Mountaintop Monastery of Dejounte Murray

[sasaint]

Out of everything else with Dijon, and I like him a lot, his ballhandling right now is the most damnning. He had 9 TO games a few 7 TO games and a ton of 4 to 5 TO games in college. I'll find the article and share it later, but aside from everything else he still needs to improve on, the loose handle and the TO IMO is what will push him to the dleague.

Even in SL he lost the handle way too many times with very low ball pressure. He's simply too unreliable to play as a PG right now. I thought maybe playing him off the ball to start his career would be better, but he's a poor of the ball player bc he can't shoot and he's not a cutter, doesn't play like a wing.

He has a lot to work on. I see him in the dleague bc if the Spurs want him to develop his handle and decision making he needs to play with the ball as a playmaker and he won't get sufficient opportunities to do that in the team. And this is coming from someone who likes him.

I expect to see him the most his second season, unless there are injuries, same as other first round picks the team has had lately. Though, the caveat is that it's really up to him. There's no telling how quickly guys this young are still learning and he could learn so fast that by the end of this season he's earned trust from coach. It also depends how many blowout and rest games there are early and how he looks in those.

I watched him in SL; I know about the TO issue. In order for Dijon to accept force-feeding he has to clean that up. But for the timing of things as I see them for this team over the next few seasons, I would try the same force-feeding approach as Pop used with Tony. I don't want to sacrifice games to do it, but I don't think we will ring this season with Tony. I think it is the perfect season to be daring. I want to have some strong young players around Kawhi and be a serious contender when his contract expires. There will be no lack of poachers.

[SAGirl]

?
Valid. But do you mean "ballhandling" by his dribbling skills and his ability to go where he wants to go, or by his decision making with his passing?
I find the two called the same, but honestly, two different things.

Ballhandling = the high loose dribble. Looses the ball at times with little pressure. With pressure = potential TO machine.
Decision making= still takes many bad shots = not shots he can make at a good enough rate. I think when he's told to distribute he can, that's why I think he has talent but still settles for too many bad shots for himself throwing bad floaters at the rim when there are others open around him. Hid passing is off the mark at times too but that can frankly be chemistry and timing with players he didn't know in SL.

His midrange shot is terrible too and its sad right now bc he's so quick he can get separation for his shots he just can't make them. I like his aggressiveness but considering he can't shoot he probably needs to look to pass more at least while he fixes his issues.

[SAGirl]

I watched him in SL; I know about the TO issue. In order for Dijon to accept force-feeding he has to clean that up. But for the timing of things as I see them for this team over the next few seasons, I would try the same force-feeding approach as Pop used with Tony. I don't want to sacrifice games to do it, but I don't think we will ring this season with Tony. I think it is the perfect season to be daring. I want to have some strong young players around Kawhi and be a serious contender when his contract expires. There will be no lack of poachers.

I agree but I don't think Dijon is ready TBH. Like you I don't care about winning 67 games again if the team doesn't spend time to develop the young talents it has, but sometimes you can push a young player so far beyond his current capabilities that he hits a wall or gets broken for the season. If you were talking about a second or third year player, those guys are overdue for chances but rookies, even the most talented in the draft are in for a rude awakening and will struggle, sometimes badly.

He needs to tighten his handle to begin with. That's the most basic of skills and its not strong enough right now. It will break all his confidence if he's thrown into the fire b4 he's ready and starts TO at a high rate and he will bc he did it against lesser compe ion. Even guys like Schrooder, Reggie Jackson, etc, recent starting PG in the league started from the bench. Maybe the answer is to get him bench minutes to start his career while he improves. POP will have to evaluate not just Mills, but Simmons too and decide somewhere midseason where he's going with the youngest players bc he has to keep an eye out for the team's future.

Let's just say the first guy Dijon has to compete with is Simmons, then Mills.

[tonight...you]

Ballhandling = the high loose dribble. Looses the ball at times with little pressure. With pressure = potential TO machine.
Decision making= still takes many bad shots = not shots he can make at a good enough rate. I think when he's told to distribute he can, that's why I think he has talent but still settles for too many bad shots for himself throwing bad floaters at the rim when there are others open around him. Hid passing is off the mark at times too but that can frankly be chemistry and timing with players he didn't know in SL.

His midrange shot is terrible too and its sad right now bc he's so quick he can get separation for his shots he just can't make them. I like his aggressiveness but considering he can't shoot he probably needs to look to pass more at least while he fixes his issues.

Very succinct. Thank you. But the midrange being sad right now- the kid's 19. I believe he has naturally elite skills and everything else simply (I said simply, lol) needs to be cultivated.

His ability to dribble to the hoop is already at an elite level.

He has advantages over even a Bertans, or a Garino with his natural talent.
Those guys may go on to have a better career, but he has the talent to make them both be afterthoughts in the grand scheme of things.

[SAGirl]

Very succinct. Thank you. But the midrange being sad right now- the kid's 19. I believe he has naturally elite skills and everything else simply (I said simply, lol) needs to be cultivated.

His ability to dribble to the hoop is already at an elite level.

He has advantages over even a Bertans, or a Garino with his natural talent.
Those guys may go on to have a better career, but he has the talent to make them both be afterthoughts in the grand scheme of things.

He can get to the hoop but can't finish. He can get separation for a midrange shot easily but can't shoot, etc. If he did these things well he would have been a lottery pick. He wasn't bc he's got a lot to work on.

That's why I think he needs to develop. That's very different from saying he sucks, has no talent or can't play. He has talent but he also needs to develop and as I said b4 there's no telling how quickly guys his age can improve but at the very least, his ballhandling for a main guard needs to get better. If he's getting easily stripped in practices he will be dleague bound.

[tonight...you]

He can get to the hoop but can't finish. He can get separation for a midrange shot easily but can't shoot, etc. If he did these things well he would have been a lottery pick. He wasn't bc he's got a lot to work on.

That's why I think he needs to develop. That's very different from saying he sucks, has no talent or can't play. He has talent but he also needs to develop and as I said b4 there's no telling how quickly guys his age can improve but at the very least, his ballhandling for a main guard needs to get better. If he's getting easily stripped in practices he will be dleague bound.

[tholdren]

Out of everything else with Dijon, and I like him a lot, his ballhandling right now is the most damnning. He had 9 TO games a few 7 TO games and a ton of 4 to 5 TO games in college. I'll find the article and share it later, but aside from everything else he still needs to improve on, the loose handle and the TO IMO is what will push him to the dleague.

Even in SL he lost the handle way too many times with very low ball pressure. He's simply too unreliable to play as a PG right now. I thought maybe playing him off the ball to start his career would be better, but he's a poor of the ball player bc he can't shoot and he's not a cutter, doesn't play like a wing.

He has a lot to work on. I see him in the dleague bc if the Spurs want him to develop his handle and decision making he needs to play with the ball as a playmaker and he won't get sufficient opportunities to do that in the team. And this is coming from someone who likes him.

I expect to see him the most his second season, unless there are injuries, same as other first round picks the team has had lately. Though, the caveat is that it's really up to him. There's no telling how quickly guys this young are still learning and he could learn so fast that by the end of this season he's earned trust from coach. It also depends how many blowout and rest games there are early and how he looks in those.

Only time Ive agreed with you. He is not a PG - sad that he has been allowed to play that. Should play him as a SG. Irony that people on ST blast simmons for the TOs but someone who is supposed to handle the ball is not held to any standard, but he's 19... lol. Love the attacking the basket mentality, skill set as a pro is indicative of the overall tiness of the league. Hope he does well.

[.G.]

westbrook 2.0

[LaMarcus Bryant]

Let's see Murray's rap preferences.

[tholdren]

westbrook 2.0

Westbrook can pass the ball.

[.G.]

Westbrook can pass the ball.

He sho can....he sho can.

[rastaspur]

that picture and caption are funny

[spurtech09]

Cleveland number 20 is short as heck.....

[cutewizard]

http://www.gospelherald.com/articles...rade-talks.htm

[cutewizard]

Sky is the limit if this player works hard, listens to the coaching staff, absorbs from the other players, etc etc

[cutewizard]

Put in the work ethic and he could be a uva player in the NBA

HE HAS KAWHI AS ROLE MODEL after all

[wildbill2u]

Ballhandling = the high loose dribble. Looses the ball at times with little pressure. With pressure = potential TO machine.
Decision making= still takes many bad shots = not shots he can make at a good enough rate. I think when he's told to distribute he can, that's why I think he has talent but still settles for too many bad shots for himself throwing bad floaters at the rim when there are others open around him. Hid passing is off the mark at times too but that can frankly be chemistry and timing with players he didn't know in SL.

His midrange shot is terrible too and its sad right now bc he's so quick he can get separation for his shots he just can't make them. I like his aggressiveness but considering he can't shoot he probably needs to look to pass more at least while he fixes his issues.

The high dribble is something I noticed too. It is a invitation to a steal or turnover. He can't do that in the NBA. Defensive guards must be looking at that and salivating. The problem is that it is probably going to be hard to fix since you begin learning your handling skills as a child and they become instinctive. How he got even this far with that trait is amazing. Anyone ever heard of a handle coach.???

His shooting form on jumpers is weird. It looks like he takes off on one foot so hard that his body sort of rotates to the left as he goes up and comes down with his left foot pointed away from the basket. I think it also affects the rotation of the ball. It should be something that Chip can fix. He just has to learn to go forward and follow through with his shot. But it is really a strange motion.

All that set aside, he looks like he has a lot of other skills--and a work ethic-- that will make him a regular in the rotation at some point. Defense, using quickness, lateral footwork and lots of effort is one skill that can easily earn a rookie some minutes.

[SAGirl]

The high dribble is something I noticed too. It is a invitation to a steal or turnover. He can't do that in the NBA. Defensive guards must be looking at that and salivating. The problem is that it is probably going to be hard to fix since you begin learning your handling skills as a child and they become instinctive. How he got even this far with that trait is amazing. Anyone ever heard of a handle coach.???

His shooting form on jumpers is weird. It looks like he takes off on one foot so hard that his body sort of rotates to the left as he goes up and comes down with his left foot pointed away from the basket. I think it also affects the rotation of the ball. It should be something that Chip can fix. He just has to learn to go forward and follow through with his shot. But it is really a strange motion.

All that set aside, he looks like he has a lot of other skills--and a work ethic-- that will make him a regular in the rotation at some point. Defense, using quickness, lateral footwork and lots of effort is one skill that can easily earn a rookie some minutes.

Well to answer your question, he was not a highly touted recruit coming into college, we can start there. He was rather low on rivals.com around the 49sh mark. He wasn't a winning player in college either and it was due to all of the factors pointed here, the huge TO rates, the bad decision making, taking bad shots, and bad defense.

I think his college coach had to deal with some limitations in him because he's not a shooter and had to play him as an on the ball guard.

I don't know what to tell you but he's still a young guy, so I am choosing to be optimistic. If his handle is not good enough ever to be a main guard then he needs to be SG and play off the ball, for which he needs to shoot a lot better. At least he has size, length and athleticism to still be an NBA player even if he's not a PG, but that will leave some fans disappointed.

I look forward to seeing him improve. He does seem like a hard working coachable player and the Spurs more than once mentioned that they are excited about the person and him being coachable, but he's definitely a project and won't be able to be the main guard until his handle gets better. I think it might be possible for it to improve. Wasn't Kawhi a poor ballhandler coming into the league around the same age? It's possible, but it could take years, certainly not the short schedule that fans want to see Dijon on.

[All Mighty Janitor]

repost

[Chinook]

Here is a break down of our rook"s play in summer league by Coach Daniel. Those of us that come to worship at this great ins ution know most of these things, but it good to have these kinds of video's for future reference.

Posted it on the previous page of this thread.

[All Mighty Janitor]

Posted it on the previous page of this thread.

Whoops. I looked but I guess I didn't go back far enough.

[wildbill2u]

Well to answer your question, he was not a highly touted recruit coming into college, we can start there. He was rather low on rivals.com around the 49sh mark. He wasn't a winning player in college either and it was due to all of the factors pointed here, the huge TO rates, the bad decision making, taking bad shots, and bad defense.

I think his college coach had to deal with some limitations in him because he's not a shooter and had to play him as an on the ball guard.

I don't know what to tell you but he's still a young guy, so I am choosing to be optimistic. If his handle is not good enough ever to be a main guard then he needs to be SG and play off the ball, for which he needs to shoot a lot better. At least he has size, length and athleticism to still be an NBA player even if he's not a PG, but that will leave some fans disappointed.

I look forward to seeing him improve. He does seem like a hard working coachable player and the Spurs more than once mentioned that they are excited about the person and him being coachable, but he's definitely a project and won't be able to be the main guard until his handle gets better. I think it might be possible for it to improve. Wasn't Kawhi a poor ballhandler coming into the league around the same age? It's possible, but it could take years, certainly not the short schedule that fans want to see Dijon on.

I'd like to see him force fed at Austin if they continue to want him to play PG. He needs the repe ions of playing in lots of games at that position along with some intensive basic coaching. He's probably not going to get a lot of minutes at PG with the regular players at this stage in his career. On the other hand, If they decide to move him to SG, the need to send him to Austin is less because he can learn to shoot in practice in SA and won't have the pressure of being responsible for the offense like he would at PG. They seem to have made great strides with Kyle as a shooter since he came in and Chip can do it with Murray hopefully.

Tons of potential with this kid. He just needs some polish and reps in games.

[sexinthatsx]

Looking at Youtube clips of him, and while he's really athletic and has some good passing in, he's a chucker. I hope he doesn't turn into Tony Parker lite.

[hooperflash]

[tholdren]

I just had a triple double in my rec league last week too. You want the youtube clip?