WorldWideWoe
Rookie
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2018
- Messages
- 57
- Reaction score
- 96
- Points
- 18
I think he's developed in his transition game way more than I expected, and he deserves full credit for now being a legitimate threat finishing on the break. He's always been willing to take the baseline drive (because he wasn't guarded if we're being honest), and I like that he's developed confidence in the last year to try to finish at the rim from off the dribble on the wing. He's also improved his regular season confidence unguarded from the three point line. That's real development and he deserves credit.While there certainly is a limit on how much he should be paid, he is a Swiss knife on defense, is still super young, has tangibly improved several skills progressively(albeit slowly) from season to season.
His three buckets today were all on agressive drives to the bucket and although he missed both threes tonight he did the right think by quickly taking the open three. There was a bad late in the shot clock decision when first he then Mobley hesitated to take shots they needed to take that led to a 24 second violation.
He can’t control how high he was drafted or the hopes and expectations that come with that. But you acting like he’s Lamar Stevens is either an emotional reaction to a bad game 6 or a sign that you’re not interested in being genuinely honest about his incremental development.
I also think all of the above plays mostly to the regular season against guys not giving full effort, and playoff basketball exposes guys who can't create or don't shoot with confidence. Opponents are happy to scheme rotations to end as many possessions as possible with our worst option shooting, and I think the results are pretty clear in what teams want.
That's a huge liability in the playoffs if a guy isn't valuable enough on defense to outweigh those negatives on offense. In my opinion, a guy like Mobley does, and Okoro doesn't. For those who want to mirror ESPN's line about him limiting Banchero in the second half, that's conveniently forgetting Okoro having the primary assignment on Banchero in the first half. Maybe we give him credit for tiring him out?
We can of course disagree on his impact, but I feel like I've accurately described his improvement over the years. Do you think I'm missing something?