By my count, there are eight players coming to the NBA after spending at least a year playing overseas.  Throughout the week we are going to look at each player’s individual game one by one, to see what we can expect from them this year in the NBA.

Past Editions: Nikola Pekovic | Timofey Mozgov | Tiago Splitter | Pooh Jeter

The Chicago Bulls have held Omer Asik’s rights since the 2008 NBA Draft.  Asik was originally taken with the 36th overall pick by the Portland Trailblazers, but his rights were immediately traded to the Bulls.  Now at 24, the Chicago Bulls have finally signed the 6′11″ 230 pound (according to DraftExpress.com) Asik to a 2 year deal at about $1.7 million per year (according to the salary listed on ESPN’s trade machine).

In my opinion, Asik isn’t as NBA-ready as Pekovic, Mozgov, or Splitter but he does have some skills that could help in year one, and if he is developed properly he could become a productive member of the Bulls in year two.

Note:  In the clip, Asik is playing for Fenerbahçe Ülker and is #24 in white.

Strengths

Runs The Floor/Finds Open Spaces In Transition

Omer Asik isn’t overly athletic (even by a center’s standards), and he isn’t going to run by anyone, but Asik still is pretty good in transition.  The reason is because he seems to understand floor spacing really well, and he knows what to do when running up and down the court:

Here, Asik gets his defender on his back when running out, and once he gets that position, he doesn’t have to create separation with his man. Asik understands that, and once he gets to the lane he pauses, keeping his defender on his back, and allowing for the middle of the lane to open up. He then makes the catch and finishes.

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By my count, there are eight players coming to the NBA after spending at least a year playing overseas.  Throughout the week we are going to look at each player’s individual game one by one, to see what we can expect from them this year in the NBA.

Past Editions: Nikola Pekovic | Timofey Mozgov | Tiago Splitter

After coming out of Portland and playing one season in the D-League, Pooh Jeter headed to Europe.  After three seasons overseas (the final stretch was a 22 game stint with Hapoel Jerusalem) and numerous Summer League invites, the 5′11″ Jeter has finally got himself a NBA contract.

For this scouting report, I am looking at Jeter’s games overseas.  The reason I prefer to use this rather than his Summer League performance because I think it will give us a better look into his game.  With Hapoel Jerusalem, Jeter was playing with guys who he was comfortable with, rather than a group of guys assembled almost at random with each trying to prove themselves.

Note:  Jeter wears #15 for Hapoel Jerusalem.  Their colors are red and white.

Strengths

Ball Pressure

Pooh Jeter is small and quick, and this makes for the perfect on ball defender in my opinion.  He is able to get low and disrupt a point guard’s dribble and his speed allows for him to force the ballhandler to change directions a number of times:

Here, Jeter’s speed and ability to stay in front of his man forces him to change directions twice.  The second time, the ballhandler is worried about Jeter reaching in and stealing the ball, so he turns his back to Jeter.  This allows for the double team to come and force the turnover.

Now, the ball handlers are better in the NBA, but I think Jeter’s speed is enough for him to be able to stay in front of his man.

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By my count, there are eight players coming to the NBA after spending at least a year playing overseas.  Throughout the week we are going to look at each player’s individual game one by one, to see what we can expect from them this year in the NBA.

Past Editions: Nikola Pekovic | Timofey Mozgov

Out of the eight players coming over to the NBA from overseas, Tiago Splitter is probably the most well known name (Not counting guys like Josh Childress and Linas Kleiza, who have already played in the NBA).  Splitter’s name has been out there since 2006 when he was supposed to enter the NBA draft, but eventually declined.  The Spurs took him the next year after, since his age made him eligible.  Spurs’ fans have been waiting for him ever since.  After agreeing to an $11 million deal over three years, Splitter is finally coming over to the NBA.

The reason that there has been so much hype (and so much talk about how good Splitter’s deal is for the Spurs), and it is because he is a very talented.  At 6′11″ and 245 pounds, Splitter’s polished post game is what really makes him special in my opinion.

Quick Note:  In the clips, Splitter is wearing #21 for his team in the white jerseys.  He is wearing an arm sleeve which makes identification easier.

Strengths

Polished Post Game

I briefly mentioned this in the intro, but in my opinion Tiago Splitter’s polished post game is his best attribute.  In the post, Splitter really makes it tough for defenders because he really knows how to counter what the defense does to him:

Here, Splitter’s defender has his hand on his back and is trying to be physical with him.  Splitter counters this by feeling for the defender and quickly pivoting to the inside.  As he does this, he throws his off hand up (if he keeps his hand close to his body, it isn’t a foul) creating separation between himself and his defender.  This gives him the lane and the only reason he misses is because he is fouled (it doesn’t get called).

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By my count, there are eight players coming to the NBA after spending at least a year playing overseas.  Throughout the week we are going to look at each player’s individual game one by one, to see what we can expect from them this year in the NBA.

Past Editions: Nikola Pekovic

Timofey Mozgov is a 24 year old center signed as a international free agent by the New York Knicks for $10 million over the course of three years.  Mozgov is a big boy at 7′1″ and 270 pounds, but he isn’t a stiff.  Mozgov has bounce to his step, and he is pretty mobile for his size.  Mozgov has spent the last four years playing for the Russian club Khimki Moscow Region.

Note:  Mozgov wears #25 for his team, Khimki.  You will recognize him in the clips by his high socks.

Strengths

He Can Run The Floor

Some Knicks fans are probably wondering why the Knicks signed a 270 pound big man to play in their run and gun style offense.  Despite his size, Mozgov doesn’t lumber up and down the court:

Mozgov doesn’t get the ball on this fast break, but you can see he can keep up with his point guard in transition.  He isn’t going to run by anybody on the break, but he can fill the lane in transition, making himself available to his PG in the middle of the paint on fast breaks.

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By my count, there are eight players coming to the NBA after spending at least a year playing overseas.  Throughout the week we are going to look at each player’s individual game one by one, to see what we can expect from them this year in the NBA.

Nikola Pekovic is a 24 year old 6′11″ center who was taken by the Minnesota Timberwolves with the first pick in the second round in 2008.  After playing two seasons for the Greek club Panathinaikos Pekovic signed a 3 year deal with the Timberwolves, guaranteeing that he will be taking his talents to the NBA.

Quick Note:  In the following clips, Nikola Pekovic is #14 playing for Panathinaikos, who are wearing green.

Strengths:

Work In The Post

The first thing that you notice when watching Nikola Pekovic play is that he absolutely loves throwing his body around when working in the post:

Pekovic is willing to bang bodies with his defender whenever he thinks he can improve his position by doing so. Pekovic has good but not great post moves and a good but not great ability to dribble in the post, but what makes him so good is that he gets such good position that all he needs to do is take one dribble or make one move to get a shot off:

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When it comes to free throw shooting, a lot of it depends on form.  This is because you are standing at the line with nobody covering you with the rim directly in front of you.  If there is something wrong with your form it is really going to alter your shot at the line.  Today I decided to take a look at some of the worst shooters and breakdown their form, looking for some things that can be corrected.

Dwight Howard (483/816 = 59.2%):

When Dwight Howard shoots free throw, it looks like he is playing darts rather than shooting a basketball.  This is because when he shoots his free throws, it is all wrist.  After he does his routine dribbles, he rests the ball on his shoulders, and with no knee bend or anything he fires the ball at the rim:

Howard ends up with a lot of line drives because he is basically aiming the basketball rather than shooting it.  A lot of that is because he rests the ball on his shoulder before taking the shot.  When Dwight gets his whole body in rhythm before he shoots it, he tends to make it:

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Can He Bounce Back? Is a new series here at NBAPlaybook, and in it we will be looking at players that had a rough 2010 and determine whether or not it was a fluke or a start of a trend.

This past season, Richard Jefferson had one of the worst years of his career.  His 12.3 points per game was his lowest since his rookie year in 2001 (when he averaged just 24 minutes per game) and his PER of 13.18 was the lowest of his career.

Where He Struggled

Three Point Shooting

Richard Jefferson’s shooting percentage actually increased from 2008-2009 (43.9%) to last season (46.7%), but his shooting accuracy dropped from a few key locations, and his True Shooting percentage reflects that.  This past season, Jefferson’s True Shooting percentage was 55.1% (Compared to 55.4% two years ago).

The most important location where Jefferson saw his shooting percentage drop from was the three point line.  Jefferson’s 31.6% from behind the arc was the lowest of his career since the 2002-2003 season (and a steep decrease from his 39.7% clip last year).

Getting To The Rim

While Richard Jefferson’s three point shooting declined, his FG% on shots at the rim actually increased by a pretty wide margin.  Jefferson went from 57% two years ago to 67.7% this past year.  The problem though is that he wasn’t able to get to the rim like he used to.  Jefferson’s attempts at the rim dropped from 4.0 a game two years ago to 3.1 last year.  I know it doesn’t seem like much, but extrapolate that over the course of a full season, and that is a pretty big dip in attempts.

The reason Jefferson’s attempts are down is that he just doesn’t have the same athletic ability that he had in the beginning of his career:

In the above video, Jefferson grabs the rebound and brings the basketball up the court.  Jefferson basically has an one on one situation here.  In the prime of his career, Jefferson takes that ball to the rim strong, but instead he pulls it out.  This forces him to pick up his dribble, and leads to a turnover.

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With three of the top ten players in the NBA, the Miami Heat might end up seeing a lot of zone defense this year.  This seems logical because teams have trouble defending guys like LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh when they were the lone All-Stars on their team, and now they are playing together.  Few teams (if any) have three high quality individual defenders good enough to stop these guys one on one, so the zone is the next best option.  So how will the 2-3 zone work against a team like the Heat next year?

Since the Heat haven’t played any games yet, I figured we could look at Team USA’s performance in the 2008 Olympics.  Now I know that the two players that are going to be playing with James, Wade, and Bosh on the Heat won’t be Olympic quality, I know that the teams playing against them are better than Australia, Greece, and Argentina, and I know that the Heat’s coaching staff won’t have two Hall of Fame college coaches to help break down the zone for NBA guys.  However, this is the closest we can get to seeing how a high-quality team operates against a zone defense, and what I took away from watching Team USA’s Olympic performance is that the zone will work against the Heat, but only in stretches.

Why It Will Work

When the zone worked against Team USA in the Olympics, it was because it got them to stand around and just pass the ball around the perimeter.  Here, Team USA is just going through the motions on offense, making pass after pass after pass, just allowing for the Spanish zone to rotate and stay in front of their man.  There are no penetrating or attacking dribbles, and that is exactly what Spain wants.  They want to see the ball being passed around like this rather than having a LeBron James or a Dwyane Wade taking their man to the basket and either finishing or kicking it out to an open teammate.

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The pick and roll plays an important part of the Utah Jazz’s offense.  According to Synergy Sports, they run it about 10.6% of the time on offense, and are pretty successful at it, especially when it came to finding the roll man in positions to score.  The Jazz ranked 3rd in the NBA in Synergy’s “Pick and Roll – Roll Man” category with 1.15 points per possession, however that was with Carlos Boozer as the screener (Carlos Boozer was fantastic working with Deron Williams on the pick and roll, ranking 11th individually in the NBA in Synergy’s “Pick and Roll – Roll Man” category with 1.27 points per possession).

The problem is that Carlos Boozer is now in Chicago, and there is a void in Utah’s pick and roll game.  In my opinion, Boozer’s replacement comes down to two guys, Paul Millsap and their newest acquisition Al Jefferson.  The answer should be pretty simple right?  Just look at who runs the pick and roll better, and use them to replace Boozer.  The problem with that is that both Millsap and Jefferson run the pick and roll with the same efficiency:

Jefferson and Millsap’s numbers are so similar that it is basically a toss up when trying to figure out who is better at running the pick and roll.  So when deciding who will replace Carlos Boozer as the main screener, the Jazz are going to have to look at some outside factors.

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With that buzzer beater, Summer League 2010 finished in thrilling fashion.  Over the past 14 days, there were a combined 78 games played in Orlando and Las Vegas.  In those 78 games you had rookies trying to prove they belong, second year players trying to take the next step, and undrafted rookies/unsigned free agents trying to earn a contract.  All this lead to some great individual performance and some fantastic games.

NBAPlaybook got into Summer League this year by doing 19 posts over the course of 14 days.  Just in case you missed any of them, here is every post we did over the past two weeks:

• Gordon Hayward Working Off The Ball
• Summer League Can Be A Learning Experience
• Is Lance Stephenson A Point Guard?
• Should The Sixers Be Worried About Evan Turner?
• Paul George Wins The Game With Both Offense And Defense
• Dominique Jones Can Attack The Rim, But Is That All?
• Patrick Patterson Is Ready To Contribute Right Away
• Unsigned Hype: Day 1
• Austin Daye’s Ability To Handle Physical Play Key To His Success
• Unsigned Hype: Day 2 & 3
• Breaking Down John Wall’s Debut
• DeMarcus Cousins’ Passing Ability
• Bucks Get Beat At The Buzzer…Twice
• Jordan Hill’s Post Up Struggles
• Why Multiple Options Are Important During Sets Late
• Pooh Jeter’s Game Winner
• How To Make Up For Missed Free Throws
• Gani Lawal Proving He Belongs
• Earl Clark Still Looking To Take The Next Step

I also wanted to say thanks to everyone who has been stopping by the site to check out a post during Summer League this year.