Evan Turner at Williams Arena scouting report
by Rumblebee on Jan 9, 2010 7:24 PM CST
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PrintLet me begin by saying I am probably one of the last people who should be doing a basketball scouting report, but I was at Williams Arena and have seats that are ideal for watching the flow of the game, so what the hell.
For starters, don't worry about the injury. I haven't seen a boxscore, but he must have played close to 35 minutes. He is healthy!
Second, he could play for Tubby Smith! That's meant to be a compliment to his defense. The guy plays defense and has the "Knack". In the first half he had at least two legit blocks where the ball was still in the shooters hand. One from behind on a drive to the hoop, the other on a short shot where he knew were to be. He also stole the ball out of a Gopher's hand near the basket. He may have had another block near the rim off an offensive rebound, there was a lot of traffic so I can't guarantee he got the block, but after watching the replay, I'm pretty sure it was him.
Offensively, he did not force the issue in the first half, and I believe only had 3 points. However, he made several good passes and did nothing stupid. He seemed to have no problem setting up teammates. In the 2nd half, he became more aggressive offensively and put up some points, but never looked like a "Ball Hog".
The thing that struck me as I watched him is that he looks like a baller. At one point my wife had to remind me he isn't playing for the Wolves yet and I should be wanting him to play bad. He was often in the mix, made good passes to his teammates, and never seemed to force anything to make himself look better. I watched Eric Gordon against the Gophers a couple years ago. Gordon looked OK, but didn't seem special in that game. Turner looks like a basketball player. As I mentioned above, he seems to have a basketball "Knack". Considering he just got back from a broken transverse and probably still feels pain, I am now putting him in the top 3 players I hope the Wolves get (the first two being the obvious guys). He is better today than Corey Brewer, I have no doubt, and I like Brewer (as 6th man)!
BTW, he did this in a game that his teammates couldn't make an outside shot.
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Thanks for the update
I was just looking for the boxscore for it, and unless I am blind, I couldn’t find it anywhere on ESPN… Better keep searching I guess.
here you are:
http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=300090135
38 minutes putting up a 19, 8, 7 with 4 blocks and 2 steals, all while shooting over 50% from the floor. he looked very good.
heart of a champion, will of the warrior.
Hey cap'n hack:
First of all, he’s the second bet player behind John Wall in my opinion, because Favors looked very unimpressive against Duke today. Also, I didn’t get to see the Gophers game (outta state), how was Turner without the ball? or did he play the PG position a lot? And what did those 4 turnovers look like? (if you remember…)
i would probably put turner in that #2 range in this draft. i haven’t seen a ton of favors, but something about him makes me leery. he still looks a bit raw (unsurprising, he is a freshman) and the older, more polished turner always impresses me.
i was in and out for this game, too. probably saw about half of it, but he did handle the ball quite a bit and at one point the announcers were referring to him as the point guard.
also caught a bit of the georgetown game and i like greg monroe more and more whenever i see him. good to see he’s improving his rebounding, though he’s obviously a bad fit for the wolves. i just wanted to mention him as long as we were on the subject of college players. he’s fun to watch.
heart of a champion, will of the warrior.
Greg Monroe? Really?
I love college ballers and Monroe is very versatile, but he seems to be kinda soft. Also, he doen’t really dominate the college game like you would expect from someone with his size and ability. I watched that game today, and he was vry unimpressive. Granted, it was against top competition, but his performance still seemed weaksauce, in spite of the great numbers he put up. Kinda comes across as an Earl Clark kinda pro…
by SF on Jan 9, 2010 7:53 PM CST up reply actions
well, he’s not a top 5 pick or anything, but i think he’s got top 10 or 15 game. he’s not going to be the go to guy on an NBA team. it’s not who he is, but he can be a very useful part of an NBA offense. all reports i’ve heard say he’s coachable and a good locker room guy, too, so i’d like to think his post d can get better as he realizes what it takes to win at the next level.
but don’t take my word for it; i’m hardly a scout. i’m just a sucker for big men with court vision.
heart of a champion, will of the warrior.
Definitely not much of a PG today
The Gophers came out hard with the Press in the 2nd half. One of Turner’s TO’s was when he was trapped at midcourt with the clock running out. I saw him trying to call TO, but the refs did not give it to him. I think one of the other TOs was also the result of the Press.
Dude was SICK today...
Lets take him with our lottery pick.. Seriously, if he shoots half that well come tournament time, this Gopher team could do A LOT of damage..
by SF on Jan 9, 2010 8:04 PM CST up reply actions
A follow-up on this
Hoffarber was crazy today. Missed a couple late, but he was the reason the Gophers won. For the most part his Hoffarber’s points did not seem to come against Turner, unless OSU had some defensive calls I could not see.
Couple other Turner observations
Most of his points were in the 2nd half, and as I said earlier, did not seem forced. Most were on drives to the hoop. I couple buckets were easy due to defensive breakdowns, but a few were just really nice drives.
I have probably seen about 40 games at Williams over the last 15 years, it is a tough place for opponents to play…he seemed more comfortable there than anyone I have seen in the past. Just seems like a basketball player.
Great Post
I’m surprised Turner is playing at such a high level so quickly. If we get lucky enough to get him I wouldn’t be nearly as worried about Flynn’s shortcomings. If Flynn can continue to knock down 3’s at a high rate and allow Turner to initiate the offense in the triangle we could have one of the most versatile offensive attacks in the league. He just seems like the perfect fit for our backcourt.
While you were watching Turner
I was at home, watching Derrick Favors suck it up. I don’t have a cohesive narrative, so I’ll just start airing my grievances one by one.
-He as 0-1 from the floor with 3 turnovers at the half. Duke brought double teams, and he had no idea how to deal with them. He’d turn away from the basket and hold the ball waiting for a teammate to come around the perimeter to bail him out.
-People like to compare his game to Amare Stoudamire, but he is noticeably smaller and less athletic. He was stuffed by the rim twice, once on a putback attempt and once on a move like Amare does, where he dribbles around his man, toward the rim, elevates, and stretches out for a dunk. Amare makes it, Favors didn’t.
-Is it just me, or should a potentially franchise changing consensus #2 overall be at least the best big man on his college team first? Gani Lawal was amazing.
-On the subject of “things your future franchise player should do,” he really should be good enough to be one of the 5 players his coach puts on the floor with three minutes left in a one possession game. In college. Favors wasn’t.
I’ve seen enough to know we wouldn’t be missing out on a transcendental talent by passing on him. I’m not moving completely in the other direction and hoping he doesn’t play poorly enough to lose his popular status as the unquestioned #2 pick in the draft. If we end up with the third pick and miss out on Wall and Turner, I will be very sad indeed.
Well, the team's focus on Lawal is more the coaching staff's doing...
…seniority issue there I’m sure.
Unless Favors completely tanks out the next two months though, I highly doubt Turner will be picked before him, if for no other reason than GMs traditionally value big men much more than swingmen in the draft. Favors is a much a “potential” pick as anyone.
We’ll have to see though. Lots of time left in college season.
I think it’s also pretty possible that Favors drops from the #2 spot, but Ed Davis or Cole Aldrich replace him there instead of Turner. GMs and “experts” weigh a lot on tourney play, and there’s no question that UNC and Kansas will do a lot better in March than Ohio State.
This is the 3rd time...
…I’ve seen him now and I think he falls in the category of “he was ranked high by the scouts and he may end up being a good pro but he’s not as freakish as initially pitched”. He’s definitely not Josh Smith or Amare Stoudemire. I was really surprised by his size (i.e. not as big as I thought he’d be).
Forever splitting the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs
www.canishoopus.com
I can see why the Wolves would take Wall
despite having three young PGs. Wall is just too good to pass up. The same cannot be said about Favors, I don’t think he would make anyone forget about Love/AL. Favors may be a slightly better player than Turner, but this is a case when drafting for need is probably justified. Getting a ten year starter at the wing is a good move.
As I mentioned in one of my posts, it really looks like Turner is a better player right now than Corey Brewer. Even as a rookie next season I think he adds five wins to the Wolves. The Wolves also get better by having Brewer move to 6th man and adding depth.
If Rambis stop's "resting" Jefferson and Love I think we end up with a pick "lower" than 5 - meaning 6, 7 etc...
So if Turner is really top 5, unless we get lucky with the ping pong balls, I wouldn’t get my heart set on Turner.
We have 8 wins – in the 2nd slot.
with 3 more wins we could be in the 6th slot
with 4 more wins we are in the 7th slot
If we won 7 games – we could be in the “11th slot”.
so again, maybe its good Rambis “rested” Al and kevin.
[Note: I didn’t think they played so badly that they should sit, unless he is making a “statement” about earning minutes with defense.]
by Kevin Love Jefferson on Jan 10, 2010 12:32 AM CST reply actions
One thing to remember
Most of those bad Eastern conference teams that are only a few games ahead of the Wolves get to play each other a two or three more times this season, by default someone wins half of the games. At the same time, the Wolves are stuck playing superior Western conference teams two or three more times each. Not saying the Wolves can’t move up a few spots, right now I don’t see how they win more than 23 games. Looking at the Eastern conference, you might think that four of those teams will be under 23 wins, but with so many games against each other a few have to end up closer to 28 wins.
Or...
…if the Wolves pull off a nice trade, they could be bumped up in a hurry.
Forever splitting the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs
www.canishoopus.com
I have a feeling we won't be seeing anything major
Or at least major enough that would give us more than 2 or 3 wins…. which could be quite a bit all things considered.
Also, how does Gomes’ contract work? If we trade him before a certain date, then he isn’t guaranteed and could be bought out by a team for some nice savings? Seems like a much better version of Chucky Atkins’ contract. Or we could send him to a contender? Also, how long would it be before we could even sign him again to a slightly smaller deal (say,whatever is leftover after the buyout)? So many options with Gomes, but I really would like to have him around in a couple years… just not until then.
eh
We are a bottom 3 team man….
We are really 4 games to 5 games back from these teams you’re thinking about anyways, because we have played 2-3 more games than these teams, maybe even 4 more games than 1 team.
Not to mention recently teams like GSW have crushed us, Indy split with us and such.
Indy had injuries but they are getting healthy with Granger back. Warriors too go their bigs back ( biedrins/turiaf) and look much better.
Only teams we may catch could be wizards ( with arenas gone all year, if that happens) however Miller is back and filling up the sheet nice, and foye looks better now. They still should finish higher than us, and have more talent.
Also the Pistons, while they have more talent, have been riddled with injuries, if they get healthy though, they will finish higher than us easy.
I still say we finish 2nd lowest to nets.
I see the nets
getting the first and grabbing wall, and we get second and grab Turner. Just a hunch. IF we do get Wall then I say we start calling the wolves team point gaurd. :)
by TheEvilProfessor on Jan 10, 2010 10:47 AM CST up reply actions
why not?
The whole town is damn near a riot scene (okay…I may have overstated that one). Their isn’t alot of money to go around in Detroit right now.
by TheEvilProfessor on Jan 10, 2010 11:55 PM CST up reply actions
By the way
I think Kansas plays on CBS today. I will be watching.
How about Turner going coast to coast?
That was sick, and when his team needed it. Very impressive. This guy handles the ball very well for a 6-7 guy who can post-up.
The Hochevar Principle: The future comes to all teams. Some teams wait for it. Those teams finish in last place a lot. -Joe Posnanski
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