Tag Archives: Rudy Gay

MY ANDREW WIGGINS PLAYER BIO AND SCOUTING REPORT

Posted: Jun 8, 2014 by . Filed under Blog Posts, Feature Articles | 29 Comments

Andrew Wiggins

Small Forward – 6′-8″ – 200lbs – Age – 19 – Kansas – FR.

Reach – 8’11 – Wingspan – 7’0 –  Max Vertical Jump – 44 inches

Season Averages: 17.1PPG – 6.0RPG – 1.5APG -44.8%FG-34.1%(3FG)-77.5%FT

Draft Projection – Top 3 – could go number #1

AP FORT HAYS ST KANSAS BASKETBALL S BKC T25 KS

(photo courtesy StandingOSports.com)

Strengths

An athletic freak! His dad played in the NBA and his mom won medals in track in the Olympics for Canada, so his DNA is scary good. When you combine his 6’8 frame, 7-foot wing span and a 44 inch vertical jump, it’s crazy what he can do athletically on the court. His coach at Kansas Bill Self said he has the quickest second jump he’s ever seen, meaning he has the ability to bounce up and down like a pogo stick on the offensive boards and beat guys to the rebound for easy put backs.

 

His transition game is outstanding. He quickly fills the lanes on a fast break, getting from one end of the floor to the other and throws down vicious dunks or can pull up for a soft jumper.

 

 
He already knows how to play defense and wants to. How many college kids can you say that about? He uses that great athletic ability on the defensive end to guard 2’s, 3’s and some 4’s. So he’s ready to contribute right away on the defensive side of the ball.

 

 
Shoots it well from the free throw line and his jump shot is good, not a great. His pull up “J’ is solid, as is his intermediate jumper and he has decent range.

 

 
Penetrates well, has a very quick first step and the alley-oop out of bounds play is tailor made for him.

 

 
High character kid and a student of the game.

 

Weaknesses

Must get stronger and add a few pounds to his frame.

 

 
His jump shot and his overall offensive game needs to be more consistent.

 

 
He can get lost in the shuffle out on the court at times because he needs to be more aggressive. Some teams are concerned that he’s too passive,that he doesn’t have that killer instinct or alpha dog mentality.

 

 

He needs to work on his ball handling which will allow him to attack the rim more in the half court set and make him a better passer. Going left off the dribble is a definite weakness.

 

 

With his athletic ability he should finish better around the rim. But that should come when he gets stronger.

 

 

Has good form on his jumper, but it needs to be more consistent, especially from beyond the arc.

 

 

Roda Thoughts:

Reminds me of a taller version of one of the best two-way players I’ve ever seen in the NBA, Sidney Moncrief. Others comparisons are to Tracy McGrady, Rudy Gay or Vince Carter.

 

 
It looked like he was figuring things out at the end of the season for Kansas as he stepped his game up when Joel Embiid went down with a back injury as he had games of 41p-8r vs West Virginia, 30p-8r vs Oklahoma St., 22p-7r vs Iowa St. and 19p-4r versus Eastern Kentucky in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament.

 

 

But his final game at Kansas was a clunker. In the 3rd round of the NCAA tournament against Stanford he was held to just 4p-4r on 1 of 6 shooting from the field in a 60-57 loss to Stanford. That left some people wondering how could he disappear in the biggest game of the season? But he also showed his true character after the defeat saying, “I let a lot of people down. If I would have played better, we wouldn’t be in this situation, you know? I blame myself for this.”

 

 

He will need to become more consistent, aggressive and attack more on offense if he wants to reach that superstar level. But he has arguably the most upside/potential of anyone in this draft because of his athleticism, ability to play three positions, he already plays defense, is a hard worker, with a high basketball IQ and on top of all that is a good kid who will take well to coaching.

 

 

Wiggins is my favorite player in this draft and whichever team selects him is getting a future all-star and potentially a future superstar.

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DECISIONS, DECISIONS, DECISIONS FOR DAN GILBERT

Posted: Apr 8, 2014 by . Filed under Blog Posts, Feature Articles | 35 Comments

It seems like we say this every year but I really believe this time it’s true. This upcoming off season for the Cavs will be the most important in team history. Owner Dan Gilbert needs to decide which direction he’s going to take the team.

Dan Gilbert Photo@CavsDan has many important decisions to make. Does he make David Griffin his fulltime General Manager or does he go out and bring in new blood? Will he hire a President of Basketball Operations type? If he does, there are rumors circulating that the names atop that list are former “Bad Boys” Joe Dumars, who reportedly will resign his position with the Pistons soon, or Isaiah Thomas. If either one is hired, it’s possible Gilbert could keep David Griffin as G.M. and have him answer to Dumars or Thomas.

Whenever this brain trust is finally put together their first decision will be to decide should they keep Mike Brown on as the team’s head coach? If not, who do you replace him with?

After that decision is made, next on the check list is do you offer Kyrie Irving the maximum 5-year contract? Do you believe in his brittle body, but made skills enough to make him the focal point of your team moving forward? If you do offer “Uncle Drew” the max and he turns it down and wants a shorter contract, then do you avoid getting burned again like you did with a former local high school star turned NBA MVP and try and trade him if he’s sending you messages he could leave ?  If Irving does accept the max contract then you have to figure out if he and Dion Waiters can co-exist on the same team. If you think they can, you don’t do anything. If you think they can’t, then you have to begin the process of trying to trade Waiters and get equal value in return.

After that determination is made, next up on the to do list is which of your own free agents or contract option players do you keep or trade to free up cap space. The important names on that list are free agents Luol Deng, Spencer Hawes and C.J. Miles and team option players Anderson Varejao, Alonzo Gee and Scottie Hopson.

What you do there, then leads into maybe your biggest decision of all and that is do you go after LeBron James in free agency if he opts out of his contract with the Miami Heat. If he doesn’t opt out, or you decide not to target him, then what is “Plan B” and who will you target with all of your cap space in free agency?  Do you go after Carmelo Anthony? Is Gordon Hayward your small forward of the future? Do you go after a veteran like Pau Gasol or Rudy Gay or Danny Granger?

LeBron and Kyrie shake hands at Z jersey Ceremony 3-8-14

You could also go another route and try and make a blockbuster trade to bring in an impact player like Kevin Love, but would you have to give up to get him?

And on top of all of that, unless a miracle happens, you once again will be picking in the lottery. As of now you would have the ninth most ping pong balls in the hopper. You better hope that Nick Gilbert’s bow-tie has a lot of luck left in it to get a top 3 pick if you want to land a projected franchise type player. If not, then your new front office will have to do a better job than they did last year in selecting the right player in the draft to help your struggling franchise. Even if it’s not a top three pick, you can’t afford to swing and miss like you did with Anthony Bennett.

So I think it’s safe to say that this “IS” the most important off season in Cavaliers franchise history and it falls squarely on the shoulders of owner Dan Gilbert to make all the right decisions to turn it around.