03-30-2021, 01:44 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-30-2021, 02:07 PM by KillerLeft.)
(03-30-2021, 01:17 PM)david75090 Wrote: I was thinking, poor-man's-Kevin-Love. Looks like a guy who knows the game, plays below the rim, hopefully can shoot. Not super athletic. I think I just described what we used to call "a white guy". Not sure that's politically correct nowadays.
Yeah, that's pretty fair.
We're projecting a lot based on one outing, obvs, but he looked to me very much like a guy trained in Europe (which he was) in that he seems to be able to do a bit of everything.
He handled a bit, and while I'm sure that's not his best skill, he seemed confident, safe and purposeful with it.
He made some GREAT passes, which again were confident, safe and purposeful. They weren't "wow" passes, but they were "smart guy who moves the ball in a timely fashion to the right place" style, and THAT is something Johnson didn't demonstrate while here.
He played with high energy, especially on the glass. I'd almost forgotten how that looks. This team is thirsty for that right now, imo.
He clearly isn't selfish, but didn't hesitate at all to put up shots when it was correct to do so. That ATO Carlisle drew up for him to shoot off of the curl cut was pretty gorgeous, imo.
There was even one possession that stood out because of some pretty darn effective on-ball defense he played, though I forget who the ball-handler was.
All in all, this was fun to watch. Simmons and some others noted how good Melli was throughout the week, and I kind of took it semi-seriously, but if he can do this with any sort of frequency, I'm going to get on board quickly.