The Magic just signed him today. I've watched some shit on YouTube and he looks good. Will he start for us? Strengths and weaknesses? Should I be pumped?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Swish @ Jul 8 2008, 05:44 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>The Magic just signed him today. I've watched some shit on YouTube and he looks good. Will he start for us? Strengths and weaknesses? Should I be pumped?</div> I'd say Tervor Ariza would be a decent comparison. He's a freak athlete, streaky shot, can be a great on ball defender, not much real basketball skill. He shouldn't start; he's effective in limited minutes becuase if you leave him out there too long he gets out of control and makes stupid plays. He has no bball IQ whatsoever. His patented move is catching the ball in the corner and then stepping out of bounds as he starts to drive. It's really quite impressive how many times he did this without thinking he should either catch the ball on step farther in or just not step backwards. For this same reason he can't be in at the end of games. He may make a great play but then commit a stupid foul or turnover and give it right back. They won't even be the fouls you can live with where he is just trying too hard and get overly aggressive but the fouls where you end up screaming at the TV "WTF, what were you thinking!" He'll be a fan favorite though because of his athleticism, personality, and penchant for hitting shots at the end of the quarter or half. All in all, decent signing, but not someone who will part of the core of a team.
Pros: Athletic High-Energy Player Good Man-to-Man D Good shot blocking (from being athletic) Shoots baseline 3 pretty good GREAT personality, very funny Cons: Low Basketball IQ Tries to do too much sometimes Nicknamed "French Michael Jordan" Below-average handling Below-average mid-range shot Thinks he can shoot the baseline 3 pretty good
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>I'd say Tervor Ariza would be a decent comparison.</div> I think we all know what Swish thinks of Ariza...Brian...
Not much more I can say that hasn't already been said. Hes dumb as a post but in my estimation as great of an overall athlete as there is in the league. Pros; rebounds well for his size, blocks shots well for his size, runs the floor like a deer, great attitude and really brightens the mood in the locker room. Cons; wildly inconsistent- some games hes drilling every shot he takes and driving to the rim like Wade, other games hes floating around clanking wide open shots, sometimes his defense is top notch, most of the time he can't help but foul because he reaches in so damn much. His corner 3 can be very good when he gets it going. GS fans used to think he was gonna be the answer at SG and that we should have run J-Rich out of town ASAP but he hasn't improved much at all over the years. I don't think hes worth an MLE deal but I suppose he does fill a need for the magic(?). I probably would have just stuck with the less-flashy but also significantly cheaper Mo Evans or Keith Bogans. They aren't homerun hitters like Pietrus can be some games but you know what you're getting from them night in and night out and they'd come at a fraction of the price. Another quick note- he seems to commonly get nagging injuries. Partly because he plays a reckless style but partly because hes just not that durable.
Pros: Great attitude Great athleticism, can throw down follows and come out of nowhere for the monster block Great effort Pretty decent defender, especially on perimeter Cons: No basketball IQ (yeah that stepping out of bounds thing) Poor FT percentage Bad handles Godawful fouls; will bail out shooters at the absolute worst time; just stupid fouls He showed some ability to pull up and shoot jumpers but he was told to play the spot up corner 3 and he did it. To me he's at his best cutting to the basket but he never could put it together, either guys did not look for him or he did not know when to cut. Will I miss him? Not really. It was painful to watch at times. He's a wonderful person and personally I wish him the best because he always played hard and that's all I can ask of a professional player.
When he plays hard and keeps it simple, he's a great asset. When he's goes beyond what his ability is, he becomes as others have said, painful to watch. I forgot to mention that along with his blocking ability, he's a good rebounder too...this is all in part due to his athleticism.
Run BJM, we didn't sign him for the full MLE. Otis said we were either gonna sign Maggette to the full MLE or sign two players with it. Maggette focused on the Spurs and Celtics so we signed Pietrus and then saved some money to resign Keyon Dooling or pursue one more guy.
Man, Pietrus got paid! His starting salary is $5.2 mils, so if it's 5 years deal, he will get roughly 7 mils per year. Didn't think he will make more than 3 mils per year. Yeah, like everybody else said, he is a superb athlete with no brain. Somewhat like more athletic and less smart Bowen. Give him small number of task, and he will do very well. But, if you expect him to be an all-around player, it is not going to be pretty...
I think Pietrus will help out Orlando. He's a good player. He gets lots of minor injuries here and there. So he is inconsistant that way, and also with his focus and such. But overall he is a decent player off the bench to add some defense, grab some boards, make some shots, run the court.
Sorry to break it to you Alex, but the mistakes this guy makes could kill a game for you. He may be good for a few threes and some energy, but he gets over confident and takes fadeaways like he's Kobe. On defense, he is good, but he fouls too much and plays with a low ass IQ. When he is motivated (like he was in the end of the season), he could be a very good player, but most of the time, he's not much.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Legacy @ Jul 9 2008, 12:39 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Sorry to break it to you Alex, but the mistakes this guy makes could kill a game for you. He may be good for a few threes and some energy, but he gets over confident and takes fadeaways like he's Kobe. On defense, he is good, but he fouls too much and plays with a low ass IQ. When he is motivated (like he was in the end of the season), he could be a very good player, but most of the time, he's not much.</div> Well, what would one expect of him, He is the French Michael Jordan. He should be shooting more Fade Aways than Kobe to carry that nickname with honour.
In short, his effort and althleticism will be the difference maker in a few wins, his mistakes and bonehead plays will the difference maker in a few losses.
He's got one of the best personalities in the league. Fans will love him for that. He's a fun, care-free, energetic player who loves to play the game. Unfortunately, he's a knucklehead, who will commit the same type of charge three times in one quarter because the defender figured out his one and only move. He also steps out of bounds on the corner three about %50 of the time. But he's a good guy and plays hard.
he also dances pretty good: [video=youtube;aDnk-jrpJgc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDnk-jrpJgc"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDnk-jrpJgc[/video] [video=youtube;VDioJuUopsg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDioJuUopsg"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDioJuUopsg[/video]
Pietrus is pretty productive when given minutes, but it's certain intangibles that really cost the Warriors big time. I guess one of those would be his timing when it comes to certain plays. At times, when you don't want this guy to do something, he just goes and does it and the worst outcome just happens for the entire team. Like for instance reach-in fouls, traveling violations, or turnovers can happen with this guy at any time more often than any other Warrior player that doesn't primarily handle the ball or guard the other team's best perimeter player. And in highly important situations... watch out. He might just jack a team over. Another thing is he was very clutch at times when we needed an instant scorer but his scoring ability is so streaky, so raw and mainly driven by his quickness (he's athletic, but he's also one of the quickest footed guys you'll find at 6'6"). Because he doesn't have much outside of quickness, you'll find this guy running over defenders because good defenders simply know where to be ahead of him and end up beating his quickness with better smarts. He'll also try to shoot the 3 a lot since he has very little in the midrange game. The midrange game requires a little more finesse, playsets, knowledge of how to create separation, and offensive awareness. Pietrus is almost strictly an open court player. He just doesn't shoot the midrange game or effectively attack the paint in the halfcourt. Compared to other super athletes, think of Pietrus as either rebounds, steals, dunks or 3 pointers and the occasional block so think of Rodney Carney/Gerald Green type of guys. But in getting those stats at the end, it came at a price like an untimely turnovers, a bad shot selection that completely missed everything, or whatnot. It can be disrupting to team ball. What some fans of Pietrus might like is that he's highly energetic and can make some plays that slower athletes cannot. He's definitely an nba body that has the quickness to even guard some point guards at 6'6". What some haters of Pietrus might not like is he plays the game so dangerously and at only one speed (super fast) and therefore never takes advantage of his athleticism/quickness (what a real basketball player is supposed to do is read the defender and then make adjustments to tempo, direction, strategy. A guy like Pietrus already has his mind made up on what he's going to do rather than react on-the-fly to the defender playing him). He doesn't adjust the tempo of his playing style so that he can fake defenders, lull them to sleep or cause them to overplay on an angle. The reason why it seems like he's spilling on to the floor a lot is he's trying to make risky moves to the basket where a layup or a pullup jumper would have been more advisable. If he was looking to get fouled, he'd still play it a lot safer and not topple over so much. I think at times he was trying to make play where the play wasn't there but because he was so quick, he often makes up for it with an unnecessary cost to his body. So at one time he did have potential to be a star type of player because of his athleticism, but he just didn't have the early basketball fundamentals or the nba-speed type of common sense to make up for it. He's just not very natural, so his game never looks that smooth. With the way the guy plays, you better worry about injury problems... He does have two go-to moves that looked awesome and he did it two big name players. He's got this move where he does a crossover hesitation a la Kobe Bryant and he just goes straight down the middle to the rack in about 3 steps and dunks over Dirk Nowitzki. Then he's got the pump fake on the triple threat position and he goes right around his defender to go at Dikembe Mutombo (but this time going baseline). He beats Mutombo on the weakside help for a slam dunk. Obviously, there aren't too many players who can do that against a 7'3" shotblocker within a few steps of the hoop. Like fans have mentioned before, if the game is kept simple like a catch and shoot, man-to-man defense type of scheme Pietrus is very good. Anything more than that, he's easily exposed for what he is. He is capable of being an all-star at the lower levels of basketball. So I think if he was coached better maybe his basketball IQ would have increased a bit and he wouldn't have these problems at the nba level. This also explains how he can be very good at times and very bad. It's like an up or down thing. Sometimes he does things pretty badly where if you looked only at stats, and you'd think he was a decent player because he's pretty productive in things like rebounding, some scoring, hitting 3's, getting a steal or a block.
