Why? He seems to have a decent shot and good plays to the basket.
The problem is that Gist has a 4's game. Defensively, I think he'll be great and will be able to guard players at thee 3 and 4. But he'll be a liability offensively when he plays 3
Why? He seems to have a decent shot and good plays to the basket.
Dont' see that as much of a problem as him developing and incorporating the skills of a 3. Thereby giving Pop a lot of lineup flexibility and increasing his court time. He's got a long way to go to get there. However, if he does that, he could eventually be one of the roster's most versatile players down the road.
I think that Spurs shouldn't try to turn Gist into a SF. It will takes forever to do that with a likely bad result.
He should be used at PF against players like Dirk, West or Odom. He is tailor made to play that role.
Well, what does Bowen do now that is so difficult to learn on offense?
Shoot a corner three?
Right.
And what's great about Gist is that he scores on energy and hustle around the hoop. The fact that he has an emerging jump shot is just gravy. And great gravy, at that.
Oddly enough, I think playing in the D-League would actually hurt Gist's development. He played a lot at Maryland so he doesn't really need additional development. And if he went to Austin, he'd likely play a lot of back-to-the-basket power forward and center.
Even though he's raw and he's sure to cool off at some point, I like the idea of force-feeding Gist minutes on the NBA level. He needs to move away from the basket a little bit and learn how to play away from the rim. In D-League, he won't learn that. If Pop can even just throw him out there for 5 minutes a game, he looks like the type of player who'd survive getting thrown into the fire.
We'll see. He'll probably end up in Austin but if that happens, the Austin coaches better handle him correctly and not force him to play like Mahinmi did last year.
Oh and yeah the McKey comparison is pretty good. McKey was more talented away from the basket offensively (he was basically like a giant point guard on offense) but defensively, Gist could copy McKey's ability to guard twos, threes, fours and fives. As long as Gist's jumper keeps falling, Pop could play him at any number of positions.
I'm still waiting for the catch regarding Gist, though. I didn't watch him much in college but there must be a reason why he almost went undrafted. So far, he's played better than a lot of first rounders in summer league.
Being undersized badly hurt draft stocks. Among successful second rounder, most of them are undersized PFs (Boozer, Millsap, Landry, Craig Smith, Ryan Gomes...).
You know, I had him penciled in for the Toros, but you might be right. What you've written makes a lot of sense to me.
Undersized 4s drafted in the 2nd but making it big is kinda like the 12 vs 5 match up in the NCAA Tourney. Everyone knows that a 12 is going to win in the first, but no one knows just which one.
It's great that the Spurs landed this year's 12 seed.
If Gist is sent down to the Toros, hopefully it would be to develop more perimeter skills. It's a tough call to say that could easily happen since the roster turnover can be dizzying.
Yes, the current CBA rules regarding the D-League need a complete overhaul.
I agree with timvp on Gist's development. Playing in the D-league won't really help him that much because he won't be playing against the caliber of compe ion that we are going to be asking him to compete with on a nightly basis. As far as his skill set is concerned, I am not so much concerned with his offensive production because the guy will be getting a lot of his baskets off of missed shots and hustle plays. I like the guy's energy and that energy needs to be released, not contained. He is raw, but that is his biggest asset.
I think many are focusing too much on comparing Gist to McKey. The comparison that is germane is to the one Pop made publicly, specifically regarding the attributes of McKey (ability to guard both forward spots) which he felt were needed in a member of the Spurs' rotation. This is why the thread is en led Gist = "Derrick McKey type"? instead of Gist = Derrick McKey?
I don't know about the eventual catch, but the biggest mark against Gist was that Maryland (comparitively) sucked, and Maryland, as opposed to say a mid-major, is not supposed to ever suck. But he was actually one of the few who ramped up his game this season.
West was NCAA player of the year. It took him some time to figure out the NBA game, but it wasn't like he hadn't had huge success before entering the league.
6'7" w/o shoes
7'3" wingspan
8'11.5" standing reach
Ridiculously large standing reach and wingspan for his height which will make him even better.
He has the length and reaching size of most 6'10" guys in the league so he wont have a problem guarding the 4's and has the quickness to step out on the perimeter against Small Forwards
Does have shot mechanic problems. Gets hit shot off slow, but elevates well and then likes to use the fadeaway.
He probably won't contribute much this season right? He'd have to go to the Toros first?
I wouldn't be too sure about that. The Spurs are in desperate need of a player with his skill set. He's proven to be almost too good to let waste in the D league when he fits such a need.
So was JJ Re ..and Corlis Williamson....West was picked latter part of the first round because he was a tweener. And his first two yrs he had no shot outside 10ft and got busted trying to play D on 3 and 4s.
They almost gave up on him.
Doing well in NCAA does not make someone a NBA PLAYER. much less a great one. Chris paul is also a huge reason for his improvement he makes west look better than he is.
no ?
my point was simply that west didn't come completely out of nowhere. while i don't think anybody expected to be anywhere near this good (with or without Paul's help), his complete initial struggles were a bit surprising as well.
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