Re: Walkers Shooting % (fwd)

[Fung Yee Danny Lim <dlim@utkux.utcc.utk.edu>]

Maturity on the court is not a function only of age but, I think, of
experience. It would not be fair to do so because at the time, Walker
would have had what, four years experience in the NBA as opposed to one
for Bird. According to your train of thought, a player that stays in
college for four years should have exactly the same rookie stats as the
same player after four years if he chooses to come out after high school.
That's a little hard to swallow. I mean, I don't think Kevin Garnett would
be putting up the numbers he's putting up now were he to attend two years
of college and come out last year. Of course, it's impossible to say.
Remember also that Bird improved the Celts from 29 wins to 61 wins in one
year. Now don't get me wrong Vinny, I love Walker's play, but I think
Walker-Bird comparisms are premature. ;) - Danny

On Tue, 2 Dec 1997, Vinny Natale wrote:

> I still maintain that you must take into account that at this stage of
> Larry Bird's career, when he was the same age as Antoine, he was just
> starting his junior year of college!  
> 
> I say compare Antoine's stats two years from now to Bird's rookie stats!
> 
> Vinny
> 
> 
> At 03:38 PM 12/2/97 -0500, Fung Yee Danny Lim wrote:
> >
> >
> >---------- Forwarded message ----------
> >Date: Tue, 2 Dec 1997 13:38:56 -0500 (EST)
> >From: Fung Yee Danny Lim <dlim@utkux.utcc.utk.edu>
> >To: celtics@igtc.com
> >Subject: Re: Walkers Shooting %
> >
> >
> >C'mon Dan, there's no way Bird can be compared with Walker. One of Bird's
> >best attributes was that he scored a lot of points while shooting at a
> >very high percentage. This year, Walker is shooting at 41.9 %. For a
> >forward, that is exceedingly low. Bird, at the time, was the first player
> >in history to shoot over 50 % from the field and over ninety percent from
> >the line in the same season. For the most part, Bird shot either above or
> >close to fifty percent from the field while scoring over 20 points a game.
> >At the tail end of his career, why people were getting on him so much,
> >saying that he was only a shadow of his former self, besides his declining
> >numbers, was his FG percentage. Even then, he shot about 45.4%. Compare
> >that to Walker, about 43 % last year and 42 % this year. He really has to
> >improve his shot selection a bit. I'd be happy were he able to improve it
> >to about 47 % or about where Scottie Pippen's  at. Sorry for coming down
> >on you like that, but just putting things in perspective. - Danny
> >
> >On Tue, 2 Dec 1997, Dan wrote:
> >
> >> Walker is taking a lot of shots, so who else has shown any consistency. I
> >> seem to remember a "gunner" named Larry Bird, who also shot for a low
> >> percentage, although not as bad as Walker, his shots will get better
> >> w/developement. 
> >> 
> >
> >
> >
>