair with AD (Zeller or Leonard) so they could grow together, and worry about picking up backcourt scoring later because it's easier to find than big talent.
Watching Rivers struggle at the point in summer league didn't do much to change my mind. But his play so far this season has. He looks like a young kid not quite ready for the rigors of the NBA, but I've been impressed by his attacking instincts, his passing and ball handling, and his grit and apparent love of the game. Ideally, he'd be backing up Gordon at the two this year allowing him to grow into his role. And I think he's looked much better coming off the bench for Mason. If I was Monty, I'd stick with that rotation. Let Rivers play with the second unit and find his game. Despite his slow start and below-average numbers, I'm actually much more encouraged by Rivers now than I was on draft day. It would by really interesting to see him paired with Gordon down the line, two slashing hybrid guards and no true point. I wonder if it would work?
He's not Lillard. He's Austin. Lillard is older and has a bit more experience at his position. Let Austin do his thing. He hasn't been playing all that well early in his rookie season but as I said a few days ago, as long as we see some kind of improvement and growth, that's all we can ask for right now. Sit back and wait a minute.
"The guy without a discernable NBA skill"
He's changing some people mind !
"I go so hard, I go so mean... I'm so NEW ORLEANS" - Lil' Wayne"We not stopping at no stores man ! We staying on the gas !" - Tyreke Evans
Yeah I know, but can you like me hear the sound of revenge ?!
Trying to be patient. I like the fact that he's playing smart
We didn't draft him for the fact that he is the best, but for the fact that he has a good head on his shoulders and a willingness to do what it takes to become the best
Actually, it means a whole lot. Lillard is a straight up chucker, and that isn't a good thing. Rivers is passing up a lot of questionable looks that Lillard would definitely take, and that makes him more efficient IMO. It shows that Rivers is doing a lot of maturing because he would have definitely taken those shots at Duke.
Lillard us putting up nice raw numbers, but he isn't having a "great rookie season" by any stretch of the imagination. Defense is horrible, doesn't get his teammates involved much (assists don't mean anything), and he is chucking like crazy.
Were you watching last night's game at all? Rivers looked great last night for us. He didn't take any bad shots, he was involving others, and he was playing defense (for the most part). Basically, all the things you look for in a PG. He was one of the fastest players on the court, he made 3-4 3 pointers, all with only 1 turnover. I think that's good for a lot of players, but especially a 20 year old rookie.
What's more noticeable for me is his vision. He has made a couple of passes that Vasquez never sees when he's handling the ball off the pick n roll. I think he will be just fine at the point with more experience.
Just to add to that, the one 3 pointer that he did miss was because someone (can't remember who) passed him the ball with like 2 seconds left, and he had to throw it up from 8 feet behind the 3-point line.
Rivers' vision is light years ahead of Lillard's vision. I am completely appalled by how much better Rivers' point guard instincts are than I thought they would be coming out of college, and I was one of his biggest fans on this forum. I knew he would start to develop in this area, but I didn't think he would do it this quickly. It's a testament to his natural basketball instincts and his extremely high basketball I.Q.
Maybe that's what the coach is asking him to do though. Saying assist mean nothing is not fair to do just for the sake of your argument. They are meaningful, some more than others. I agree Lillard is a scoring point, which is what i said before the draft, but thats what they drafted and maybe it's what they want.
"I don't know if people know — I dislocated my pinkie finger. And [Tyreke] told me, 'You wanna go home or you wanna be here?' I want to be here. And he said, 'All right, then go tape it up and let's play. Let's go. We not stoppin' at no stores. Straight gas. That's what we do, just keep going.'"
http://thebasketbawlblog.com/
1 good game does not mean he's had a better season than Lillard, yeah he played good and is showing some promise, but honestly he has had an overall terrible season so far (if we are judging him as a player right now, which slim was doing saying he has played better than Lillard)
Last edited by speedyG; 11-27-2012 at 04:18 PM.
It's been discussed on this forum before, but the summary of the argument is that an assist is an ambiguous stat. It doesn't account for the fact that an assist can either be a great pass to set up a teammate for a score OR a horrible pass where the teammate just makes a great play. Lillard has LMA on his team, so I'm sure more than half of his assist come from just feeding it to him in the post.
His assist %, which is much more accurate, is below 30%, which is absolutely horrendous for a PG. His 16.3% TO rate is pretty bad too, and he has a defensive rating of 112 (not good).
The Lillard/Rivers comparisons are a little out of control. For one, Lillard has been given the ball from day 1 and told to do his thing. GV is our facilitator and Rivers has had to earn his minutes. It's tough to say where Rivers would be if he was told he's the starting PG from day 1. One thing though that makes me believe is that he is obviously the best ball handler on our team with EG out. When they started pressing last night, we pretty much HAD to rely on Rivers cause Vasquez is just too slow to handle ball pressure well at all. You can teach offense and defense. You can't teach athleticism, footspeed, handles. Rivers has all 3.
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