Re: Whither Chauncey?

[jmc@ptc.com (Jonathan McIntyre)]

Cecil said:
> CB.  He gets an inordinate share of the blame for a low assist total when 
> guys are bombing away from the outside with little or no success.  He's 
> criticized by the color commentator for leaving his feet prematurely and 
> not finishing strongly.  He his flogged because people expect more from 
> the "3rd overall pick in the draft" regardless of the fact that he is 
> being asked to play a position he never played before against the 
> greatest players in the world.

Very well summarized.  I agree that all of the above criticisms are unfair, 
EXCEPT the part about leaving his feet prematurely.  That's something you 
can teach even a high school player not to do.  That's a basic mistake and 
a bad habit to get into, and even Pitino was on Chauncy's case about it, 
but now he's doing it much less, which shows me that he's willing to work 
hard to break old, bad habits. 

In support of the observation of the difficult task Chauncy has, I'd add 
that not only is it a position he's never played, and against the greatest 
players in the world, but it's in defensive and offensive systems which he's 
never played in before, where the defensive system is one of the most 
complicated around and which every player has to master, and on offense, 
he has to master the system more than anyone.  So while Walker, McCarty 
and Mercer already know both the defense & offense and just have to adjust 
to the NBA style of play, and all the other players have been able to focus 
on just learning the defense first, and are now starting to focus on the 
offense, and have already adjusted to NBA play before this year, Chauncy 
has had to learn all 3 at once.  Add in that it's a new position and that's 
4 new things at once he has to learn, while all his teammates have only had 
to focus on learning 1 or in a few cases 2 things at a time. 

Jon Mc