Omri Casspi - good signing or not?
- Thread starter HereWeBoogie
- Start date
Casspi might be the best "value" in the league right now. Not sure exactly what it is, but he's got the eye of the tiger this season.
Maybe it's a rekindled spirit being back in Sacramento, where he indicated right away that he really wanted to be. Whatever it is, the dude has an inspired burn going on. The kind of passion we need out there
Maybe it's a rekindled spirit being back in Sacramento, where he indicated right away that he really wanted to be. Whatever it is, the dude has an inspired burn going on. The kind of passion we need out there
Williams does have those very interesting short dreads... so maybe, when players are playing and see him on the bench they think the same thing I do: "I wonder why more people don't have short dreads... I wonder how long they would take to grow... They are sort of like regular dreads without the time commitment... I wonder if I could grow those by Christmas..." then, whoosh, the ball is stolen while the player was distracted. Seems like an effective role...
Yes, here's the million $ (or much more than one million actually) question for Casspi...
It actually happened 4 in 5 years in NBA (and the year it didn't - Omri was out of rotation all the season)
I can argue that every time was different and Casspi wasn't to be blamed in some of cases.
In the rookie year it was probably "rookie wall" and overall team deterioration in the second part of the season.
In the second year Westphal bacame erratic placing players in starting five or doghouse on base of any two or three playes and driving them all (Garcia, Greene, even DMC
) crazy.
In the first year in Cavs Casspi appeared not completely recovered from an injury and his attempt to gain muscle weight backfired with reduces athletism, also Byron Scott from the beginning didn't like Casspi as starter and all in all it was less of worse playing late in the season and more of lost credit (which he even initially got from GM and not from coach as it seems)
And the year in Houston... Omri started very well, than came some shooting slump (actually quite understandable) and... Casspi was out of rotation. Not sure it was so much for his play and not because some other considerations - developing DMo (lost cause I think), looking for players capable "to contibute more in playoffs", etc...
But even if it's partly just seqeunce of random events, Casspi was inconsistent player in his NBA carrier, and here seems to be some "barrier" preventing him to contribute for full season...
What's Omri is trying to do - is to play more basic ball, which is not dependent on slumps and cold-hands periods: go to basket and get fauled, make entry pass, move ball around, move without ball for easy basket.
It actually happened 4 in 5 years in NBA (and the year it didn't - Omri was out of rotation all the season)
I can argue that every time was different and Casspi wasn't to be blamed in some of cases.
In the rookie year it was probably "rookie wall" and overall team deterioration in the second part of the season.
In the second year Westphal bacame erratic placing players in starting five or doghouse on base of any two or three playes and driving them all (Garcia, Greene, even DMC
) crazy.In the first year in Cavs Casspi appeared not completely recovered from an injury and his attempt to gain muscle weight backfired with reduces athletism, also Byron Scott from the beginning didn't like Casspi as starter and all in all it was less of worse playing late in the season and more of lost credit (which he even initially got from GM and not from coach as it seems)
And the year in Houston... Omri started very well, than came some shooting slump (actually quite understandable) and... Casspi was out of rotation. Not sure it was so much for his play and not because some other considerations - developing DMo (lost cause I think), looking for players capable "to contibute more in playoffs", etc...
But even if it's partly just seqeunce of random events, Casspi was inconsistent player in his NBA carrier, and here seems to be some "barrier" preventing him to contribute for full season...
What's Omri is trying to do - is to play more basic ball, which is not dependent on slumps and cold-hands periods: go to basket and get fauled, make entry pass, move ball around, move without ball for easy basket.
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I have also noticed that Casspi plays totally different game now that he has been playing during his whole NBA stint. Casspi appeared notorious for standing in the corner and waiting for that pass for him to make the corner 3pt attempt. Generally nobody passed him the ball and his PER looked poor (low score/min). Deemed as a 3pt role player, he started to take the shots not from the corner, somewhat lacking that range, and often with bad timing (time left on the shot clock). Standing in the corner also cost him offensive rebounding.
In the 4 games with SAC this time he does not even try the 3pt shot (only 2 attempts). He drives to the basket with more maturity than in the past. He either makes it, draws a foul or kicks it out (which he does quite nicely). He has learned to pass the ball and he has the ability to find the open guy under or above the rim. He is quite a talented rebounder in both ends of the court (despite the hard competition for those rebounds in SAC). He has also stepped up his defense and he is way past the liability claim he had in this department in the past. Now he also puts his energy in it.
So I would say that this is a new pakage of Omri Casspi. A much improved one, because he now does things that he knows how to do instead of trying to be the 3pt specialist, which he can do fairly well, but not consistently(which is frustrating). The question remains: How much of this is because Omri Casspi or is it because Mike Malone. Never mind, Omri appears to be an excellent signing for 1 mil a year. He really contributes. As long as he does that, he is in the rotation.
In the 4 games with SAC this time he does not even try the 3pt shot (only 2 attempts). He drives to the basket with more maturity than in the past. He either makes it, draws a foul or kicks it out (which he does quite nicely). He has learned to pass the ball and he has the ability to find the open guy under or above the rim. He is quite a talented rebounder in both ends of the court (despite the hard competition for those rebounds in SAC). He has also stepped up his defense and he is way past the liability claim he had in this department in the past. Now he also puts his energy in it.
So I would say that this is a new pakage of Omri Casspi. A much improved one, because he now does things that he knows how to do instead of trying to be the 3pt specialist, which he can do fairly well, but not consistently(which is frustrating). The question remains: How much of this is because Omri Casspi or is it because Mike Malone. Never mind, Omri appears to be an excellent signing for 1 mil a year. He really contributes. As long as he does that, he is in the rotation.
As I've said already in another thread Omri was not shooter at all in his young days and now he improved his ballhandling - so this kind of game is actually more natural to him (while I hope he will hit some 3pt too).
I think Casspi wanted to change his game last year (he was trying drives and entry passes in the beginning of the year) but he was used as strech-4 in Houston... and strech-4 is supposed to shoot many long range attempts.
I think Casspi wanted to change his game last year (he was trying drives and entry passes in the beginning of the year) but he was used as strech-4 in Houston... and strech-4 is supposed to shoot many long range attempts.