I thought Babbitt would be "that guy". One of the more surprising developments of the year has been his inability to even see the floor. I watched him play in the NCAAs, and thought he was really coordinated for a guy his size. Smooth stroke, could post up a little, could face up and shoot/go the basket, or he could sit out on the wing and catch/shoot. Then I read his scouting report on nbadraft.net (see link below), and I thought this is no Luke Jackson. Combine results: 4th overall in vertical, 4th in agility, did well in strength testing. Dude seemed to have the athletic ability to go along with his size and coordination. I expected an immediate impact guy in the Travis Outlaw mold. He hasn't looked good when he's gotten PT, but then again he hasn't gotten enough PT to show us anything. We're left to assume he's just not that good. If he were, surely Nate would have played him more, especially when you think about how thin our rotation was. Wasted pick I guess. He's just been a total non-factor. Can't blame it on Nate not playing rooks either. Over the last 2 seasons we saw 2nd Rounders Cunningham & Pendy log meaningful minutes. When you watch Luke shoot the ball on Youtube highlights, and you look at his college % (50% FG/40% 3Pt FG, 90% FT) you wonder why he hasn't even gotten a sniff. I've assumed that his defense must be just atrocious. For a team that has been near the bottom of the league all season in FG/3Pt FG Percentage, why wouldn't you give a guy with his credentials a look? http://www.nbadraft.net/forum/perplexing-luke-babbit
Yes I know they are streaky. But the point I am making is, streaky isn't considered good in the world of outside shooting. Streaky means you have to get lucky to get anything from the outside from these guys. Do you want a team built to get lucky, or a team that knows it is going to get it done?
And if all of your "shooters" are streaky, then you need a WHOLE LOTTA luck. Bad shooting is contagious, especially for our up/down guys.
We can't shoot because the game is coming hard for us. If you noticed the "miami game" you saw that we were able to get the paint scoring going from the start to finish. Also, bad shooting is contagious. If we only have Aldridge as the inside player, then when he has an off-night, the entire team suffers. We need to get Wallace to work in the post, or at least cut to the basket more. Maybe have like 3-5 different ways to establish the paint early in the game. Once we get these easy buckets, the outside shots will fall. I do agree this is seriously frustrating. Watching the last game was embarrassing. We couldn't make a shot if our life depended on it.
Travis Outlaw, immediate impact? Outlaw played a total of 19 minutes and scored 8 points in 8 games his rookie season. So far, Babbit has played 100 minutes and scored 23 points in 21 games as a rookie. If anything, Babbit has had a bigger immediate "impact" than Outlaw did. Maybe Babbit will eventually breakout and becomne a decent NBA bench player, like Outlaw did, but neither player had an immediate impact as rookies. BNM
