FWIW....Pre-Season stats. What is 'about as expected' and what was a surprise, both a pleasant one and a disappointment? Scoring: Lillard - - - 19.2 Nurkic - - - 14.0 McCollum - 13.4 Collins - - - - 9.5 Turner - - - - 8.8 Leonard - - - 8.4 Harkless - - 8.4 Rebounds: Swanigan - 6.8 Nurkic - - - 6.6 Leonard - - 5.8 Aminu - - - 5.8 Davis - - - - 5.2 Collins - - - 5.0 Assists: Lillard - - - 4.0 Turner - - - 3.4 McCollum - 2.8 Briscoe - - - 2.3 Pat C. - - - - 2.3 FG%: Leonard - 53.8 Harkless - 53.3 Collins - - 51.4 Turner - - 50.0 Layman - 48.6 3-pt FG%: Leonard - - 71.4 Collins - - - 55.6 Layman - - 53.3 Turner - - - 50.0 Swanigan - 42.9 It's only pre-season and only a small 5 game sample from which to choose from. For the most part, Scoring, rebounds and assist went about the way most of us probably somewhat expected. It's the shooting percentage numbers that surprise me. What in the name of Butterswish is going on? And to have Collins in the top-3 in both FG and 3-pt percentage came as a surprise as well. Also nice to see Layman finally hitting some shots. If he can develop some confidence, he has multiple skills that along with his shooting could more than replace Crabbe if he earns minutes.
Right? That to me constitutes a big surprise especially since he had the highest % in both shooting categories. I don't expect anywhere near those numbers in the regular season....and pre-season is a small sample size to gauge, but it's a lot better than him looking continually and totally lost.
Pat Connaughton blames his parent's genetic contributions for his inability to be in the 'Tall Boy' band.
Apparently we learned that none out of Briscoe, Morrow and Goodwin was good enough, because the team waived them all.
Collins is legit. His footwork. His ability to get off, and make, a shot around the basket under pressure. His shooting touch. His court awareness. His basketball instincts, especially his defensive instincts. He's a third year big man trapped in a 19 year old body.
Pat looks a whole lot better playing with legit NBA players as a glue guy than he does playing with scrubs in Summer League.
To be fair he did look good in the games against NBA scrubs too. After so many games where every other aspect of his game looked better than his shooting, I think he proved his outside shot could eventually be legit in the NBA. At least good enough to hold on to him. Also he might never be a lockdown defender but he certainly is not a liability on that end either. I went from high hopes to no hope, back to some hope.....that Jake can contribute meaningful minutes eventually.