leon

[Kim Malo]

At 12:16 PM 2/9/2008, steve knight wrote:
>someone tell me why leon was a dnp for so long? that kid is tough as 
>nails and will have a long nba career. i'd love to see him perfect a 
>15-foot shot. he reminds me of the sage advice that if you hustle, 
>good things happen.

Reportedly difficulty understanding the plays and defensive sets, 
which seems to be somewhat backed by the recent posts from a Cs 
practice seeing that as still somewhat of an issue. He did look lost 
and out of place a lot on the court last season, and regularly had 
his shot stuffed on offense until he learned a bit better, so between 
that and the practice report, seems there might be some credibility 
to the claims that that was the basic problem. Other than PF game in 
SF body, of course.

>funny to hear the announcers talking about the little things scal 
>does, then look at the box and see that he he had a goose egg in the 
>scoring department.

OK, now don't get this wrong, because I'm not defending Scal in the 
slightest or even agreeing about those "little things" and their 
worth, but aren't you comparing apples and oranges The "little 
things" they're pumping up are exactly the antithesis of things like 
scoring and other box score stats. Can't watch a game by the boxscore 
anyway. You really can't. Or if you can, then you don't care about 
the game itself, just accumulating fantasy league-type stats. Hell, 
IMO you can't even really watch the game on TV because of how much 
they focus the cameras on the ball rather than all the other things 
that go into the play.

>rondo's jumper is looking much better. he'll never be a flat out 
>shooter, but all he needs is a little respect for the jumper to open 
>up his drives. i see that kid shining in the playoffs.

Which means he has to be willing to take it even more than make it. 
They don't need to actively respect it so much as not be so positive 
he won't take it that they can use his man to double someone else or 
cheat in the lanes. That's another area where confidence plays into 
it with him - when not confident he not only misses more, but unlike 
a pure shooter like Ray, he won't take them either.

Kim