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Message: [QUOTE="Melancer46, post: 3361637, member: 1674"] Alright, I've watched a couple more games of Woody's this morning against Sunrise Academy and Action Sports Institute. Links here: [URL='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZLy6Od6U0o']Mt. Zion vs. Sunrise Academy[/URL] [URL='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMwT34tTfO0']Mt. Zion vs. Action Sports Institute[/URL] In these two games combined, he had: 18 points 8 rebounds 1 assist 1 block 2 steals 7 turnovers 4 fouls (at least as far as I could tell; the ASI game didn't have good sound nor was the camera angle particularly good, but I didn't notice him get called for any fouls) 4/6 shooting inside the arc (all layups/dunks) 2/5 3 point shooting 4/7 free throw shooting Four games in now and he's at just under 14 points per game, 4 rebounds, less than 1 assist, less than 1 block, 1.5 steals, and over 4 turnovers per game. Shot 47.6% inside the arc, 58.8% from 3 point range, and as is tradition, 45.5% from the free throw line. Overall, great true shooting percentage, though pretty much all of his makes inside the arc were fast break opportunities. All in all, my breakdown of his game would be: [B]Pros:[/B] [LIST] [*]6'8", long wingspan, and he can run and jump when he wants to. [*]When he's defending the ball, he gets down into his defensive stance and does a really nice job making things difficult for his man. [*]With his length and timing, he could be a good shot blocker in our back line. [*]At least from the games I've seen, he seems to be a good spot-up shooter. [*]Ball doesn't stick to his hands; if he doesn't have an open shot, he moves on and passes the ball off to someone else. [*]Very rarely forces up bad shots. [/LIST] [B]Cons:[/B] [LIST] [*]Part of the reason he doesn't force up bad shots is that he doesn't really try to do anything offensively outside of spotting up and taking open jumpers. [*]Ball-handling is simply bad; he's not going to lose the ball on a breakaway, but anytime he dribbles in a half-court setting, he's more likely to turn the ball over than anything else. [*]Struggles to finish around the rim when the defense contests; hopefully this improves as he gets stronger...he's pretty weak right now. [*]Just doesn't want to rebound. Doesn't try to position himself for rebounds and even if the ball bounces to him he pretty much only grabs the ball as a last resort. There were numerous times he was by himself and the ball came within inches of hitting him and he still didn't end up with the rebound. [*]Consistently the last person back on defense regardless of where he is when the shot goes up. [*]One of those guys where even if he should be back on defense, he'll come up and pretend to go for a steal so that he's out of the play and can slowly jog back and allow the other team to get a shot up so that he's hopefully already positioned for the ensuing fast break. [/LIST] [B]Overall Thoughts:[/B] There's certainly potential for him to become a 3 and D guy on our backline. If things break right for him, I could see him being something like a James Southerland kind of player. Having said that, I do wonder if he'll ever get there. When I look at a basketball player, I want to see someone that knows who he is (granted this might not be realistic of most high schoolers). His skills and tools clearly point to a kid that should be making things happen on defense while being a spot-up threat on the 3 point line. With most of his future impact coming on the defensive end, I want to see a kid hustling back on defense, playing passing lanes, being a communicator on defense, and boxing out/using his length and athleticism to grab rebounds. He does the opposite of all of those things. Maybe Boeheim will be able to pull those things out of him in a way the Mt. Zion coach cannot; I don't know. It mostly boils down to effort and he doesn't seem to care very much in high school. He was benched heading into the game against Sunrise for some reason...when he finally checked in, he immediately turned it over 3 or 4 times in consecutive possessions. In the second half, he was clearly frustrated with the way things were going and for a minute or maybe two, he played angry. For the first time, he showed real effort to box out, drew an off-ball foul, and attacked the defense (also blatantly shoved a kid, got into a heated exchange, T'd up, and consequently benched for the last 5 minutes of the game). He took it a little too far at the very end there, but that's the kind of thing that Boeheim needs to get out of him if he's ever going to play a meaningful role here IMO. He needs to turn him into a dog on the defensive end. The demeanor that Woody's shown for 99% of his minutes that I've seen makes me think he likely ends up a disappointment here and transfers elsewhere after not getting much playing time. Obviously hope he has more hunger than he appears to show right now and ends up making the most of his impressive physical gifts. [B]TLDR: There's potential for him to be a really valuable 3nD role player here, but his on-court demeanor makes me think it won't be realized.[/B] I have 3 games in my queue for Kadary Richmond next, but so far, I'm much higher on Kadary than I am Woody. [/QUOTE]

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