Hedo had 2 or 3 finishes at the rim and missed a couple. Hardly a sin with Wallace sitting back there. And both of his misses drew defenders and resulted in slams off the rebound. Hedo has been finishing just fine this season, alot of dunks, taking it strong.
I am happy for Hedo. He's a good guy and is flourishing now with the Magic -- it seems to be a great situation for him.
People always bash on the playoff chokers (myself included), but when it comes down to it, there really aren't that many playoff studs.
Case in point, the only Spur who had balls in the final games of last year's series vs. the Lakers was Devin. There were 11 other guys who didn't really show up.
Hedo, Manu, TP ALL did great in the first half of Game 4. Manu played well in Game 4 in the second half, Hedo and TP did not.
Manu played a mediocre Game 5, not bad for a playoff game. Hedo played poorly, TP as well.
Manu shot poorly from three in game 6, but overall not a horrible game.
Devin played well in Game 5 and 6 and showed the most STEPPING UP of all the teams players. But I think Manu did a solid job. I wouldn't say he did horrible or did not show balls. He did have a bad shooting Game 6 though. But in Games 4 and 5 he did pretty good if you factor both games.
The point, Devin Brown overacheived the most, Manu actually statistically was better in the Laker series than he was in the regular season or against Memphis, so he did not exactly play poorly or underacheive.
TP, Duncan, Hedo all undercheived to a pretty high degree after Game 2. Bowen REALLY underacheived to the point where Devin was the better player.
Glad to see Hedo help someone....if Orlando makes the playoffs though, don't count on Hedo diving for any loose balls.
Gimme a break. One play where you feel he should have stepped to the right makes him lazy. Again, I'm glad to see him get out of this town with a nutcase fan base.
I explain his demonstrably better play this season by pointing out that it is NOT, in fact, demonstrably better.
He's averaging more minutes in Orlando than he did last season in SA...yet his rebounding is way down, his 3 PT PCT is way down, his TO's are up, and his assists and the other stuff are about the same...
The only numbers of his that are improved in Orlando are FG%, PPG, and FT%.
The FG% improvment is slight, and you can't blame the Spurs offense for his FT shooting.
To me he looked like the same player that played here last year...he looked like the same guy he was in Sac..
Same Hedo, different team...and some of his numbers are down from last season inspite of increased minutes...
In any case, as many of us pointed out time and time again, Hedo puts up decent numbers, he's got talent, he just lacks the "want too's", he just didn't put those numbers up when it mattered most...we can get 10 different guys to put up Hedo's regular season numbers...what we have trouble finding are players who maintain or improve those numbers in the post season.
I'm still sorry Hedo left. =,( However, I must admit it appears he made a great move. Orlando is a good fit for Hedo; he is doing extremely well there. I'm super proud of him. =)
Au contraire, Monsieur Whott. He IS demonstrably better, and here is why.
1. He is not averaging more minutes this season than last (at least so far) , unless you think the difference between 25.9 and 26 is significant.
2. He's scoring 4.5 more points per game than last year in basically the same minutes.
3. His FG percentage is up by 2 percentaget points, and I'm guessing will continue to climb.
4. Although his rebounding totals are lower (I'll get to that later), his offensive rebound totals have increased by 0.4 per game, mainly because he's been crashing the offensive boards more.
5. He's playing on a team whose rebounding is superior to last season's Spurs. Howard, Cato, and Battie have been vacuum cleaners, not to mention having Francis on your team. There are fewer long rebounds available, which is where you get alot of them when you're guarding players on the perimeter. If you watch Hedo this season, he's leaner and more athletic this season, and has been rebounding very well when there one available.
6. His 3-point percentage is not far off from what it was at the same point last season, and I would be willing to bet it continues to rise to last year's level. Plus, he's taking more difficult 3-pointers than he did last year as there is no inside threat like Duncan.
7. He's getting to the FT line alot more (3.1 per game compared to 2 per game last season). And he's shooting 84% compared to 70% on the FT jinxed Spurs team.
8. His assist/TO totals are 2.0/1.4 this season, and 1.9/1.2 last season. He has no instant points Duncan to pass the ball into this season. As for turnovers he handles the ball MUCH more often than last season, so it's logical that the TOs will go up some.
9. Hedo is drawing alot more defensive attention than he did last season. His production is all the more impressive under the cir stances.
Personally, I'm glad he's gone, and I'm glad you guys are happy with him. Jackie Christie can design him a new purse for all I care.
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