I'm really not that down on CJ.... dude was virtually the only scoring we had, so his high shot numbers can be attributed to that, and the fact that they played... what.... four games in four nights? I mean, jeeze that's a lot of basketball for a guy who hasn't played in months. I'm going to selectively choose to only really look at his first game, when he was fresh and the other teams hadn't figured out that the rest of our team sucks. 22 points, 9-19 shooting, 4 assists, 3 boards I'm hoping for that kind of production.
Agreed that Dumars was a great defender (although I've also heard Jordan say the same thing about Mitch Richmond) and also that CJ is currently poor, but what makes you so confident that CJ can't improve? I agree that a lot of players don't improve, but I get the impression that CJ is smarter and more driven than most. He also has poor quickness, which will hamper him, but he can still be a very good team defender. And neither Dumars nor more recent examples like Raja Bell have been athletically elite, so it's a skill that can be improved.
Somethings in basketball cannot be taught but D is not one of those, it can most assuredly be taught. D seems to be about as much intelligence and desire as Talent. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
Players like Kobe and Lebron were total matadors at first but improved massively. And if you want an example that isn't an elite athlete, how about Klay Thompson? He's become a very solid defender and the main knock on him was that he was a below-average NBA athlete. Also, the best backcourt defender in college basketball is supposed to be that stumpy white kid for Ohio State (Aaron Craft?) and Kirk Hinrich used to be considered pretty stellar before all the injuries. Yes, nothing will stop nippy guards abusing CJ like Schroeder did in Summer League, but nobody can stop that - witness Iverson making Jordan look foolish, or White Chocolate blowing by Gary Payton. You've just got to be a Shane Battier (another player labeled an unathletic tweener coming out of college, and another very smart, very articulate individual) and force them to their weaknesses.
Link? I've never heard that... Oh, I think he will improve. He seems to have excellent work ethic. I just don't think he will ever be good at it. His lateral quickness is SUSPECT (something you cannot attribute to Dumars or Raja Bell) and he couldn't even play defense in the Patriot League. Schroeder was eviscerating his ankles the other day! We should have lost that game because CJ got his ankles destroyed at the top of the key by Schroeder who easily found Johnny Cash in the corner for 3. Had he made it the game would have been over. I just don't have any faith that he can stop any quick 2 Guards with handles (Jamal Crawford, Marshawn Brooks, Ricky Ledo, etc) let alone any quick PGs. I'm just gonna have to disagree with you on the way you framed this argument. Total matadors? C'mon man...
Yeah, I don't get the Dumars comparison. If were going old school comparisons he reminds me more of Ricky Pierce. Maybe a right-handed version of Cuttino Mobley.
At the risk of super-over-generalizing, I'm much more confident in the abilities to improve various parts of their game by a) intelligent players (non-BB-wise), b) high-BBIQ guys (i.e., "skills-based" rather than "athleticism-based"), c) high-motor or -work ethic guys. I see Lillard and CJ being all three...unlike, say, JaVale McGee or Travis Outlaw.
I guess that #10 in a weak draft is like #15 in an average draft. He is just an average mid-1st-round pick. He will struggle all year, like Babbitt and Nolan Smith and Leonard and all those before him. He is no Lillard. At 2 we will see Matthews far more than McCollum, and at 1 we will see Watson much more. He's only average and will often look like a bumpkin. Forget about him till Year 2.
