Gentry mentions Zion, Ingram and Jrue as players who can initiate offense when Lonzo Ball is off the floor.
— Andrew Lopez (@_Andrew_Lopez) October 6, 2019
I would tend to agree with this. Also don't discount NAW, if he gets appreciable minutes.
 |
| . |
|
Gentry mentions Zion, Ingram and Jrue as players who can initiate offense when Lonzo Ball is off the floor.
— Andrew Lopez (@_Andrew_Lopez) October 6, 2019
I would tend to agree with this. Also don't discount NAW, if he gets appreciable minutes.
Basketball.
That is huge. Didn’t notice that. He was at times a man among boys out there. I think we have drastically underestimated his impact as a distributor and a veteran presence.Originally Posted by Pelicanidae
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I think a part of that is just how little most of us (including me!!!) had seen of him. Everyone who seemed more informed seemed to think that he was a really really good pick up.
I don't think his handle looked good enough to actively initiate offense or be ''the ballhandler'' or anything, but against other bigs that ability to put the ball on the floor is going to work just fine, and as a secondary passer he seems to have solid vision and ability. Like you said, if he can execute this stuff against real defense (which he probably can, given his Euro experience) then he should be a productive part of the rotation.
Worth saying. The very first bucket Zion got was a putback as I recall. He caught that ball and got it back up the rim quicker than I recall ever seeing anyone do in person. I’ve been to games for over 20 years. The spring in that kid is unreal. The people standing around just watched, nothing else to be done. Players are going to have to re-time their defensive jump when playing him.
Btw more sour grapes. There was no giveaway. Just a T-shirt cannon. So that was bs. They need to have some organization in their staff and in their advertising of events moving forward. This wasn’t general admission, there was no giveaway, and it didn’t start anywhere close to on time.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
That's part of what people meant when they say he's a generational athlete. It's not just his vertical, although obviously that's impressive, it's that his jump is so quick. And the second leap comes just as high, and just as fast as the first one. He runs the floor, he leaps, he has the insane vertical, he has the quick twitch reactions, he has the lateral quickness. His entire physical presence is unreal. And that's not even getting into his IQ or his handle or his soft finishes around the rim, or his vision and passing ability.
Best draft prospect for 16 years.
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) October 6, 2019
NAW owned this segment.
So nobody mentioned how automatic JJ was? I realize there was basically 0 defense being played, but you can see why hes averaged 17+ points in the last few years. That it one hell of a 6th man to have.
And anybody that says Zion has no post moves needs to be slapped.
And BI should have a serious breakout year. Has too many skills not to. Should even demand the ball more especially when playing with backups.
The way people talk about Zion makes it seem like they've never watched him. Which, given the popularity of his Duke games, I know isn't true. Which means it's a whole bunch of horrible, sour grapes.
I'm gonna rewatch the scrim and post box score
And Zo's shot looked good throughout. Didnt make them all but he only shot about 3 times.
Was a fun relaxed night. Will be fun to watch Monday youngins vs youngins.
Okay so, I rewatched the scrim and took a rough box score. This will not be perfect because of the fact that we missed the first 8 minutes or so of the stream, so I can't count anything that happened in there, and also because there were a handful of plays where the unnecessary play-backs blocked out the entire next possession, so I don't know who to give points to, or assists, or whatever. I also didn't do shooting %ages because that's a whole extra thing to track and I'm lazy, also, all the missed time where I can't judge. This box score is obviously not representative of what will happen in-season: I very much doubt that Moore and Okafor will be our two joint second highest scoreres
But this is what we actually saw, reliably, and can count. Bolded scores are game highs:
White Team:
Zion - 19pts / 7rbds / 2ast / 1st / 1blk
Lonzo - 5pts / 2rbds / 5ast / 1stl
NAW - 7pts / 1rbd / 6ast
Okafor - 11pts / 2rbds
Kenrich - 3pts / 4rbds / 3asts
Melli - 7pts / 1ast
Hart - 2pts / 1ast
Moore - 11pts / 1stl
Jalen Adams - 5pts / 2asts
Blue Team:
Zylan - 8pts / 2rbds
Hayes - 9pts / 3rbds / 1blk
Holiday - 4pts / 4rbds / 6ast
Ingram - 5pts / 2rbds / 1ast
Frank - 7pts / 1ast /
Redick - 6pt
Josh Gray - 6pts / 2ast / 2rbd / 1stl
Kavell BW - 2pts / 3rbds /
thought they looked good out there tonight...the energy was great in the building too.
Throughout?
Zion: You can get a sense even from this game how practices have been going and players have kind of taken a back seat to him. Feels like the front office and during interviews they don’t want to say it to reduce the pressure, but you can just tell from this one game his teammates have already kinda crowned him.
BI: He’s going to get opportunities out there this season. 1 on 1 and Open opportunities. I actually like his personality and fit with this team. Buckets and low maintenance. I’ve watched BI for a while. Personally just watching him and his looseness feels like Duke Ingram. Break out year.
Zo: I’m still skeptical on his shot, won’t lie. Practice, I know. But if he’s not going to knock down open threes, I wish he would at 6-6 atleast add some junk to his game. I watched this game knowing what I’ve always known about Zo. Great facilitator. Great pace pusher. But I wish he would show me more offensively. A driving floater. A post game.
NAW: Naw is ahead of his time I feel. Zo better watch his back. Dude hits open shots, he’s competitive, and he’s a player that always thinks he’s better than everyone.
Jax: Work in progress. Will be much better next season. You can tell he’s got all the tools to be what we think he is. Just needs to learn the game and just gain confidence.
Gotta agree with most of what you've said here, Wow.
This is my view. If you have a team filled with selfless, sharing personalities who defer for the best shot, then it's only natural that the best players end up leading the team. Right now, everyone seems to be playing with a lot of selflessness, and because Jrue barely played, that allowed Zion to really show off tonight. I don't think he'll surpass Jrue in terms of impact as a rookie, because Jrue is an incredibly impactful player, but I wouldn't be surprised if by the end of the season Zion was widely considered the second best player on the team. I'm glad though, that the front office is allowing him to stake that claim with his play rather than announcing it.
I've had my fair share of scepticism surrounding Ingram, and I'm not going to go over it all again, because this forum has frankly seen enough of it for one summer
This is totally my view as well. Not so much with Zo, I feel like Lonzo has enough to his game that sets him apart from NAW that he won't lose his spot to him, but as a backup guard, coming off the bench to spell for Lonzo, I think E'twaun Moore better watch his back. Moore is a very good shooter, but he's not a distributor in any sense, and he's pretty undersized which limits some of his switchability. Has no inside game either, it's either a three or a floater (and admittedly, he does have a nice floater), whereas NAW is much taller, longer, can finish at the rim well, and playmake. NAW's coming for those minutes
Yes
K
Brandon Ingram will be a focal point in halfcourt offense. He's just a very hard cover for most teams. And of course, he can shoot the 3. Thats not an issue and never was.
Zion could be a top 10 player in the NBA sooner than later. He reminds me of LeBron, Jordan, Shaq. He’s probably going to be better than AD eventually.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Being there in person, the thing that stood out the most to me besides the main cast was Josh Gray. I don't know how good he is, but damn his quickness is impressive. He is incredibly shifty with the ball in his hands and his ability to get by guys with just one dribble move really stood out in his fairly limited time on the floor. There aren't a wealth of guys who can consistently get past their guy without a screen in the league, so if he can become that(and since he's one of the two-way guys you'd hope he will), he could be a great bench piece.
Zion has top 10 all time upside.
The sad part of that is that almost nobody ever reaches their top limit. Very few players ever max out their potential, so the odds of him hitting all of his upside are fairly low odds.
The good part of that is that almost nobody ever has that level of upside anyway, and getting one of the very very rare shots at it the absolute most you can ever ask for.
Right now the top ten of all time is currently something like Lebron, Jordan, Kareem, Duncan, Magic, Shaq, Hakeem, Bird, KG, Wilt.
To be a top 10 all time player, Zion would have to have a better career or sustained peak than at least one of those guys. The fact that he has that potential should be thrilling to everyone.
Just watched the game and this was so stupid. Whoever was running that replay needs to be fired.
I wouldn't say fired
But yeah the replays were a bit much. I know there's at least one play that just isn't on my box score at all because they ran a replay and totally blocked the entire possession, so I know someone scored (it was taken out of bounds after) but I don't know who scored it, or if it was a 2 or a 3, or if it was assisted or not.
I agree. I was like...who is this guy. He really stood out.
#PELSLIFE
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote