Casey Holdahl @CHold We'll be live at around 11 AM on http://www.trailblazers.tv for today's predraft workouts in Tualatin
Ok, I get it. Its a controlled workout, its edited, there are no defenders .. etc etc. But come on. How can you at least not kind of like this guy? And the dream of a PG with range and speed would do such wonders for LMA and the rest of this team. [video=youtube;UyFJOEjZPFw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyFJOEjZPFw&feature=youtu.be[/video]
Chris Haynes @ChrisBHaynes Marcus Denmon, Yancey Gates, Robbie Hummel, Chris Johnson, Arnette Moultrie, Alex Young workout for the #Blazers today.
That Lilliard video is interesting in one respect ... there's a lot of wasted motion in his catch and shoot mechanics (little bunny hops after he catches, and lots of lowering the ball below his waist to gather himself for a shot, etc.)
And I thought he had a low release too. But what do I know . . . and at least he was making them which is more than some of the other workout videos on other players I've seen. Lillard being better than expected is nothing but good for the Blazers who sit in the #6, IMO.
I wouldn't take anything conclusive away from that video about his ability to make the transition to the next level, but it just jumped out at me on the video. With proper coaching and a lot of reps, those "hitches" might be correctable and speed up his release -- which will be important given the jump in competition he's going to face (especially being defended)
It would behoove POR to run a drill that forces him to alter that shot, to see if he can do that, b\c if a defender is there, he doesn't jump real high on his shot and his release point is low, so more than likely if he is guarded he is going to have to adjust that shot...and I would think you would want to know if he can do that... For a guy that tested pretty well athletically he certainly seems to lack explosion, I also question his ability to finish in the paint\absorb contact in the NBA....
Here are more of the shooting drills at the end of the workout from today. [video=youtube;sfNW6ZJwlrE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfNW6ZJwlrE[/video] [video=youtube;3sqvkn-kLwc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sqvkn-kLwc[/video] [video=youtube;F7-_AIc_SQg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7-_AIc_SQg[/video]
Agreed, but you can't take him at 11 can you? I would love to have an extra first rounder to use on him, or a couple other players of interest.
At #11 is reaching... We could probably get his best-case scenario (Jason Thompson) cheap on the FA market.
Probably a reach at 11, but maybe this is a situation where the Blazers can make some kind of trade back?