Tyreke Evans Watch 2K18
- Thread starter Mr. S£im Citrus
- Start date
I kind of wished we kept Evans the second time around. That Evans and the 3rd year Evans from Sac were night and day. His stats were a lot less but he seemed to have a higher BBall IQ, and knew the flow of the game. My only issue with Evans as of late has been injuries, but he's played well as a ball handling SF/SG while playing with a traditional PG. Looking good!
The good news is, his outside jumper seems to be here to stay. I would say that a player going from terrible to very good this late in their career is surprising but considering his up turn in the last 2-3 seasons has coincided with a dramatic increase in shooting aptitude across the entire league, it appears there's something to the adage that belief drives performance. Until very recently bruising bigs like Jokic and Drummond might have gone their entire careers without attempting more than 2 or 3 a season and suddenly they're putting them up and making them (well maybe not Drummond... so far). It's as if someone suddenly made shooting seem cool and now every player in the league wants to get those reps. I'm not complaining about it, I'm just a little stunned after so many years of grouping guys into shooter and non-shooter categories that the boundaries between the two have become so fluid. Even DeAndre Jordan can make FTs now. Who knew!
But back to Tyreke... I don't know that Indiana was the best fit for him with their best player already being ball dominant but he is second among their regular rotation players in both shot attempts and usage % so it appears they're giving him a legitimate shot at playing his game. Also with the East playoff picture being so wide open now and Indiana establishing themselves early as one of the front runners, Tyreke could be getting a playoff stage to play on pretty soon and that's great for all Tyreke fans!
But back to Tyreke... I don't know that Indiana was the best fit for him with their best player already being ball dominant but he is second among their regular rotation players in both shot attempts and usage % so it appears they're giving him a legitimate shot at playing his game. Also with the East playoff picture being so wide open now and Indiana establishing themselves early as one of the front runners, Tyreke could be getting a playoff stage to play on pretty soon and that's great for all Tyreke fans!
Another awful night for my man Evans: only eight points on ten shots (!!!), but the Pacers nonetheless win back-to-back games on the road, with him as a starter. Evans was actually productive in the first half, but gave them nothing in the second; IIRC, he missed all six of his shots after halftime.
a) ran him into the ground to get a made up stat to boost up credentials for mostly meaningless award
b) probably didn't let him heal after he got hurt after a)
c) forced him to play out of position
d) constantly shifting him around he never got to play to his strengths while solidifying his holes
e) coaching carousel
f) set unreasonable expectations from a)
Kings pretty much ran a clinic on how to destroy a promising player's career.
b) probably didn't let him heal after he got hurt after a)
c) forced him to play out of position
d) constantly shifting him around he never got to play to his strengths while solidifying his holes
e) coaching carousel
f) set unreasonable expectations from a)
Kings pretty much ran a clinic on how to destroy a promising player's career.
- With respect to a), it bears noting that Evans was on track to do that again last year (19.4/5.1/5.2, in 52 games), until Conley was ruled out for the season, and Memphis decided to tank, and shut Evans down.
- With respect to d) and e), they say that there's a system and a coach for every player, and it looked like Evans might have found that in Fizdale, but Fizdale clashed with Gasol so, out he goes... I was kind of surprised that he didn't end up in New York, but maybe the Knicks figured they had enough guards.
I stand one hundred percent firm behind my belief that Tyreke Evans, just in terms of talent, was the fourth-best player in the 2009 NBA draft. I'll go to my grave believing that. Picking him at fourth mostly only looks bad in hindsight because the best player in that draft wasn't taken until the seventh pick. But, for Evans, a combination of injuries, gross mismanagement to the point of bordering on negligence, and an apparent lack of desire to be great has kept him from being all that he could have been.
Nothing I said was intended as a slight against Reke. Mostly a cautionary tale on how not to manage a player. The numbers are great, it was this narrative/metric that the only two people who had done it in their rookie seasons are the two people that most under 40 cite as 1 & 2 in the GOAT discussion and then by association putting our shiny new draft pick in that category. It's a recipe for disappointment.
Also this was part of the Doncic discussion and I have opinions on just handing everything over to a player having negative repercussions down the road, but I have decided for the most part to avoid that discussion now.
Also this was part of the Doncic discussion and I have opinions on just handing everything over to a player having negative repercussions down the road, but I have decided for the most part to avoid that discussion now.
Evans is in the midst of his best stretch of the season: six games in a row of double-figure scoring, ten of his last twelve. After a pretty awful December, he's averaging a tick under thirteen points in January, on a respectable 45 percent shooting. He isn't giving the Pacers much else but, if he can get that scoring back up to around 14-15, that's going to make their bench super dangerous.
I've read Pacers boards (Reddit and another) and almost all of them dislike Tyreke as a player. They didn't get what was advertised last year. I never believed his play with Memphis myself,,,but I guess Indy did. The fans rag on him every game, and frankly with the way he's played, I don't blame them.