Minnesota Sports Forum

Q12543 wrote:A few thoughts....

- LaVine with some good play early, but he and Dieng kind of screwed the pooch in the 4th quarter. Both made a series of poor decisions and missed shots.

- Shabazz was efficient...finally! It's the entire key to his success because he really doesn't do anything else good enough to put him in the rotation. He reminds me of Derrick Williams in this regard. You either need him to score efficiently or he's somewhat of an albatross. Defensively, he was absolutely torched by Marshan Brooks on three or four straight possessions at one point.

- In fact, defense as a whole was a major problem for this summer league squad. Other than the Phoenix game, we have been consistently torched.

- LaVine has both the quick release and elevation (plus a bit of a fade) to rise up and get his jumper off at any moment. This is both an asset and a liability. The fact he can get it off so easily makes him rely on it too often. He doesn't take the ball to the hole enough and takes quite a few contested jumpers. On the other hand, if we ever need a shot created out of thin air, he has the capability to do it. He just needs to make it go in more often!

- I'm still not too high on GRIII. It was good to see him sink a couple of 3's today, but he needs to make more of an impact when he's in the game. For the most part, I don't even know he's there.

lipoli390 wrote:Q -- Good analysis. I agree with you for the most part. Yet, while I understand similarities you identified between Shabazz and Derrick Williams, I want to emphasize two HUGE differences -- Effort and IQ. Shabazz is all effort while Derrick seemed to just floated around the court looking for a chance to create a highlight dunk for Sports Center. And from what I've heard, the difference between their work habits behind the scenes is night and day. I know you weren't saying they're the same player in every respect, but I just wanted to take the opportunity to highlight some key differences.