[Game] Game -6: Sacramento Kings vs. Toronto Raptors, 10/7/14 7PM pst 10PM est

Nik played very solid defense tonight on Derozan. Actually surprising some of the contests he was able to produce. Derozan still made a bunch of shots, as he's one of the best in the world at it. These guys will get hot, regardless of how good defense is. All you can do is keep working and contesting, which Stauskas did a good job of

I agree. I thought in pure man to man defense, Nik was very good, and at times, excellent. Derozan made some tough shots despite Nik having a hand in his face. but he got stymied several times on the baseline going one on one with Nik. Where Nik has to improve, and he's not terrible, but is in fighting through screens. Getting stronger and experience will greatly help. Point is, he doesn't appear to be a liability, and you can't fault his effort. On the offensive side, he's been as advertised. Which is no surprise to me. The kid has no fear..
 
If you can be reduced to the 13th man by the likes of Darren Collison and Ramon Sessions, then maybe you were never the heir apparent in the first place.
Be that as it may, the fact remains that, until Sessions was signed, he was the second PG in the rotation, and now he's the third. Now, I don't know how much of the offseason D'Alessandro spent trying to get Sessions, so who's to say whether or not he, or someone like him, was always in the plans, or whether Sessions just fell into his lap. But let's not pretend that we're not talking about a proven veteran. Sessions isn't an all-star, but it's not like McCallum lost his spot to Toney Douglas.

Also, since your response is rather vague, I was quite clear when I said "heir apparent," I was not talking about the starting job.
 
I think we are so used to having crappy players that any glimmer of hope gets us excited. Ray is a solid player, but if Malone feels he is behind Collison and Sessions right now, then so be it. Collison and Sessions are proven vets in the league, Ray played well in a handful of meaningless games and played solid in summerleague. Ray will get his chances, injuries can happen and Nik and Ben will struggle at times throughout the season.
 
I think we are so used to having crappy players that any glimmer of hope gets us excited. Ray is a solid player, but if Malone feels he is behind Collison and Sessions right now, then so be it. Collison and Sessions are proven vets in the league, Ray played well in a handful of meaningless games and played solid in summerleague. Ray will get his chances, injuries can happen and Nik and Ben will struggle at times throughout the season.
Whether he was good was never the question: the topic came up because I replied to a comment saying that McCallum looked like he had "lost his swag," or something to that effect, when he was in during garbage time last night. I intimated that going from expecting to be the backup point guard to being out of the rotation entirely can probably have a deleterious effect on one's "swag," indeed, and the response I got amounted to "Well, maybe he was never that good to begin with." And my point is that whether he's any good or not has no bearing on how something like that can damage a kid's confidence.
 
Whether he was good was never the question: the topic came up because I replied to a comment saying that McCallum looked like he had "lost his swag," or something to that effect, when he was in during garbage time last night. I intimated that going from expecting to be the backup point guard to being out of the rotation entirely can probably have a deleterious effect on one's "swag," indeed, and the response I got amounted to "Well, maybe he was never that good to begin with." And my point is that whether he's any good or not has no bearing on how something like that can damage a kid's confidence.

Or, in other words... Reality bites.
 
I think we will be better this year because this is just a more veteran team than we have seen in the past. How much better, who knows, I fear this is a roster that can max out at 38 wins, right in no mans land.

I agree the team is better but I have no particular fear of maxing out. I have an optimistic curiosity about where they end up. Be realistic, no matter how good these guys look right now, they have a challenge in making a functioning team out uf ten guys new to each and some of the ten haven't even been picked yet.
 
We lost a ball dominant player, added vets, and drafted a rookie that perfectly fills a position and skill of need. This team needs to play team oriented ball to improve and actually has the players necessary to do so.

I think Nik is one of those 50/40/90 guys. He has top notch shooting ability and knows how to get his shots without forcing it. Inserting his efficiency into a starting lineup that had the biggest hole at the sg position of any team last year is going to reflect positively in the win column. Having a couple vets (Collison and Sessions) split a majority of the ball handling duties is also going to lead to a lot more team oriented basketball.
 
I think Nik is one of those 50/40/90 guys. He has top notch shooting ability and knows how to get his shots without forcing it. Inserting his efficiency into a starting lineup that had the biggest hole at the sg position of any team last year is going to reflect positively in the win column. Having a couple vets (Collison and Sessions) split a majority of the ball handling duties is also going to lead to a lot more team oriented basketball.
One of those eight 50/40/90 guys? That's not setting the bar high at all!
 
Thanks. He might be. I might snip a few percentage pts off the FG ad FT.

Yeah, he was in the low-mid 80%s in college from the FT line, so a jump to 90% is pretty significant. I'd love to see 40% from the three, but that's nearly elite and I don't expect it right away. And 50% FGs from someone who takes a lot of threes is pretty tough. I'd say 50/40/90 is probably out of reach.
 
Yeah, he was in the low-mid 80%s in college from the FT line, so a jump to 90% is pretty significant. I'd love to see 40% from the three, but that's nearly elite and I don't expect it right away. And 50% FGs from someone who takes a lot of threes is pretty tough. I'd say 50/40/90 is probably out of reach.

He practices the three pt shot a lot. There are a few videos on Youtube. He'll be elite at that. I'm pretty sure of that.
 
Yeah, he was in the low-mid 80%s in college from the FT line, so a jump to 90% is pretty significant. I'd love to see 40% from the three, but that's nearly elite and I don't expect it right away. And 50% FGs from someone who takes a lot of threes is pretty tough. I'd say 50/40/90 is probably out of reach.
Wally Szczerbiak was 50/40/85 pre-injury (read: pre-trade) as a jump shooter, but I don't know if he could be described as an especially prolific three-point shooter.
 
We lost a ball dominant player, added vets, and drafted a rookie that perfectly fills a position and skill of need. This team needs to play team oriented ball to improve and actually has the players necessary to do so.

I think Nik is one of those 50/40/90 guys. He has top notch shooting ability and knows how to get his shots without forcing it. Inserting his efficiency into a starting lineup that had the biggest hole at the sg position of any team last year is going to reflect positively in the win column. Having a couple vets (Collison and Sessions) split a majority of the ball handling duties is also going to lead to a lot more team oriented basketball.

Lets not get too carried away after just a few summer league and preseason games. There's very few players that shoot 50/40/90. There's only about 20 players a year that shoot 50% from the field. Mainly big men. Then there's only about 20 players a year that shoot 40% from 3. Lastly there's only about 5 per year who shoot 90% from the FT line. It's incredibly difficult to get into all 3 categories. Steve Nash is the only guy who comes to mind who could do it on a regular basis. Peja is considered one of the best shooters of all time and he never did it.

If he can get through this year at 43/36/80, that would be a very successful rookie campaign.

If he can do 46/40/85 with volume in his prime, we'll be a lucky franchise.
 
Lets not get too carried away after just a few summer league and preseason games. There's very few players that shoot 50/40/90. There's only about 20 players a year that shoot 50% from the field. Mainly big men. Then there's only about 20 players a year that shoot 40% from 3. Lastly there's only about 5 per year who shoot 90% from the FT line. It's incredibly difficult to get into all 3 categories. Steve Nash is the only guy who comes to mind who could do it on a regular basis. Peja is considered one of the best shooters of all time and he never did it.
Nobody's ever done it on a "regular" basis, unless you think a four-year stretch that accounts for less than a fourth of your overall career qualifies as a "regular" basis. It's only been done twelve times in NBA history*, by eight different guys, and only Nash and Bird have done it more than once.


*When talking about "all time" stats like this, it is important to acknowledge that the three-point field goal didn't exist in the NBA until 1979.
 
Here is a short list of pretty good SG's and their career % shooting stats. Turns out 50/40/90 is a lofty goal indeed:)

Jeff Hornacek .496 / .403 / .877
Reggie Miller .471 / .395 / .888
Ray Allen .452 / .400 / .894
Klay Thompson .435 / .410 / .827

Bird, Nash, Dirk, Korver and Curry play other positions. Funny how some of the very best shooting % is from positions other than shooting guard:) Who are the best shooting guards for percentages?
 
Steve Nash is the only guy I can think of who got 50/40/90 on a regular basis. He came within a few percentage points of doing it for 8 years straight.

No one else in history has come close.
 
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