The good news is, Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress was impressed enough by Jeremy Lin last night that he didn’t mention Nic Wise. The bad news is, DraftExpress had some criticisms about Jeremy’s game that I don’t necessarily agree with.
Please note, I have the utmost respect for Givony and his expertise on the draft. The man has so many draft connections, European teams fly him into the Czech Republic so that he can give them feedback on players. He’s earned that. But that doesn’t mean I have to agree with him. After all, I know basketball from where I come from, too. It’s okay to disagree. You win some, you lose some.
For example, DraftExpress said that Jeremy “struggled at times to get by his man”. Well, maybe there are different plays I’m remembering.
There was one with the shotclock winding down, and Jeremy had the ball no more than 3 yards away from where I was sitting courtside, right baseline corner.
No one was cutting and the big man couldn’t post up, so he left the lane open for Jeremy. A quick jab right, show ball fake left and big right step later, he was two steps by the guy to the rim, then shielding the help big, and making the layup.
With what I’ve seen in the Jeremy highlight reels from this season, I also cannot agree with the statement that “his physical tools appear to be just average”. Did you watch Goran Dragic last night on ESPN? Is he “average” physically? Can you still be “average” and be a solid NBA rotation player, even with a spark of future leadership?
But as I’ve often said before, such definitions of “athleticism” amongst various draft boards as well as the general public need to be addressed in a separate rant.
Or is our expectation of Jeremy’s athleticism in question here? I’m sure someone could write a PhD thesis about this.
Here’s the full excerpt on Jeremy. The link is below the excerpt:
“Jeremy Lin had a solid first outing, showing his excellent feel for the game, unselfishness and court vision, particularly in transition finding teammates creatively. Lin struggled a bit at times to get by his man and finish around the basket, as his physical tools appear to be just average, but his size and playmaking ability were clearly evident. Lin didn’t score much, converting just 4-9 from the field to go along with his six assists, and might need to show more potential as a perimeter shooter after making just 34% of his 3-pointers this season. That might be easier said than done playing alongside the very ball dominant Aubrey Coleman though, as there were quite a few possessions where he was just standing around watching Coleman dribble.”
Read the whole article here: DraftExpress: Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, Day One
[NOTE: I put Givony's mug shot here not to put him up as a target or anything. Quite the contrary, he was gracious enough to meet me in person during my last visit to NYC, and he's a really nice guy and knows his business like the back of his hand. He is definitely a foremost expert on the NBA Draft, a subject I am now fascinated by.
I figured with the depth and breadth of Jeremy Lin posts here, I don't know about you, but I'm out of JL4 pictures to post, so each Jeremy post needs to show something different.
And yeah, it's better to have some kind of photo each time, since this blog directly links to Facebook and, well, you know their walled garden, it's all about their thumbnails!]