sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
- Messages
- 26,442
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- 114,898
Small crowd. Maybe 5K. Quiet. I understand. Pace was...like you might think a school named Pace would be like. 5'5 point guards named Salvatore. 6'6 190 pound centers. Best player named after Denzel Washington. Denzel Primero Demon. Something like that. Wore #1. Solid.
Great NA by an 8th grader from West Genny. Impressive.
Scorecard config for basketball was awful for the Knick exhibition. Still awful. Forget about improving the limited information they made available with the old twilighted light bulb technology. Things are even worse now. You have the score, the time, the team fouls and time outs remaining. No other individual or team stats despite great improvements in resolution and vastly expanded space on the many scoreboards in the Dome. I hope this improves. Football was awful at first and has gotten better as the season has progressed. So there is reason to keep hope alive.
Pace was really awful. No way to make any meaningful judgments from this one. That being said...
Baye Moussa Keita had a lot of points. Mostly garbage 2 footers. He is still really skinny, don't think he has put on any muscle. Essentially the same player as last year.
Coleman was not a focus on offense but still got some points, converted when he got the ball down low. Looks like unless he is within 5 feet of the rim, he is not a threat to score, will need some time to develop moves. Great at outletting the ball. Not a shotblocker, not a dunker, gonna block a lot of shots. One of the biggest questions of the preseason was, where is JB gonna put DC2 in the zone? He played on the wing when Christmas was in, presumably because Rakim is a far better shot blocker. Will be interesting to see how well he can get to the shooter playing here. If Rick could do it, I would think DC2 can too.
Christmas is the most noticeably bigger player. Remains pretty limited on offense, looks like he is going to rebound more this season. Was really patient, did not force anything on offense, converted when he got the ball in good position. Solid start for him.
James did not start but didn't mope, played hard, was really efficient while on the court and looked confident. Played some minutes at the top of the 2-3 which was really interesting to see.
CJ hit a 3, was effective kniving to the hole, rebounded pretty well, looked like a solid veteran. Has gotten a little stronger, his arms are definitely bigger and his torso thicker.
MCW was not as dominant as I thought he might be. Got off to a great start but was bothered by strong in your face defense a bit. Finished in the paint really well, didn't pass the ball nearly as much as I expected he would. Did hit a 3 very nicely. He may dominate this season but definitely has some growing pains to get through beforehand.
BT played good defense, ran the point effectively, passed it well and scored when he had position, mostly inside the paint against the Pace vertically challenged guards.
Jeremy Grant had a quiet but solid debut. Plays like a vet, doesn't force anything, savvy, really long, not as fast as I was expecting, looks to me like he is going to develop into a power forward over time. Does everything well. Will be hard to get minutes for him with 3 vets returning at forward but it will also be hard to keep him off the court.
Fun game to watch. There was some stretches of sustained excellence on offense and defense and some other stretches of very uninspired play. Overall, I think this team might be a little less consistent on defense as recent years, this applies to offense as well. Should be a little better rebounding team than last year.
There is work to do with a bunch of the new players, figuring out their roles, working together better as a team, etc. I expect several losses early, we might struggle to score points at times. But the pieces are all here to have a top 10 team and I think they will eventually figure it all out. Be patient, don't freak out when this team struggles some early. In the end, I think things are going to turn out just fine.
Great NA by an 8th grader from West Genny. Impressive.
Scorecard config for basketball was awful for the Knick exhibition. Still awful. Forget about improving the limited information they made available with the old twilighted light bulb technology. Things are even worse now. You have the score, the time, the team fouls and time outs remaining. No other individual or team stats despite great improvements in resolution and vastly expanded space on the many scoreboards in the Dome. I hope this improves. Football was awful at first and has gotten better as the season has progressed. So there is reason to keep hope alive.
Pace was really awful. No way to make any meaningful judgments from this one. That being said...
Baye Moussa Keita had a lot of points. Mostly garbage 2 footers. He is still really skinny, don't think he has put on any muscle. Essentially the same player as last year.
Coleman was not a focus on offense but still got some points, converted when he got the ball down low. Looks like unless he is within 5 feet of the rim, he is not a threat to score, will need some time to develop moves. Great at outletting the ball. Not a shotblocker, not a dunker, gonna block a lot of shots. One of the biggest questions of the preseason was, where is JB gonna put DC2 in the zone? He played on the wing when Christmas was in, presumably because Rakim is a far better shot blocker. Will be interesting to see how well he can get to the shooter playing here. If Rick could do it, I would think DC2 can too.
Christmas is the most noticeably bigger player. Remains pretty limited on offense, looks like he is going to rebound more this season. Was really patient, did not force anything on offense, converted when he got the ball in good position. Solid start for him.
James did not start but didn't mope, played hard, was really efficient while on the court and looked confident. Played some minutes at the top of the 2-3 which was really interesting to see.
CJ hit a 3, was effective kniving to the hole, rebounded pretty well, looked like a solid veteran. Has gotten a little stronger, his arms are definitely bigger and his torso thicker.
MCW was not as dominant as I thought he might be. Got off to a great start but was bothered by strong in your face defense a bit. Finished in the paint really well, didn't pass the ball nearly as much as I expected he would. Did hit a 3 very nicely. He may dominate this season but definitely has some growing pains to get through beforehand.
BT played good defense, ran the point effectively, passed it well and scored when he had position, mostly inside the paint against the Pace vertically challenged guards.
Jeremy Grant had a quiet but solid debut. Plays like a vet, doesn't force anything, savvy, really long, not as fast as I was expecting, looks to me like he is going to develop into a power forward over time. Does everything well. Will be hard to get minutes for him with 3 vets returning at forward but it will also be hard to keep him off the court.
Fun game to watch. There was some stretches of sustained excellence on offense and defense and some other stretches of very uninspired play. Overall, I think this team might be a little less consistent on defense as recent years, this applies to offense as well. Should be a little better rebounding team than last year.
There is work to do with a bunch of the new players, figuring out their roles, working together better as a team, etc. I expect several losses early, we might struggle to score points at times. But the pieces are all here to have a top 10 team and I think they will eventually figure it all out. Be patient, don't freak out when this team struggles some early. In the end, I think things are going to turn out just fine.
