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Originally Posted by fleury
I've watched quite a few highlights of this guy from this tournament and he definitely looks solid. Actually, I think he looks great. The only concern I have about his game, is his vertical leap. He's a tall guy, but he has the equivalent leap of Yao. He tries had to get height, but his legs don't get that high off the ground, even when he goes up for the dunk. Of course dunking is the most overrated part of the game, but my concern is that in the NBA if he doesn't get a little more height, he'll be blocked even on his jump shots. Aside from that, boy that looks like a good pick. Finally a Euro with calculated aggressiveness in the paint!
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I think that's pretty-much spot-on to what I see with him. On the offensive end he seems to have a lot of good paint moves and can usually create good separation from his defender, but if he's put in a situation where help defense is keying on him, that lack of explosive leaping might hurt more. Another good habit he has is when he's working from beside the basket and can't dunk, he puts it off the glass quickly, which makes it much tougher to block than if he just tries to put it directly in.
His current jump-shot usage is basically only when he's wide open as a way to keep defenders honest, and I really hope he sticks to that pattern, even if his jump shot is pretty good. If he tweaks it and makes his release point a little higher, he's only going to get blocked if a guy is flying at him, or right in his face, and in that situation his mobility should give him the advantage if he puts the ball on the floor.
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Originally Posted by killer_carlson
based on those highlights he looks like he has good basketball instincts and is willing to defend. He'd have been called for a few more fouls in the NBA on some of those defensive plays though.
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Yeah, there's going to be a bit of an adjustment period. He needs to bulk up to a similar body that Noah has... Noah was pretty skinny (like 220) when he came in, but built the perfect body for the sort of high-energy game he plays.
And defensive fouls will definitely be a problem at first. Also, he'd be called for a lot of moving screens in the NBA, which is a big part of his game. And the differences in the offensive goaltending rules might take some time for him to adapt to, as he gets a lot of put-backs that would be 'in the cylinder' in the NBA.
edit: It's also worth noting with Bargnani, that Italy used him off the bench for most of the tournament, and he did great in that role. Hopefully Casey takes a good look at whether that approach would work in Toronto.