Armon=Nick Van Exel?

Speaking of Eric Snow. Nice to see that NBATV finally let him go. He was so awkward, I felt embarassed sometimes for people who had to work with him.

 

But seriously





I've thought he had a little bit of Snow's game to him when I watched him in summer league, but the resemblance makes me wonder if Armon's mom maybe "knew" Eric Snow when they were in high school (if you know what I'm saying).

 

I liked my theory better.

 

If you're implying that all he could do was shoot, I don't agree at all. A younger Nick Van Exel was a scoring combo guard. He had some passing skill, but didn't have a distributor's mindset. But he was a brilliant slasher. He could get to the hoop and finish remarkably well. That's why he got the nickname "Nick the Quick"...because he was nearly impossible to stop one-on-one.

I'd compare Van Exel to a pre-insane Stephon Marbury, though Marbury had better court vision and passing skills. But the scoring game was very similar. Great ability to get to the hoop, lights out shooter.

I just don't see the comparison between Johnson and Van Exel. Armon Johnson really has shown nothing to suggest he will be a great scorer. And he likely will be a better defender than Van Excellent.

 

I should have put pure scorer, instead of shooter. He was basically instant offense. He also ran the pick and roll well. Defensively he wasn't that great.

 

After watching Armon play in high school, and his 3 years at Nevada, I can assure you he's one of the better pick-and-roll PGs in this draft. He had 1 year of playing with Javale McGee at Nevada, and then worked the pick and roll with Babbitt his remaining 2. Armon is great with the alley oop pass to finishing bigs - and his ability to hit the floater opens up that pass. Also, he was one of the best finishing PGs on the west coast his junior year because of his strength.

As many have already found out, AJ is a gym rat and is a sponge when it comes to learning the game. He'll continue to learn and get better.

 

College, summer league, preseason, reports from practice to name a few.

I absolutely love Armon. He is one of my favorite players on the team already because I love his style so much. While I am loving him after limited minutes, I still think it is premature to say he has "the outside shooting ability of Nick Van Exel". He was taken 2 threes. Seriously.

 

I like the Kenny Anderson comparison offensively.. always will be one of my favorite players here. They do have similar offensive games with their ability to create and having an average outside shot (at least at this point in Armon's career).

Armon is like a hybrid of a poor man's Kenny offensively right now and Greg Anthony defensively, IMO.

 

That's a good mashup.

 

Don't be a jerk. The OP is making a valid point, and you're pushing it to ridiculous lengths.

 

Armon shot .167 from the three point line in summer league, and shot .289 in college. Armon is not a good 3pt shooter.

 

Armon can't be Nick Van Exel because Brandon Jennings is Nick Van Exel.

I endorse the Eric Snow-with-a-jump-shot comparison, for several reasons:

Van Exel (like Jennings) was blindingly quick. Armon isn't.
Van Exel (like Jennings) was a chucker. Thankfully, Armon isn't.
Van Exel (like Jennings) was very slight. Thankfully, Armon isn't.
Van Exel (as Jennings was accused of having) had a 'tude. Armon is sweetness and light.
True, all three are left-handed.
Van Exel came from Wisconsin and went to LA. Jennings came from LA and went to Wisconsin.

 

Well, they both went to college in Nevada. But I don't think Armon was president of the Young Republicans while there.

I will be very pleased if Armon has Anthony's game. A bit more shooting and better PG skills, perhaps, but the hounding defense seems to be promising.

 

I think Armon Johnson is a near perfect combination of Pistol Pete, Magic Johnson and John Stockton with a bith of Shawn Kemp thrown in.



Either that or I haven't really seen enough of his game to make an acurate comparison.
I can't decide which.

 

So far he reminds me more of Eric Snow. Nick Van Excel was dangerous and scoring 20 points a game his rookie year, and was much more likely to shoot than pass. His defense was pathetic his whole career.

 

Summer league and college mean nothing.

 

One thing I really like about Armon is his willingness to throw passes from strong side to weak side, and to do it accurately. Not just around the perimeter, but cross court, along the baseline, etc. Just watch him. That's a pass that can lead to a turnover, so it's got a lot of downside if you fuck up. And it has less personal upside, because it often leads to another pass to a corner or the post to an even more open man, meaning it doesn't translate directly into an assist for him. So that willingness isn't really great for his own personal stats, but it's fantastic for team basketball. It's not particularly a clever "highlight" pass. But it's very effective. It keeps defenses from loading up, forcing them off balance.

It's the kind of pass I don't think youngsters like Telfair or even Sergio did much (and Bayless never did). They were too worried about getting yanked because of the potential turnover. Even Miller doesn't do it that much, because I think he's got a natural inclination to want to control the ball more.

Anyway, I don't know that this willingness compares much to Van Exel or any other PG in particular. I just think it's an interesting part of his game. He's making the smart pass that probably harms his assist-to-turnover ratio, instead of holding onto the ball and looking for the sure dime or the conventional short pass.

 

It seems Armon reminds a lot of people of a lot of different PG. I guess the main thing is, he reminds people of a lot of player who in their own right, turned out pretty good for at least a few years. That is what is important, isn't it? If they were saying for instance, that he reminded them of Luke Ridnour, then I would be worried.

 

Yep. That's the main thing. It's been a long time since we had a rookie PG that reminded virtually everyone on this board of a competent veteran PG.