I'm not saying Tyler Johnson is Russell Westbrook. Not even close. But I wonder how the two stack up purely athletically speaking. DraftXpress has them being about the same height (6'2") with similar wingspans (6'6" for Johnson, 6'7.75" for Westbrook). Westbrook a little heavier. Westbrook had a standing vertical of 30 inches and a max vertical of 36 inches. Johnson had a standing vertical of 32 inches and he didn't do a max vertical but I'm sure it's 38 or even 40 inches. Westbrook had a no step vertical reach of 10'10" and a max vertical reach of 11'4.5". His "Agility" test was a 10.98 and his "Sprint" test was a 3.08. He did 12 bench reps. Tyler Johnson had a 10'10" no step vertical reach. His Agility mark was 11.41 and Sprint 3.25. I guess the Sprint figure is 3/4ths of the court. So he's about the same size and plays at the same rim level as Russell Westbrook but isn't quite as agile or fast.
I agree athleticism is definitely a part of it. I think it's more, though, with him. There are plenty of great athletes that flame out in the NBA. Johnson seems to have a legit NBA skill-set, and the drive to improve upon the areas in which he is weak. What has happened with Ennis (So far. It's probably too early to write him off) is what I thought would happen with Johnson, and what has happened with Johnson is what I thought would happen with Ennis. I thought Johnson would be a great athlete that made some exciting plays in meaningless minutes, but wouldn't ever be more than that, and I thought Ennis would take that athleticism and turn himself into a solid role player. As of now, I had it backwards.
I think what really happened with Tyler Johnson is they found the right role for him. He was floundering before they made him a point guard. That move saw an almost immediate change in how he looked on the floor. He made more sense.
I keep forgetting Justise Winslow is only 19 years old. Given that he's still developing physically, I hope he gets more explosive in the coming years. He needs to work on his jumping skills. His lack of jumping ability isn't doing his skill set justice (pun intended).
[video=twitter;664465267993382913]https://twitter.com/ByTimReynolds/status/664465267993382913[/video]
He jumps fine, for his size. He will make up for explosive stand still leaping ability with how Big he is.
New details of the Gerald Green situation... it seems that there was a party or some function at his Apartment, and he got into a full blown fist fight with some guy and the guy is not pressing charges for assault. SMH.
Transcript from last night's Pat Riley Presser: Question: "Pat, can you release any more information on what exactly happened with Gerald Green?" Pat Riley: "**** You. Next question." Question: "Pat, how great are you?" Pat Riley: "Ask your mother, No more questions." Any doubt that if Gerald Green had been a Fins WR, that this thing would have blown up into a disaster and embarrassed the Fins franchise further?
He can always get better to make up for it. But his lack of jumping ability is the biggest part of the problem when it comes to his inability to finish at the basket. He's 19 though. Have seen plenty of redshirt freshman look more explosive by the time they're redshirt juniors or redshirt seniors.
not something to bank on but there is also a chance he hasnt finished growing.. Could round up to 6'8 ..
His rim finishing will improve when he learns to look for and draw more fouls at this level. He was great at that in college and in SL, but it seems like in the reg season he hasn't been seeking those opportunities as much. He should watch some more James Harden, who also isn't a big leaper but gets to the stripe almost at will. Not too worried; Winslow's good with both hands already as well.
Speaking of Pat Riley statements I loved reading his statement about the trade for Beno Udrih and Jarnell Stokes. He was basically like "Yeah these guys are sort of alright I guess. I mean, they'd better improve or I'll chop their ***** off."
Yeah maybe a 7th or 8th seed. More likely, at least as presently constructed, a 9th or 10th place team that just misses the playoffs. Luckily,like Ive been saying, I dont think that Phil Jackson took this job to win 35-45 games a season and get 7th seeds or just miss the playoffs. And there just happens to be a star player feuding with his coach (well actually cussing him out)...a player Carmelo, Ty Lawson and Andre Iguduola all told not to trust George Karl and blasted Karl on Twitter this summer. Oh, theres an end game alright for Jackson. It starts by getting Cousins when free agent contracts become tradeable in December because Lopez will never be a fit for the triangle (if you notice, he looks lost and awkward when he has the ball in the high post) but he can be a good fit for Karls pick and roll offense that he lives and dies by. http://fansided.com/2015/11/11/demarcus-cousins-cussed-george-karl-front-team/
There are two common misconceptions about two specific coaches. A) That Mike Tomlin is a great young coach when the fact is that Mike Tomlin is vastly overrated. B) That George Karl is a coaching legend, when the fact is that George Karl is a terrible coach.
I'd rather have Tomlin than the clown car of coaches the Fins have had since he was hired. And George Karl hasn't done squat since the mid-90s with Seattle. Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk
LaMarcus Aldridge and people close to him are saying Pat Riley unintentionally convinced him to sign with San Antonio. Riley was actually trying to convince LA to take a one-year deal with Portland and then circle back with Miami in 2016 when Miami would have the money to sign him. But as part of the argument, he gave LA the spiel about taking a step back for the sake of championships, selling him on the vision of having two floor-stretching bigs like he and Chris Bosh where neither of them will quite get the stats that they would get somewhere else, but they'll win championships. He compared it to Bosh's decision going from Toronto where he was a stat juggernaut to Miami where he had to take a step back and as a result they won championships they would never have won without him. And Riley said Bosh would never give those rings up for anything. At the time LA had been strongly considering and even leaning toward signing with the Phoenix Suns. Riley's speech convinced him to re-consider and ultimately sign with San Antonio. I guess he thought to himself, why wait a year when I can do exactly what Riley is talking about right now.
It's weird. He doesn't look like he has great leaping ability in transition, but then you see him do this and think "no issue with his leaping ability here when his head is up by the rim".
Yeah. Inconsistent. Though I will say that picture angle makes it tough to tell if his head is really near rim level.
All very true. Only upside would be living in Miami, if he's into that. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Personally I don't think so. I'd say he's about a foot below the rim. Continue the line of the bottom of the backboard out until you reach Winslow's arm and head. He's about a foot below the rim.
Regardless. He's way up there on that dunk. I agree with what you're saying about inconsistency on his leaping ability. It's interesting to me because in preseason and summer league I wondered about his leaping ability, but in some of his dunks he's shown it's there.
I don't understand how Karl keeps getting coaching gigs around the league. Everyone talks about how he is going to turn this team or that team around and I'm always like "oh you mean like his last 5 stops where he didn't turn **** around?" He's been living off of his days with Payton and Kemp and people seem to forget those guys were both top 2 or 3 at their positions in their primes and not really in need of a lot of coaching up. This isn't even to mention that he has chased every Superstar away from every team he's coached on in recent memory. And we know you don't need superstars to win in the NBA...
I saw something on twitter saying Goran Dragic is only shooting 52% under the rim (0 to 3 feet) versus a career 67%. Interesting.
I don't understand what the hell is going on with Goran Dragic. He was great for us last year and the starting unit is pretty much the same outside of Bosh's return.
The Stifle Tower may not go tonight. I'm a little bummed; I wanted to see Whiteside against him. Freaky tall/long guys just swatting everything.
I think I'd like the win more than a good show, so I can't say I'm upset if Rudy Gobert sits out. Heat have three guys that are in the Top 5 at their position in Value Added/Estimated Wins Added. Hassan Whiteside is 3rd among centers, Bosh is 5th among power forwards and Wade is 4th among shooting guards. Last year Dragic would've been 11th among point guards in that category but this year he's closer to 50th. So this really is a situation where if Dragic can start playing like himself then Miami could be significantly better. Luol Deng could also be playing better based on how he did a year ago.
D-Wade will not play tonight. His son is in the hospital. (He is doing better now) So get ready for 40 minutes of TJ.
Goran's wife and child came to the US today.... he's got Beno on the team now. I'm thinking Goran has a huge game tonight and he turns his season around.
He was doing very well for us in summer league.. Finally looked like he was getting it together. We were loaded at talent at the 1.. Wanted to keep him but its impossible to keep him, richardson, johnson and goran together... Something had to shake loose.
Hey, that's a game you eek out with Wade out and your brand new player, Udrih, getting 17 minutes at the point lol. TJ brought it!