If kaleb plays his cards right, some of these youngster will hold great value. I have to admit that I was one of the biggest Babbitt doubters, but this kid doesn't look half bad. Nolan smith playing crunch time?! Crunch time?! Omg and he handled it well! His d was pretty damn impressive. Let's not forget we have two other youngsters coming in thabeet and Flynn. Could you imagine if kaleb actually found a way to inspire them as well? Could you imagine if kaleb was able to get thabeet to play to his potential? How valuable is that?! And what about Flynn? Wasn't this kid supposed to be a PGotF? If kaleb manages to get these kids to play hard, our trades could not only b an "a", but could arguably be better than kp's draft day decisions when we got Roy and Aldridge. I'm anxiously waiting. We are still in the honeymoon phase of the change. If we are playing inspired ball after 5 games, I may very well believe that we have a shot!
I was mostly with you until the bolded part. Don't get TOO carried away. Prior to a year and a half ago, Roy was All-NBA, and a potential hall of famer, and Aldridge has emerged as potential All-NBA player as well. Expecting Kanales to be able have any of these guys play to that level, or make that type of an impact is a bit much. With that said, I absolutely agree with how important it is to have a coach who can get the most out of his players. If for no other reason, their trade value improves. On top of that though, their confidence in the coaching decisions, teammates, and themselves improves dramatically. I'm most excited to see what he can do with Flynn, but that's mainly because I've been a hopeless bandwagoner for him since his Syracuse days. Looking forward to see what happens!
Interesting stat from the game last night: Tommy Beer: Wow. Per Elias: Before losing to Portland last night, Chicago has won 49 straight regular season games in which they led after 3 quarters. about 18 minutes ago The guys played cool and calm last night, especially down the stretch. That was fun to watch. Even the young guys finally looked like they belonged.
On the road, against the best team in the nba, with them being 0-20 if trailing by the 4th, with Chicago 49-0 when leading by the 4th, and actually looking like they want to win. Yes it's one game, but one hellofa first game.
Playing at Duke has got to count for something. Nolan Smith looks like an NBA player to me and is probably going to get better. Not too sure about Babbitt, he may be a limited role player/shooting specialist.
I never thought he (Babbitt) could even be close to a specialist. That is valuable, especially if he's still on rookie scale. Even if we don't keep him, if he pans out to be a decent "specialist", then his trade value just gets that much better.
I still think Luke has a LONG way to go.. he's got some skills and he hit that big shot down the stretch (his only make), but he still looked a little unsure of himself and where to go on the floor. I like what Rice said in the first half how they talked to him and told him to just let it go and shoot when you're open. That's why he's here. Nolan, meanwhile, was awesome. I loved his game last night. He was really getting after Watson on defense, he was hitting outside shots and allowed Jamal to be the creator and he could spot up and nail the open jumper. He was most impressive to me last night.
It's easy to be enthusiastic after Nate's offense, but keep this in mind. Kaleb introduced a new multi option set, which hadn't been scouted yet. We will be better, but try not to get too excited after one game
Even if Babbitt only becomes an 8th or 9th man, role player type, that's still better than most here thought him capable of. So, I'd take that. We've all heard what a lights out shooter he is and are starting to see flashes of that now that he's getting more minutes, but I've also been impressed with his hustle and especially his rebounding. He's rebounded well elsewhere (college, summer league and NBDL). So, that shouldn't be a surprise. Still you never really know how a skill will translate from one level to the next. If Babbitt can get to the point where he can consistently knock down the open 3 and rebound at an above average rate, that would make him a solid rotation player off the bench. I'd be happy with that from him. I know it's a small sample size, but Babbitt's numbers are all tremendously improved from last season. His PER is now up to 14.2 and rapidly approaching that of an average NBA player. That's compared to a PER = 1.0 last season. He's shooting 0.500 from 3-point range, compared to .188 last year. His per 36 minute numbers and advanced stats are all way up compared to last year: PER: 2011 - 1.0 2012 - 14.2 TS%: 2011 - .305 2012 - .558 eFG%: 2011 - .300 2012 - .514 TRB%: 2011 - 13.4 2012 - 19.3 ORtg: 2011 - 68 2012 - 97 DRtg: 2011 - 107 2012 - 98 WS/48: 2011 - -0.143 (as in NEGATIVE 0.143) 2012 - 0.089 (as in POSITIVE 0.089) PTS/36: 2011 - 9.5 2012 - 15.3 REB/36 2011 - 7.9 2012 - 12.0 Again, very small sample size for both seasons, but his production is definitely trending strongly positive. He's starting to gain some confidence, get used to the speed of the NBA game and starting to look comfortable on the court. As he gets more PT, this trend should continue. Considering all we really gave up to get him was Martell Webster (Current PER = 10.9, Career PER = 11.6. Career High PER = 12.5), maybe it wasn't such a bad trade after all. BNM
Bnm you da man! Those are small sample but impressive stats. What if he can keep at that pace? What value is that?
Solid rotation player. If he can knock down the open 3 and rebound at a better than average rate, he could back-up Batum at the 3 and even get minutes as a back-up stretch 4. Of course, those are two big "ifs", but it is encouraging to see him actually starting to produce in limited minutes compared to last season. BNM
I mean we could very easily have another 2006 type draft where we trade shitty players (Victor Kryapapapapapa/Babbit) for a number 2 pick simply because they played during the end of the 2005 season and showed.....some value....
