I'm watching the Philly summer league game and just watched 2 back-to-back plays that you would have swore was Brandon! Slow motion crossover finish with the left! This kid is the real deal!!!!!
Did they call an ISO for him, or did he actually catch the ball off of a screen? Did he hurt a meniscus in the process? These are things that need to be answered before we can compare him to Roy
I watched until halftime, he did well. He even played well while in foul trouble. It seemed to me though that a lot of players were still breaking the rust off in this game. Favors also showed some of his game. At times he dominated the backboard. Exactly the way you want your PF to operate.
Philly tries playing Turner as point. Result? Utah up 64-32 after 3, and Turner has six points. Ouch.
I think Turner will be OK in time, but so far I haven't been all that impressed with anything he does. I know a lot of people have compared him to B-Roy, but B-Roy is actually athletic but just doesn't play that way -- Turner posted a 34 inch max vert compared to Roy's 40
Nik, you hit upon one of the favorite parts of Brandon's game: the reserve athleticism. He just lulls you to sleep, pulls some herky-jerky moves and only when none of those work does he just blow by you or dunk over you.
Yup. Turner on the other hand doesn't appear to have a well to dip into when he can't get his stuff to go. Brandon without the ability to surprise people probably never makes an all-star game.
Turner must improve his shooting because he isn't showing that has the first step or tight handles to get to the basket consistently in the NBA. Right now it just takes him too long and with too many dribbles to get where he needs to get on the court. Still think he can become a solid player in the end but he obviously wasn't as NBA ready as most people thought coming out of OSU.
You nailed it. I was lukewarm on Roy in the 2006 draft, because I thought he was lacking in upside. What I didn't know was that he had elite athleticism. He didn't display it, really, in college. A year and a half ago or so, I read an article about how Roy was a high-flyer and elite dunker in high school, and that was the "aha!" moment for me...the reason why I, personally, missed on him so badly as a prospect. Had I known then that he had such athleticism (I don't recall his pre-draft measurements being talked about much...I read this community just as much back then, but was unaware of his vert), I would have been much more interested in Portland drafting him. If Turner only has Roy's polished game but not the elite athleticism, his ceiling is much more capped.
'Melo's game was always a power game, imho - if LeBron was not in the league - everyone would have gone gah-gah over how physical for a SF 'Melo is. Vert' is not that big of a deal if you can bully people going to the paint as 'Melo does. If Turner's game really is more of a methodical, skill game - as Roy's is, but he lacks his athletic explosiveness - he is going to have a useful career, but not very likely - an automatic all-star berth as Roy will probably continue to have as long as he stays healthy.
I believe they tried to play him at point guard most of the summer league, then turned him loose in the last game. I might be mis-remembering that though.
I think you are right. He spent most of the early part of the summer league game trying to set our SG of the future - Martell Webster - up.
