Also fun fact which should be obvious: he chose that number in high school because of Kobe. He's also a big LeBron fan.
Also fun fact which should be obvious: he chose that number in high school because of Kobe. He's also a big LeBron fan.
You okay, bro? Maybe take a nap for a year or so.
That didn't turn out too badly for Tim Duncan or the other 90% of players who grow up Laker fans.
For the record, it wasn't a slight. Don't really care if he was lol
I will say though I miss players like Manu who would give unusual answers and deeper insight in interviews.
What dude from Arizona? TheDrewShow
Thought you meant an NBA player lol.
Here's another great video, everyone:
Haha I actually read from the person who made the video that he made a mistake and meant 20 lb, not 40 lb.
Most impressive is kawhi, more steals than fouls for his career
Most boring talker in the draft! I like it, finally we taking some no nonsense draftee, seems like the opposite of instaballer and hairdo!
Last edited by kobyz; 11-23-2020 at 08:21 AM.
Kobe, LeBron, KD fan For a 2way player, I’m surprised no mention of a defensive guy except for The Dream but more on his hook shot.
Devin sporting his first Spurs t-shirt, working with Zach Graham.
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Nov 20, 2020, 5:01:17 PM
I've been watching a lot of film on Vassell, just to try to get a feel on what to expect from him this upcoming season.
He's a lot different from Kawhi, which everyone knew, but I figured I wanted to know by just how much.
Contrary to popular belief, and I've said this before, the Spurs did not "build" Kawhi. He was not this super raw athlete with no skills whatsoever. His handles were pretty advanced already in college, he could dribble between his legs, which I didnt see Devin do once in all the videos I've seen. If you watch the video above, you'll see that Kawhi's comfort zone was anywhere 10 feet from the rim which we grew to see over the years he was a Spur. He was automatic from there. Kawhi loved to bang down low and use his strength to get his shot up in the interior. He possessed already good footwork in college.
But here's the interesting thing, and probably why people assume the Spurs "built" him. He displayed ONLY about 10% of what I mentioned in the last paragraph in his first two years with the Spurs. There could be a myriad of reasons to this, but IMO, I came away with one conclusion as to why Kawhi was able to showcase just a few things he did in college... It has to do with the way the Spurs develop their players.
If you watched all bubble games and focused on Keldon as I did, if you were paying attention you would have noticed something changed with his play style after about the first two or three games. During the first two or three games, he was basically playing with a lot of freedom and taking the ball, driving it in, doing a lot to show his abilities. Then, by game three or four, you will notice he started to park his ass in the corner or on the three point line to have the ball kicked out to him so he can shoot it... And we all know how well he shot it. After that specific game, he basically implied he was given marching orders to be a 3 and D guy and work his way up from there in the post game interview.
This is how the Spurs develop their players.
And it is evident with what Pop says all the time in interviews: "Before you try to be great, we want you to be solid."
Kawhi during his rookie year was assigned to be that 3 and D guy behind our three stars and was basically told to perfect that craft before he moves on to becoming great.
What does this all have to do with Devin Vassell?
Well, after watching Devin, I see an upside beyond being a 3 and D guy. His arsenal in college includes pull up Js in the mid-range with remarkable efficiency. He also has amazing hops.
When Devin plays this year, I think like with our talented rookies of the past (please note: I'm only referring to Spur players who were drafted with extreme upside) he will be instructed to perform a specific role and the goal will be for him to be solid at it.
I think Devin of the future is a player who will be a lights out shooter from anywhere (weakest probably still in the interior even if he gains strength) on the court. People will love his off ball defense, reminds me so much of Manu's timely steals. And people will be surprised by his hops.
Devin's game has shades of Khris Middleton, Reggie Miller, and Klay Thompson.
A lot of Khris on offense = shoots it with a hand in the face, mostly takes faceup jumpers, tendency to shoot from mid-range. Not super explosive, but gets it done with basic crossovers.
A lot of Klay on defense = In terms of who he can guard (occasionally PG's and SF's, full-time on SG's), with similar foot speed and awareness leading to timely steals and weakside blocking.
My bottom-line point is that players are who they were in college. No one gets "built" from scratch. There usually is a foundation there to begin with. The Spurs are probably the best at taking that foundation, and polishing it up real nice by slow and patient development.
Be solid first, then be great.
Maybe that can be applied to life.
Sugus
Last edited by Dejounte; 11-25-2020 at 12:39 PM.
^ Yeah Culver the 6th pick from MIN got his confidence got shot when MIN tried to give him a lot of responsibilities on offense at the start of the year. All his progress he built of from college gone , now he is shooting free throws like Poeltl. Same thing happened with Frank and Knox in New York.
but mostly it has to do with different level of opposing players defensive skills and athleticism
I don't disagree with that statement. However, I believe it's more of a cause than it is an effect to why the Spurs do what they do when it comes to developing players.
Basketball has always been a confidence game. The best proof of this is what we've seen with Derrick White. Everyone knew he had the ability to do the things he does now, but he always shied away from it because the tiniest mistake ate at him mentally. Imagine if the Spurs had thrown him into the fire and he made all of those mistakes all at once. It wouldn't be as easy for him to conquer all the doubts he had in his game. Instead, each mistake that he had he was able to digest little by little and he was able to go to battle mentally with the lie in his head that he couldn't do it.
Last edited by Dejounte; 11-25-2020 at 02:59 PM.
That is the reason why I don't understand the situation is with DJM, too much was expected from him. If he concentrate on 3 & D, which he shows he got the potential to do it, then move on to other things, he would be much better. It's time to stop expecting him to be a PG.
To be fair, I think it's a different learning curve for players like DJ who don't have natural PG skills. So when there was a PG who was used to the system (Tony Parker) still available to mentor him, I think they went after that opportunity.
There is a lot of demand from the PG position. It's a position where a lot of shuffling of players for that spot is less than ideal. They probably saw DJ and figured they want to have SOME kind of stability for the next decade vs constantly having to teach the system to a new veteran PG every 3 years.
Last edited by Dejounte; 11-25-2020 at 10:36 AM.
Wow, I'm absolutely loving this Dejounte x Vassell redemption storyline, lmao. From begging the Spurs not to draft him, to spending heavy time watching his film and game.
Some real interesting analysis! I will say though, that I don't think it's always the case that college players' games are an absolute determination of what they'll end up being in the NBA - for better or worse. An example I recently looked into was Anthony Davis - someone asked me to look at his college tape and try to see flashes of perimeter play that's now a heavy part of his game, but when I went to look at the film, I was surprised to see it wasn't the case when he played college ball. He was strictly a rim-runner, dunker, and generally played around the rim. No 3's whatsoever, clutch ones at that like his bubble game-winner, nor those guard-like dribbling and ball-handling skills that make him so unique.
That doesn't mean Vassell can't have the development curve you bring up, it's just an interesting thing I noticed in regards to players' games in college, that they don't always flash their full potential or abilities. Of course, this can work in Devin's favor... And I agree with the rest of your write-up in regards to the Spurs' development. I think DJ is already "screwed up" in that I don't think his ceiling includes being a PG in any capacity, but he's already been "anointed" so that if he's ever switched off that role, he'll inevitably lose confidence in his game and stunt his growth. Had he been developed properly as you described, he could've solidified his role as a 3-D player, and then try to play PG, where he would've failed IMO, but would still have a role to fall back on. Right now, he's in no-man's land, and unless he somehow comes into the season with a noticeably more advanced game, I fear our other guards and prospects will soon take his place in the rotation, and it will cause problems for the Spurs.
Wasn't Anthony Davis a 6'2" point guard in high school?
I'm gonna love my Spurs no matter who they are lol
To me, Precious had a similar story to Anthony Davis...
Precious played wing in high school, desired to play wing in college, Wiseman declared out, and he's forced to play a center type role by committee / best talent available. Had to be forced to hide some of skills and play in the paint more often.
Anthony, because he's their tallest player and had skills rebounding, rim running, had to play a specific role in college. This also happened during a time when basketball had not adapted to bigs playing on the perimeter more often. Anthony only started playing like he has for about two to three years now when it became widely accepted for bigs to have perimeter skills. If we rate his perimeter skills right now an "A" for a big, I think it's hard for us all to say that he developed "A" level perimeter skill in very few years time. Rather, I think it's more realistic to say that he's always had those skills (in high school, as mentioned) and he's bringing them back to his game as of late.
So I guess there is another layer to consider of when there are skills in high school that weren't shown in college.
I could be wrong about all this, but it just sounds similar.
Sugus
Last edited by Dejounte; 11-25-2020 at 03:15 PM.
Here's a good article on Anthony Davis and his guard skills:
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recru...ory?id=5894839
Ooh, that's an interesting comp. You know I'm always up for some Precious. Hmm, interesting points.... Though I think the line kinda gets blurry here - could we really extrapolate the skills shown in HS by every prospect, and try to derive their NBA playstyle or ceilings from there? It would've made you a visionary had you said it 4 years ago about AD, but surely that's not the case for every prospect. Definitely something we could take into account when evaluating players - not only the kind of compe ion they faced growing up, and their skill levels, but also the progression (or regression in this case) of their arsenal of abilities in these extraneous cir stances. Oh, also, I knew about the AD being a PG thing - I was just saying that he definitely didn't play that way through college. Though the point about perimeter play for bigs being a very recent thing is also good... I wonder which past prospects suffered from this close-mindedness in regards to bigs playing perimeter games.
I've gone off a tangent, though. I hope you're right about Devin. I've seen a lot of videos on him that flash both passing, and dribbling potential, which is a must if he ever hopes to get out of the 3-and-D mold that he's in right now. We'll see how he develops, though I'm fairly high on him now, especially due to his defense. We need every bit of it that we can get for these new Spurs.
Tough job indeed. That's why the people employed to do this gets paid the big bucks. I'd put more time and research into finding out more about that blurry line if I was getting paid.
Last edited by Dejounte; 11-25-2020 at 04:24 PM.
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