Link for Cavaliers Game @ 7:00

[EastCoast2]

He's not going to miss all those layups all season... He was a couple bad rolls on the rim from dropping 21 or 23 points

 

[Melancer46]

LOL! 2-5 from 3pt land and basically shut Beal down 3 steal and 2 of his misses were blocked.

Ok, so 4/9 inside the arac when 2 or 3 of them were breakaway dunks/lay-ins. Again, that's not good. You can say what you want. Hitting a wide open 3 and another 3 doesn't take away from the fact that he didn't show anything new yet. He's good in transition, good at picking up steals, but struggles to play good defense, loses his man, doesn't fight over screens, doesn't cut off of screens, and passes up open teammates to force up shots. I don't care how big of a Cuse fan or Dion fan you are. He has a lot of serious flaws in his game and I hope that he can fix them and live up to his draft spot so that we don't have to worry about people saying another Syracuse player didn't live up to the hype.

 

[Flacusian]

Dion getting props from the home team announcers. Solid game by Dion. It looks like he's in the perfect position to carve out a niche for himself on this Cav's team. He and Uncle Drew seem to play well together. I think we can all be proud of Dion. Does he have work to do at the next level? Of course he does, but he has the tools and has shown he has matured over his career at Cuse and there is no reason to believe that he won't do the same going forward with his professional career.

 

[Gabjon]

Ok, so 4/9 inside the arac when 2 or 3 of them were breakaway dunks/lay-ins. Again, that's not good. You can say what you want. Hitting a wide open 3 and another 3 doesn't take away from the fact that he didn't show anything new yet. He's good in transition, good at picking up steals, but struggles to play good defense, loses his man, doesn't fight over screens, doesn't cut off of screens, and passes up open teammates to force up shots. I don't care how big of a Cuse fan or Dion fan you are. He has a lot of serious flaws in his game and I hope that he can fix them and live up to his draft spot so that we don't have to worry about people saying another Syracuse player didn't live up to the hype.

You don't know basketball!

 

[reedny]

Ok, so 4/9 inside the arac when 2 or 3 of them were breakaway dunks/lay-ins. Again, that's not good. You can say what you want. Hitting a wide open 3 and another 3 doesn't take away from the fact that he didn't show anything new yet. He's good in transition, good at picking up steals, but struggles to play good defense, loses his man, doesn't fight over screens, doesn't cut off of screens, and passes up open teammates to force up shots. I don't care how big of a Cuse fan or Dion fan you are. He has a lot of serious flaws in his game and I hope that he can fix them and live up to his draft spot so that we don't have to worry about people saying another Syracuse player didn't live up to the hype.

The 'serious flaws' are in your expectations. This was Dion's first dance as a pro. 17 points in 28 minutes with a +13 against Brad Beal was hardly the disappointment you make it out to be. Maybe you missed that #3 in the draft was a -16 (8 pts.). That and the "A" that Carr gave Dion should have given you pause before you posted this rant.

Rondo scored 23 pts in his first game -- in 42 minutes. http://celticshub.com/2010/12/26/classic-box-score-rondos-first-start/

 

[SteveC]

0 assists from Dion, not something you wanna see from a starting guard...

He passed the ball well though. so did Kyrie and he only had 2 assists. All the while Varejao(Great game for him 9/23/9) and Thompson had a boat load of assists.

 

[4evaOrange]

Wow, I thought his D was great, coming up with a few steals and he played good man defense, and he closed out on open shots.

 

[SteveC]

Ok, so 4/9 inside the arac when 2 or 3 of them were breakaway dunks/lay-ins. Again, that's not good. You can say what you want. Hitting a wide open 3 and another 3 doesn't take away from the fact that he didn't show anything new yet. He's good in transition, good at picking up steals, but struggles to play good defense, loses his man, doesn't fight over screens, doesn't cut off of screens, and passes up open teammates to force up shots. I don't care how big of a Cuse fan or Dion fan you are. He has a lot of serious flaws in his game and I hope that he can fix them and live up to his draft spot so that we don't have to worry about people saying another Syracuse player didn't live up to the hype.

The Cav's fans at fearthesword are ecstatic with how he played. and 4 of 9 is far from bad. Making 3's is in fact different from not making 3's. I didn't see him force a single shot during the game...

 

[Melancer46]

The Cav's fans at fearthesword are ecstatic with how he played. and 4 of 9 is far from bad. Making 3's is in fact different from not making 3's. I didn't see him force a single shot during the game...

4/9 on layups is bad. He could have passed off on almost all of those missed layups.

 

[SouthCampusHero]

Its obvious Melancer didnt watch the game; he just looked over the boxscore.

 

[Melancer46]

Wow, I thought his D was great, coming up with a few steals and he played good man defense, and he closed out on open shots.

Yes, but why were they open to begin with? He was losing his man while focusing on jumping other passing lanes.

 

[Melancer46]

Its obvious Melancer didnt watch the game; he just looked over the boxscore.

Lmao, I watched literally from start to finish. How the hell would I know he was lazy fighting through screens, lazy in his cuts off of screens, and skipped over open teammates on his drives, while struggling to finish around the rim and only taking a couple of jumpshots if I looked at just the box score? Just because I'm not kissing his behind doesn't mean I didn't watch the game. I'm just not as easy to pump up every Syracuse player as you guys are.

 

[Chosen0ne]

Melancer was being negative before the game even started--making fun of him for beating out Alonzo Gee to start at the 2 (even though Gee starts at the 3). Not sure what you have against Waiters. That was a good debut and he was outstanding on the defensive end.

 

[Melancer46]

He passed the ball well though. so did Kyrie and he only had 2 assists. All the while Varejao(Great game for him 9/23/9) and Thompson had a boat load of assists.

They definitely both had some nice passes. But they both were a bit trigger happy. A lot of their passes, their teammates just didn't convert on so it limited their assist numbers, but I'd like to see both of them not force it as much (though Irving's jumpshot seemed to be on tonight so it didn't really matter much).

 

[EastCoast2]

Ok, so 4/9 inside the arac when 2 or 3 of them were breakaway dunks/lay-ins. Again, that's not good. You can say what you want. Hitting a wide open 3 and another 3 doesn't take away from the fact that he didn't show anything new yet. He's good in transition, good at picking up steals, but struggles to play good defense, loses his man, doesn't fight over screens, doesn't cut off of screens, and passes up open teammates to force up shots. I don't care how big of a Cuse fan or Dion fan you are. He has a lot of serious flaws in his game and I hope that he can fix them and live up to his draft spot so that we don't have to worry about people saying another Syracuse player didn't live up to the hype.

If the Cavs don't take Waiters 4th, and take Drummond say, Irving handles the ball for 47 mpg

 

[Gabjon]

Yes, but why were they open to begin with? He was losing his man while focusing on jumping other passing lanes.

His man was Bradley Beal (the 3rd over all pick) who went 2-8fg 2-4 3gf 2-2ft for 8pts, which means he when 0-4 fro 2 pt land! Oh and Dion ripped at mid court and dunked it!

 

[4evaOrange]

Yes, but why were they open to begin with? He was losing his man while focusing on jumping other passing lanes.

Yeah, while you have all those backdoor screens you are bound to lose some, and a couple of those were someone else man. And while I agree he looked to the passing lanes, that IMO is one of his best features, being able to jump those lanes at the right time, he should probably stay at "home" on his man but it's a gamble...

 

[Melancer46]

Melancer was being negative before the game even started--making fun of him for beating out Alonzo Gee to start at the 2 (even though Gee starts at the 3). Not sure what you have against Waiters. That was a good debut and he was outstanding on the defensive end.

Ok, I explained before. Regardless, he beat out Miles or Gee for the starting 2 spot when they're both playing out of position at SG anyway.

I don't have anything against Waiters. I just don't think he's nearly as good as most Syracuse fans did. Everyone fell in love with him because of his highlight dunks and the way he carried us in some of the big games last year, but he was a complete let down from the moment Fab got suspended the first time to the end of the regular season, and as an NBA prospect, his only real strengths (at this point, because he DOES have a LOT of potential to develop his game) are his abilities pick up steals and finish around the rim. Everything else (man defense, off-ball defense, off-ball offense, jumpshot, shot selection/willingness to pass) are all works in progress.

Do I believe that he can possibly develop some of those things and become a good sixth man or a fringe starter on a good team? Yes I do. I think he'll fall somewhere between Rodney Stuckey and James Harden as far as NBA production goes. You can take from that what you want, but I don't think that's setting the bar too low, nor do I think that's necessarily a bad thing. It just isn't as good as a lot of you seem to think he will become.

 

[Melancer46]

His man was Bradley Beal (the 3rd over all pick) who went 2-8fg 2-4 3gf 2-2ft for 8pts, which means he when 0-4 fro 2 pt land! Oh and Dion ripped at mid court and dunked it!

I don't really have a "man". I think Beal will be closer to ROTY this year, but I think it will most likely be Unibrow, Barnes, Valanciunas, Beal, or Motiejunas (but Valanciunas or Motiejunas could both fall flat on their faces too; depends on how much playing time they get).

 

[Melancer46]

Yeah, while you have all those backdoor screens you are bound to lose some, and a couple of those were someone else man. And while I agree he looked to the passing lanes, that IMO is one of his best features, being able to jump those lanes at the right time, he should probably stay at "home" on his man but it's a gamble...

Yeah, it's definitely a give and take kinda thing. I think he'll refine that as he gets more accustomed to the NBA speed and it will become more of a strength. But just for example, he misstimed one of the passes late in the game and it turned into a 3 point play for the Wizards because it put everyone else out of position.

But I do think that will be a big strength for him as he learns the NBA game.

 

[Gabjon]

I don't really have a "man". I think Beal will be closer to ROTY this year, but I think it will most likely be Unibrow, Barnes, Valanciunas, Beal, or Motiejunas (but Valanciunas or Motiejunas could both fall flat on their faces too; depends on how much playing time they get).

I don't get your response "I am saying Beal was the man Dion was guarding" and the man he ripped at half court for the world to see, but he is clearly better than Dion...riiiggghhhhttt I get you now:crazy:

 

[reedny]

Lmao, I watched literally from start to finish. How the hell would I know he was lazy fighting through screens, lazy in his cuts off of screens, and skipped over open teammates on his drives, while struggling to finish around the rim and only taking a couple of jumpshots if I looked at just the box score? Just because I'm not kissing his behind doesn't mean I didn't watch the game. I'm just not as easy to pump up every Syracuse player as you guys are.

Why are you so hyped up over this -- literally everyone else who watched the game felt Dion played well. What's your issue?

 

[Melancer46]

You have an agenda. Find somewhere else to hate on Dion.

Lol, I really, really don't. Again, is saying he'll end up somewhere between Rodney Stuckey and James Harden really hating on him?

 

[Melancer46]

I don't get your response "I am saying Beal was the man Dion was guarding" and the man he ripped at half court for the world to see, but he is clearly better than Dion...riiiggghhhhttt I get you now:crazy:

I'm not really sure I understand what you're saying. Are you trying to say that you think it's ridiculous to think Beal could possibly be better than Waiters because of the first game of the season? I assume that's not what you're trying to say, but I don't really get it.

 

[EastCoast2]

as an NBA prospect, his only real strengths (at this point, because he DOES have a LOT of potential to develop his game) are his abilities pick up steals and finish around the rim.

Really? Getting to the rim isn't a strength? Only 2 players on the Cavaliers entire roster can get to the rim at will - that's why they drafted him 4th - to let Irving play off the ball at times and take pressure off him.