Re: trade for Bulls #1

[j.hironaka@unesco.org]

Richard Manning wrote:

> Richard Hamilton will be a bust as a pro.  He reminds me of Donyell
> Marshall....

Maybe more of a younger Kittles since he shows a true "I'm a guard, damnit"
mentality and is built like a slim jim. If you felt like it, I guess you can
also compare him to Calbert Cheaney. In any case, Hamilton won't go in the top
five picks.

IMO the guy has something all members of the "pure scorers" club seem to have,
which is an ability to salvage a broken drive in traffic by pulling up and
lofting the ball up so that it lands like a pillow on into the basket. Reggie
Lewis had that skill notably on his baseline pull-up, where the ball seemed to
float along its trajectory in slow motion no matter how fast and furious the
action below. Neither guy could finish with quite as much authority as Ron
Mercer, but they both could release a soft, accurate shot off a broken play. I
saw a MSU player named Morris Peterson who also has this skill, although he's
more of a tweener. You really don't see it that often in a star player (it's
almost as rare as the sky hook). Michael Redd doesn't really have it, although
he has every other NBA skill there is.

On a broken attempt to head to the rack, Ron Mercer has to realize he doesn't
need to lean away from his defender and/or move his eyes temporarily or entirely
off the target. The thing that a natural scorer like Reggie Lewis knew was that
whenever a decent leaper like himself closed space on a defender via a hard
dribble and pull up, all he needed to do was shoot a plain jane floating jumper
and no one would block it. You THINK it should get blocked, because the shot
looks way too easy and unforced under the circumstances. But the reality is it
just doesn't happen very often. Whenever you drive at a spot next to the
defender, he or she has a slight chance to time it and make you eat the ball.
But if you have the nerve and natural instinct to drive straight at a defender,
you freeze him and this changes everything.

The great natural scorers seem to sense from one split-second to the next
whether a defender has his weight shifted on his heels or on his toes. That's
why they can take all the sweet time in the world to casually release a shot,
like Bird and McHale, or can perform a work of beauty without any fear of a
blocked shot, like MJ and Julius Erving.

In general, guys who have the athletic talent to drive to the basket should
NEVER worry about a potential block. The more you are timid and/or try to
adroitly avoid contact, the easier it is for the defender to block your shot or
make you look wimpish.

I'm talking "in theory" here. Whenever I pull up for my patented jump shot, you
would have a very hard time sliding a dollar bill between my sneakers and the
floor, even if I bend my knees like Charlie Scott used to.

Joe


p.s. On second thought, Reggie Lewis' jumper wasn't "plain jane". He actually
had a naturally high release point like Robert Parish plus a quick trigger
release like Antoine. Ron Mercer happens to own a truly elegant shot release,
but it is "slow" in the sense that there is a lot of elbow bend. When Mercer
attacks the basket, he might want to move his release point higher by keeping
his arms more fully extended above him. Given a choice, I'd rather he worked
this summer on finishing broken drives with more confidence and intelligence
rather than developing his 3-point shot. Of course, I'd rather he worked on
both. If I were a coach, I'd also make him play point guard against weaker
competition in the summer league, so that he would develop a vision of passing
lanes and wouldn't look so nervous dribbling the length of the floor.

I don't want to argue, but I truly think Antoine Walker is the best combo
dribbler/passer we have on the team. He's become a very proficient dribbler in
1999 and continues to make his niftiest and most accurate passes pushing the
fast break. He doesn't overthrow or underthrow his passes, and he can read and
decipher complicated movement in front of him like Doug Flutie.