Nate 2.0?

Nikolokolus · Jun 18, 2010

We talk all the time about what kind of point guard this team needs and it's been mentioned a couple of times that what Nate would probably like best is the second coming of himself: a big point guard with defensive potential who can shoot from outside. Is it just me or does this guy remind anyone else of Nate as a player?

Mikhail Torrance:
http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Mikhail-Torrance-5846/
http://insider.espn.go.com/nbadraft/draft/tracker/player?draftyear=2010&playerId=19549

He's projected to fall somewhere around our 44th pick; sounds like a reasonable target in the second round to me (assuming they look to the draft to take yet another point guard)

TripTango · Jun 18, 2010

Nice find -- could be an interesting prospect. Height, passing, shooting, ambidexterity... plenty of potential in there.

craigehlo · Jun 18, 2010

Was Nate a good PG? I seem to remember a guy by the name of Payton being the lynchpin of any success the Sonics had.

Nikolokolus · Jun 18, 2010

craigehlo said: ↑

Was Nate a good PG? I seem to remember a guy by the name of Payton being the lynchpin of any success the Sonics had.
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You mean like Brandon, Nic or Oden?

Nate was pretty good ... he wasn't the glove, but he was pretty good.

Nikolokolus · Jun 18, 2010

An interesting analysis of his performance at Portsmouth by Jonathan Givony:

Perhaps the player with the best long-term upside of any prospect seen in Portsmouth, and clearly the one who made the biggest jump in draft stock comparing where he started and ended the camp, Mikhail Torrance had an excellent week any way you slice it.

Torrance has great physical tools for either guard position, standing 6-5, with a nice frame, long arms and excellent athleticism. He did a great job putting pressure on the defense all week long, getting to the basket time after time with his powerful long strides and showing terrific creativity running the pick and roll and finding the open man off the dribble. The fairly wide open nature of this setting benefited him greatly, as he looked very comfortable showing off his passing skills and terrific court vision and was able to make some very impressive plays in every game he played.

The aggressive slashing mentality Torrance shows—rarely will he hesitate to take the ball to the basket with a full head of steam—combined with his size and quickness make him very intriguing prospect in today’s NBA. He collected a large number of assists and got to the free throw line at a great rate, helping negate the fact that he’s not a great finisher around the basket.

He dishes the ball in a variety of ways, be it with fancy bounce passes, creative lobs, bullets through the teeth of the defense, or simple, fundamental kickouts. A willing distributor, it’s fairly rare to see a converted wing player embrace the point guard position so thoroughly, as the talent he shows passing the ball is clearly innate.

Fairly turnover prone, Torrance coughs the ball up a lot more than you’d hope, at times stretching the limit of his creativity and at times simply making unforced errors that hint at his inexperience running the position.

A very unorthodox player, Torrance drives left almost exclusively (77% of his drives go in this direction according to Synergy Sports Technology) despite the fact that he’s right-handed. He looks highly uncomfortable finishing with his right hand around the basket, often switching awkwardly to his left even when the play doesn’t call for it. With that said, he shoots jumpers and free throws with his right hand, and when asked which one he prefers, jokingly says that it “depends on what day it is.”

As a shooter, Torrance is improvable, particularly in catch and shoot situations, where he’s not particularly consistent. He has excellent shooting mechanics, getting very nice elevation on his jump-shot and being able to create separation nicely from his defender in the mid-range area in particular, but can still improve his consistency, which would benefit him greatly. At his size, he’ll likely be asked to spend some time playing off the ball as well, so it would benefit him to show that he can be relied upon as a spot-up threat.

Defensively, Torrance has excellent potential thanks to his size, length and lateral quickness, but his average fundamentals render him not as effective as he could be in this area. He often looks too upright in his stance and gets beat off the dribble more than you’d like, swiping at the ball and gambling in the passing lanes more than you’d like him to. Better coaching and more experience could make him an excellent defender in time if he’s willing to put his mind to it, and considering his likely role-player status, could be the difference between being a rotation player and not sticking in the NBA at all.

All in all, Torrance is an intriguing prospect that came out of this camp with quite a bit of buzz thanks to his excellent performance. He went through quite a bit of turmoil in his four years at Alabama, with coaching changes, a rotating door of players and especially point guards coming in and out of the program, and very little to show for it in terms of his win-loss record in turn. With that said, players with his size, athleticism and versatility can add a lot of versatility to an NBA team’s backcourt, especially those with undersized combo guard types at the 2, and while he’s clearly not a finished product, he seems to have a good amount of potential to continue to improve down the road.

From DraftExpress.com http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Mikhail-Torrance-5846/#ixzz0rE40uBfj
http://www.draftexpress.com
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PtldPlatypus · Jun 18, 2010

Totally agree--Rastapopolous and I were talking about him earlier this month. I also really enjoyed what Landry Fields had to say about Torrance at Portsmouth.

My favorite player to watch, though, was Mikhail Torrance from Alabama. It’s crazy, I couldn’t figure out which hand was his dominate hand, and still don’t know to be honest. It seemed like he made every pass with his left hand, but shot it with his right. He spent most of the time on the left hand side of floor and was able to finish with either hand. For some reason I have a fascination with guys who are ambidextrous.

Not to mention, for how big Torrance was, he has legit handle; no one was taking his ball away. There were a couple plays where he would get in the lane and explode up, but in mid-air would shift the ball around away from defender’s hands and score easily. He reminded me of Russell Westbrook a little bit. His ability to score and break down his defenders was most exciting for me to watch.
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Nate 2.0?

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Nate 2.0?

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Nikolokolus There's always next year

TripTango Quick First Step

craigehlo Elite Wing

Nikolokolus There's always next year

Nikolokolus There's always next year

PtldPlatypus Let's go Baby Blazers! Staff Member Global Moderator Moderator

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