I've seen Stotts AND Olshey interviewed in Summer League now, and BOTH of them talked about an expanded role for Evan Turner. So, sorry Turner-haters - he's around for the duration.
Maybe by "expanded role" they mean as a mentor to the younger guys who are going to be stealing his minutes. A guy can dream... BNM
When it was first announced I thought the Turner signing was okay. A necessary overpay, but okay. I don't think that anymore.
Unfortunately, shooting isn't one of them. In today's NBA, if you can't shoot, defenses just sag off of you, guard the passing lanes and focus their attention on the guys who can shoot. BNM
Me, too. We needed another ball handler/distributor who was also big enough to guard the guys Dame and C.J. can't. After experimenting with midgets like Tim Frazier and Brian Roberts I was curious to see what we could do with a third guard with size. Unfortunately, Turner's lack of shooting killed any hope of him being the answer to our problems. Instead his contract quickly became one of our biggest problems. BNM
Ah yes Neil’s trick of doubling down on his stupid moves. Hey Leonard’s playing like crap let’s give him 40 mil! Hey ET can’t shoot in a system that needs shooters, lets play him more, that’ll do it.
I disagree, that's just it, they don't. I think if your other skills.....court vision, passing, etc. are strong you can overcome that. There is no excuse for a defender to get up tight on a player who can't shoot (Evan, Ball and Simmons) for example. Thats what makes Ball and Ben's triple doubles that much more impressive. They got those even though they CAN'T shoot. If you put Turner with that perfect combo of players out there, I think he can succeed.
I don't think Turner's lack of shooting is the problem. Brad Stevens made good use of him, and then followed it up by almost getting to the finals with TOTAL non-shooter Marcus Smart. What Stotts and Olshey both said is that surrounding him with shooters is going to help.
Simmons may not have 3-point range on his jumper, but he shot well enough (.551 2FG%) to average almost 16 ppg as a rookie. I would not put him in the same category as Turner (Simmons is so much better in all areas), or your favorite Ball brother (who will never be a good shooter unless he fixes that broke ass form). I seem to recall you were a big Kendall Marshall fan, too - another guy with great court vision who couldn't shoot to save his life. Any idea what he's up to these days. It's not playing in the NBA, that I know. BNM
If he could just produce, he could be valuable. He has skills that not many others have on the team. Maybe an expanded role will provide more consistency in him. If we could get 15/6/3 out of him, we would be MUCH better.
Last year he averaged 8.2 ppg in 25.7 mpg. Do you really want him taking enough shots to average 15 ppg? If so, who should he be taking these shots from? I'm not convinced having Evan Turner as our 3rd leading scorer makes us MUCH better - if at all BNM
There was no doubt we needed a 3rd ball handler coming off the Clipper & GS series that year. Once they started to trap we looked bad. Although Plumlee helped out on occasion. But there is also no doubt that Stott's system is not ideal for ET. But he is still a solid defender.
