INDIANA OBSERVATIONS GAME #2
Lets continue some observations from the pre-season.
Julian Wright- was more aggresive with his offenisve game when comapred to the Houston game.Impressed with his reads as he has shown he can deliver "scoring passes" to cutters.Ball gets out of his hands quickly....also like the 2nd and 3rd effort burst to the ball when its on the glass.....10 rebs and 4 assists 2 blocks 8 pts....like how he can reb the ball and lead the break while looking up the floor the entire time....
seems to be alert "off the ball"......in time he will hit that comfort zone....hard worker.....his length last night caused some problems for the Pacers...traps and pressure up the floor.....good game for him
Ryan Bowen- nothing fancy at all about his game...eternal motor...4-6 fg's 6 rebs..9 pts ( 1-4 ft's was not good)....like a pain in the neck bug bite he runs....rotates....throws the swing pass and does things w/o the ball...cuts ..screens..battles....took it to the basket of the dribble last night which seemd to surprise the Pacers.....could make a nice 8-9th man...
Marcus Vinicius- while you love his length and peope skills he still seems to be stuck in that " do i shoot it mode" has to be able to use that wing span to get to the rim off the bounce and add the pull up game.... 2-9 fg 6 pts..that aggressive offensive mind set comes and goes....on the defensive end still making a few mental mistakes " more attack" mentality is needed....
still looking to get inthe flow of the offense.....needs to step it up.
Trey Johnson- decent handle...can he run the nba pick and roll and what can he do out of it ? could score in college and is a tough kid but at this level you want to see him run the offense..get foul line to foul line in the open floor and find people...24 minutes last night...3-8...0 ft's..1 assist ( team shot poorly) 6 pts and 3 turns....can he beat someone out for a spot ?
Paul...Pargo...Jackson..all can play the point....
Adam Haluska- DNP last night but based on the Houston game its obvious he knows the game and can deliver the open jumper..not alot of wasted motion in his game...heady player.....will learn more about his defense..impressed with how quickly he seems to pick up the offensive schemes.....system is suited for his style of offensive game.....moves w/o the ball...shares it....
handle is good enough..will observe more in open floor situations...
Team- slow start....Pacers 24-8 2nd chance way to much....20 off rebs ouch ! shooting the ball in first two games is a problem but that i expect will work it self out as guys get the timing worked out etc.....like game 1 the 2nd half displayed more hustle...( need that earlier)....keep in mind some odd combinations are on the floor as the coaches are evaluating certain players....defense still way behind....off the ball is way to soft and the alert switch hasn't gone on yet.....combinations again have to be considered...as the young ones learn it will get better.
will monitor the scoring as combinations begin to sort themselves out.......could be a very nice team......more later after the Suns game...
questions ???
GV
PS open shooters must shoot for a solid % as chris paul is going out of his way to set people up....looking to make players comfortable.another sign of a pure point guard with leadership skills.