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.
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.
One thing that a rookie big struggles to pick up when they come from college to the pros is passing. This is because the ways that teams send doubles are different and more complicated, there is more ball pressure, and the defenders are bigger/quicker. However, DeMarcus Cousins looks very comfortable identifying defenses and making the correct pass in the half court. Cousins was only credited with one assist during his debut, but he showed the type of instincts you don’t usually see as a rookie, let alone a 19 year old rookie:
Cousins makes his first catch as a professional just a few steps away from the block. Instead of rushing the move, he lets the play develop and allows for the passer to cut through, clearing out an easy double team. Cousins then takes what I like to call a “bait dribble.” If you watch the video again, you can see the man who eventually doubles kind of floating, and then as soon as Cousins puts the ball on the floor, the double team comes. This is because most NBA teams like to double team on the first dribble the big man takes, and DeMarcus Cousins knows this. The dribble that Cousins takes isn’t to make a move or better his position, it’s to draw the double team so he can kick the ball to an open teammate. It works, as the defense is forced to rotate, but the Kings can’t knock down the open shot. This is really impressive to me because there are bigs that have been in the league for years that struggle with this concept, and here is Cousins getting it right on his first touch in the pros.
With the Lakers in Sacramento last night to play the Kings, Tyreke Evans put up 25 points, 9 assists, and 11 rebounds. Despite the near triple-double, I think the Lakers did a very good job defending Evans (most of the time). The Lakers used Ron Artest (and Kobe a little) on Tyreke Evans, and he seemed to struggle a bit with them covering him. Here is the breakdown:
With Ron Artest (and Kobe) Covering Evans – 17 points (on 5-12 shooting – 6 of 9 from the FT line), 6 assists, and 8 rebounds in 38:14.
With others (Jordan Farmar and Shannon Brown) Covering Evans – 8 points (on 2-3 shooting – 4 of 5 from the FT line), 3 assists, and 3 rebounds in 4:08.
The numbers show the difference (17 points on 12 shots vs. 8 points on 3), but I think what really shows the difference is looking at the highlights.
With Ron Artest On Him
With Ron Artest covering Evans, you had a big body that wasn’t going to let Evans bully him into the paint. The result was a lot of dribbling on the outside:
Once Evans crosses half court, he takes 7 dribbles without going inside the three point line and then passes it to Spencer Hawes. Now Hawes hits the three, but I think the Lakers would rather have Hawes shooting threes than Evans getting inside and creating havoc. In fact, this was how the Lakers played Evans all night as they were determined to let the other players beat him:
Even before the Kings’ game against the Raptors started, it was a big night for Tyreke Evans. Wednesday night, the Sacramento Kings held a ceremony for Tyreke Evans in order to show their support for his Rookie of the Year candidacy. There were t-shirts given out, video presentations and a special introduction for Tyreke Evans. Evans responded to all of the love by posting his very first triple-double of his career. Let’s take a look at each aspect of the triple-double closer.
The Assists
In my opinion, assists are the toughest stat to compile when a player is going for a triple-double. This is because it is all dependent on your teammates. You can throw some great passes, but if your teammates don’t finish they don’t count. However, if you teammates are stroking it, you can have your assist count rise really quickly, and that’s what happened last night. Out of Evans’ 10 assists, only 4 of them were inside 10 feet, and the three that were at the rim were in transition:
Ever since the return of Kevin Martin, the Kings record has taken a bit of a nose-dive. This has lead to many people to say that Evans & Martin will not be able to work together. I think that is crazy. You put a great shooter (Kevin Martin) with a guy who can get to the hoop (Tyreke Evans), and it should work. In the closing moments of the 4th quarter and the start of overtime, you started to see how these two playing together can work.
Tyreke Evans Dominates Late In The 4th
The biggest effect Tyreke Evans and Kevin Martin being on the court at the same time has on opponents is on the defensive end. Defenses have to figure out how to cover both Kevin Martin and Tyreke Evans. The Knicks really struggled with it last night. This is what allowed Evans to go off late in the game:
Every morning I will take an in-depth look at a game that happened the previous night. The game that I pick is the one that I think was the best and most interesting one of the night/weekend.
I started watching this game in the middle of the second quarter, and I hunkered down expecting an awesome game, and it was…for three quarters. The Kings were actually winning this game by 2 points after 3 quarters, but a 33-10 fourth quarter ended the game with the Magic pulling away.
We are going to focus exclusively on the fourth quarter here for obvious reasons.
What The Kings Did Wrong?
Way too many threes.
Both teams weren’t that good from the three point line last night. They both shot an identical 8-27 from deep, but the key here is when the threes were missed. The Magic knew it was an off night for them, and they only attempted 4 three-pointers (making 1). The Kings on the other hand, shot 7 of them (making none):
Sergio Rodriguez comes off of a Jason Thomas screen, and explores his options. Ryan Anderson shows, but it is a soft hedge, and Rodriguez is able to get around it. So you think that the Kings got something going.
However, instead of rolling and making himself available (the lane is wide open), he fades and just hangs around the elbow. The roll would have forced J.J. Redick to make a decision as well, and that could have opened up Beno Udrih. So why didn’t Thompson roll? Well, I think it has to do with that big guy wearing #12 for the Magic standing in the middle.
Because there are no options, Rodriguez is forced to dump it inside on the baseline. Brockman isn’t going to be able to do anything with Dwight Howard covering him (and that far away from the basket), so it is kind of a wasted touch right there.
Brockman kicks it back out to Rodriguez who now has no options besides creating something on his own.
So Rodriguez pulls up from 3. Another result of taking a shot that isn’t in the flow of the offense is that your teammates don’t know you are shooting, so they aren’t in good position for the offensive rebound. Look at Beno Udrih by the way, he didn’t move throughout that whole set. Here is another example. On the surface, this looks like a good shot, but the when you take into consideration the context, you start to think otherwise:
The Kings forced the Magic into a turnover, and they try to break. The Magic defense is back though, so the Kings are forced to slow things down.
Udrih attacks towards the basket and kicks it out to Tyreke Evans.
Who makes the catch and pulls up. It was an open three, which is why some people would think this is a good shot, but let’s look at the context. The Kings are down 10 here, and he has J.J. Redick covering him. If Evans were to throw Redick a pump fake here and attack the basket, you could get something out of this. Either a lay-up, or draw a foul on Dwight Howard. Instead, Evans takes a three early in the shot-clock, even though this is a shot you can get whenever. So what does a good offense look like? Well the Kings had some stretches where they played well and had a nice flowing offense:
What The Magic Did Right?
They took it inside.
It’s weird, I would totally expect it to be the opposite. Me talking about the Magic shooting the three ball way too much late, and the Kings taking it inside late. The Magic though, did a great job getting into the paint, and getting to the line (8-9 in the 4th):
The Magic discovered early on that the Kings didn’t really have anyone who could keep up with Dwight. This is a set play for Dwight, and it is interesting, because they don’t really run set stuff for Dwight late because of his poor foul shooting. They must felt that he was shooting it well enough or that the mismatch was too great. So much so that Stan Van Gundy was compelled to run sets for Dwight.
Williams gives it to J.J. Redick (this is smart because the defender can’t sag off and double down on Dwight because of his shooting threat), who quickly dumps it into Dwight.
Look at how far out Dwight makes the catch. If it was any other back to the basket center in the league, nothing would come of this, but Dwight is so strong and athletic…
…that all it takes is one dribble and a spin move (plus a shoulder to the stomach of his defender) to give himself enough room…
Every morning, I am going to be taking a look at the some of the more interesting games that took place the night before. The name isn’t original at all, but the content is:
If I have to watch the Nets every time they play (and I do), you are going to have to read about them. I have been pretty positive through the Nets’ first 34 games (they are 3-31), but I think it was safe to say that last night’s game was the most embarrassing performance of them all.
I don’t know if it was because they were coming off a solid performance against the Cavs, or if it was because they started so well (8-0 run to start the game), but it was just real tough to watch. Nobody on the Nets had a good a real good game except for Yi, who put up 22 points (but only 2 rebounds).
After the 8-0 run, Scott Skiles pulled both Andrew Bogut and Luc Mbah a Moute. The strategy worked, as the Bucks’ bench outscored the Nets’ bench 34-7 in the first half, and Bogut played like a man possessed in the second half, finishing with 22 points on 9-12 shooting.
Turning Point – Skiles’ benching. After pulling Bogut and Mbah a Moute, the Bucks’ closed the first quarter on a 22-8 run and it sparked a big performance from Andrew Bogut.
This game was just an awesome one to watch. There were at least 3 separate different runs, where you thought one team was out of it, they clawed back.
Casspi didn’t play that well in the first half, but he turned it on in the second, hitting some 3s and attacking the basket aggressively. In the end though, the Suns’ experience was too much for the young Kings. A young Kings team that saw its two rookies (Casspi and Evans) put up 51 of their 109 points.
Turning Point: Nash’s Dagger. It was one of the few times that the Suns held the ball, but up 2 Nash dribbled out the clock and then calmly drilled a jumper, putting the Suns’ up four and effectively ending the game.
I am experiementing with different types of morning recap posts, so be patient with me. Stay tuned for some possession breakdowns later today…
Every Monday, I will be picking the one game from the upcoming week that I find most interesting and I will break it down.
There are some real good games coming up this week, but the one that caught my attention when I was looking ahead at the schedule was the Suns-Kings game on Tuesday night. The first reason being you have Tyreke Evans vs. Steve Nash. The second, both teams love to run the court, and when they get going, it is real fun to watch.
The Kings started the game with a tall lineup in there. Evans was at point, with Donte Green playing the 2
Andres Nocioni and Tyreke Evans had 21 and 20 points respectively
Steve Nash had 32 points and 6 assists
The Suns hit 6 three pointers late (in the last 7 or so minutes – 7/9 in the fourth) to help pull away from the game
Kings “Go To” Set
Tyreke Evans in the post. The Kings started off the game having Evans run right into the post. Not only did he score out of the post, but he forced the Suns defense to rotate towards him, allowing for other Kings’ players. It was so successful that the Suns were forced to switch defenders on him (going from Nash to Grant Hill) just three possessions in.
The Suns might not match Nash up against Evans, but Evans will be covering Nash, so there will be times where Nash will be forced to cover Evans, and when that happens, look for Tyreke to run straight to the post.
Suns “Go To” Set
The Pick and Roll/Pick and Pop. You guys already know my love for the pick and roll, and when the Suns run it, they are very dangerous. Steve Nash is such a good decision maker, you can’t let him get a clean run off the screen, so most teams switch the Suns pick and roll. Whenever this happens, Nash doesn’t force it, he backs it out and uses the mismatch to his advantage:
The Suns run this a ton, and it is a major key to their offense, along with the fast break.
Kings’ Weakness
Late in the game, it turned into the “Tyreke Evans Show” in a bad way. They got him the ball early in the clock on the wing, and as the rest of the team stood and watched, Evans tried to score, it didn’t work out too well. However, when the rest of the team was touching the ball and it was getting swung around, the Kings were scoring. They just didn’t do enough of this late.
Now, I had video to support this, but for some reason, the fourth quarter footage that I have from the game isn’t jiving with the my video program.
Suns’ Weakness
The Suns tend to get 3 point happy every once in a while, it helped them pull away from the Kings late (Up 5 under 2 minutes left, they still were able to get 3 more threes up), but if they would have missed a couple of these shots, they would have shot Sacramento back in it.
