[Game] Warriors @ Kings - 10/23/13 - pre-season
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One step at a time. There are many great athletes in this league who are unable to get points at the rim consistently because they lack the ball handling (BMac's problem). Then we have unathletic guys like Andre Miller and Carmelo who get very high percentage shots at the rim due to good ball handling and IQ. Transition points are a very small portion of an offensive player's scoring. Pretty much anybody in the NBA can break out in transition and score at the rim. Klay with slightly above average athleticism has become a pretty well rounded scorer: shooting, driving, finishing. If McLemore reaches Klay's level by year 3, I would be very happy. We had another athlete who didn't knock anyone off their socks with his efficiency (Tyreke Evans). IMO Tyreke is a better athlete than Mac.
When you say Beal is a natural ball handler, that is far from the case. Coming out of Florida, his biggest weakness was his ball handling. He was terrible at dribbling anything more than a dribble or two, but based on what he committed to do over the summer, you can really see improvements from year one to year two even if its only preseason.
Per draft express, Tyreke's 3/4 court spring was very slightly faster than McLemore's, but McLemore has a 4.5" higher standing vertical leap and 8" higher max vertical. My impression from seeing them both play is that Tyreke with a head of steam is very quick with or without the ball, but McLemore's full-stop to full-sprint is much quicker. I'd give the athletic edge to McLemore.
I don't think there's any question Ben would be considered a better athlete than Tyreke...but maybe there should be.
We have a tendency to associate "athlete" in an NBA sense with run fast, jump high. And you know what? Very few guys in the NBA are going to run faster and jump higher than Ben. But that's not all there is to being an athlete. There is strength (if the comparison is Reke for instance, Reke wins that easily) lateral quickness (from what I've seen also quite possibly Reke), reach (Reke), etc. etc. And more importantly in a basketball sense, how much of an athlete you can be with the ball? That's the difference between them. Ben's a great run/jump athlete without the ball. With the ball? He really can't do much. So in an offensive sense most of his great athleteness is wasted. Its pretty much going to get him an alley oop or two a game, and then make him a strong runner/finisher on the break, again as long as he isn't having to handle it himself. Those are bonuses and should give him a couple of extra hoops a night if he gets minutes, but its not like a LeBron situation where you have a dominant athlete who's also dominant with the ball. That's where a great athlete can just be impossible to guard.
Sans ballhanding ability, being a good athlete actually may have more direct application on defense than offense. That's why even though Ben has been getting lit up there is talk of his "defensive potential". Basically he's a very good athlete with apparently a good attitude and hence you expect he could be a good defender in time, largely just because he is superior physically. The only real red flag I see on that front is how quickly he moves laterally (as opposed to forward and back, where he's exceptional) -- lateral quickness is actually maybe the most important guard defensive trait. It would be the wrong thing to be lacking.,
We have a tendency to associate "athlete" in an NBA sense with run fast, jump high. And you know what? Very few guys in the NBA are going to run faster and jump higher than Ben. But that's not all there is to being an athlete. There is strength (if the comparison is Reke for instance, Reke wins that easily) lateral quickness (from what I've seen also quite possibly Reke), reach (Reke), etc. etc. And more importantly in a basketball sense, how much of an athlete you can be with the ball? That's the difference between them. Ben's a great run/jump athlete without the ball. With the ball? He really can't do much. So in an offensive sense most of his great athleteness is wasted. Its pretty much going to get him an alley oop or two a game, and then make him a strong runner/finisher on the break, again as long as he isn't having to handle it himself. Those are bonuses and should give him a couple of extra hoops a night if he gets minutes, but its not like a LeBron situation where you have a dominant athlete who's also dominant with the ball. That's where a great athlete can just be impossible to guard.
Sans ballhanding ability, being a good athlete actually may have more direct application on defense than offense. That's why even though Ben has been getting lit up there is talk of his "defensive potential". Basically he's a very good athlete with apparently a good attitude and hence you expect he could be a good defender in time, largely just because he is superior physically. The only real red flag I see on that front is how quickly he moves laterally (as opposed to forward and back, where he's exceptional) -- lateral quickness is actually maybe the most important guard defensive trait. It would be the wrong thing to be lacking.,
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Can't say I agree with Beal being a bad ball handler in NCAA. I agree he has improved his ball handling once he got to the NBA, but he created for himself quite a bit in college. His ball handling was fine. I tuned in to a lot of NCAA games because I bet a lot LOL. Beal almost always had the ball in his hand in crunch time. He had little problems creating for himself or others from the 2 spot. BMac right now needs someone to create for him. The gap is sizable. Bmac needs a lot of work on his handling. I don't think it's realistic to expect the same trajectory as Beal.