Burned By Aldridge
by Malastare on Mar 22, 2011 4:52 AM CDT
Email
PrintTwo Drafts ago, the NBA restocked itself with a superb class of point guards, headed by Tyreke Evans, Stephen Curry and Brandon Jennings. Right behind them were the likes of Darren Collison, Jrue Holliday, Roddy Beaubois, Ty Lawson, Toney Douglas, Patty Mills, Eric Maynor and Jeff Teague. Last year's Draft didn't have the quantity at the position compared with 2009, but it had a clear-cut, NBA-ready stud in Kentucky's John Wall, who went No. 1 overall to Washington.
The really upsetting thing is how this utterly damning assessment of failure is thrown in offhand to a fairly comprehensive review of the point guard prospects (negligible, unless you want a bench scorer) in the coming draft. Flynn isn't even mentioned, but Mills, the 55th pick, is. How did we miss completely in this draft? More to the point, how are we going to fare in a draft without the reserves of quality available in '09? Should be fun. And by fun, I of course mean devastatingly awful.
31 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Nice article
thanks for the link, though I do think this is already a fanshot.
Flynn's injury...
Is what’s keeping him from even being mentioned at all. I doubt he’d have been named with Evans, Jennings, and Curry even if he was 100% and had the benefit of having a real offseason, but he is still in the same class as the rest of the PGs mentioned by Aldridge. Anyone who thinks the injury hasn’t been a big detrimant to him this season is just ignoring the obvious.
I would argue
that anyone who thinks he’s in the same class as the other PGs hasn’t actually seen him play.
Really now?
The dude missed the entire offseason, hasn’t recovered much of his previous explosiveness, and missed training camp as well as the first chunk of the season. What am I missing, here? You mean to tell me that those factors have little to no impact on his current numbers/performance/confidence? I’m not a Flynn lover, but I try to be objective in my criticism. Not taking his injury and rehab into consideration for his play this year is short-sighted. And for clarification, I’m not blaming all his shortcomings on his injury, because there are some things he does (injury or not) that are just plain boneheaded.
The man can dribble there is no doubt
but one thing a PG needs to do is know when to get his shot, when to pass and how to pass. He doesn’t really have any of these down (and didn’t pre-injury). He’ll try and drive and realize when he is in the air that he needs to pass out or he’ll just jack up a bad shot. He will avoid passing to an open man in order to attempt a flashy behind the back pass that gets picked off; more than anything else this second problem is just a fundamental desire to be on sportscenter rather than win. These are decision making skills and they have not improved year to year which could happen in spite of the injury (in fact the injury could have pushed him to be more of a pass first PG).
His D … … … … … .. . I have no idea how to describe it because other than random plays here or there it doesn’t exist.
by zebano on Mar 22, 2011 11:39 AM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
My "favorite" recent play of his:
Steph Curry drives halfway through the middle of the lane, pulls up, and launches a soft floater that drops straight through the net. Jonny Flynn decides to do the same thing on the next trip down the floor, and . . . airballs it three inches short of th rim.
Only four more months until the lockout begins!
Like I said...
I’m no Flynn lover (I want to see Rubio or Irving man the point next year regardless of how good Flynn could be) but Aldridge listed 11 point guards from the 2009 class. I’m not arguing Jonny’s All-Star or MVP credentials or even his ability to be a starting point on a decent NBA squad. All I’m saying is Flynn is not the 12th best PG in the 2009 class. LOL…we may have missed, but we didn’t miss THAT bad. He did manage to squeeze onto the All-Rookie 2nd Team. Just sayin…
We really did miss that bad...
Flynn is on another level of bad. I couldn’t find a list to compare only PGs from 2009, but this list is close.
Flynn vs. all other 2009 draftees with 1.5+ assists per game (mostly PGs) ranked by WS over 2 seasons.
Flynn is last by a long shot, and below arguably 12 point guards. Flynn is that bad. He is not an NBA player, and he was picked in a draft with several great PGs, several good PGs, and a bunch of legitimate NBA PGs. We missed as bad as Flynn does with someone in his face after dribbling in circles for 25 seconds.
In fairness to Asher14,
the injury does seem to have mattered. His PER has dropped from 13.0 to 7.1 and win shares dropped from 0.1 to -1.1 across seasons. So if you look only at last year’s numbers, Flynn is not last by PER (and he’s got Terrence Williams keeping him out of the win shares cellar). Still a horrible pick at the spot, but did play better pre-injury.
Can you do me a favor
I’ve got this two piles of poop on my lawn. Do you think you could come by later and tell me which one smells better?
If it wasn't for Jordan Farmar and that guy Kevin Love, I would've killed somebody!
Hmmm, not sure my tastes are that discriminating.
But I’m on record as preferring the smell of poop to the smell of vomit. And I’ll stand by that.
Why don't you just toss them both out??!!
Oh I see what you’re getting at.. whoa…. revelation….
, said Mplax.
Because one of them could turn into
this guy
"Pinch-bunters don't have a ton of value, even with the Twins"
by Steven Ellingson on Mar 23, 2011 1:37 PM CDT up reply actions
All I can say
Is that as far as this roster is concerned, Kahn has been eating a lot of P.F. Chang’s.
"We must always seek the truth in our opponents' error and the error in our own truth." - RN
You should really think about indoor plumbing.
"Of what use is a philosopher who does not hurt anybody's feelings?" -Diogenes of Sinope
by Cynical Jason on Mar 22, 2011 9:20 PM CDT up reply actions
Thanks...
I admit Flynn has been garbage this year, but his play has taken a severe drop since LAST year. His injury HAS something to do with that. That’s all I’m saying. It’s not rocket science. Every player Aldridge mentioned SHOULD be mentioned ahead of Jonny at this point, but how many of them are working their way back from an injury?
Anyway, I guess I better save my energy for a player I actually like.
How do we know...
That this is surely attributed to injury versus a steady decline of play under the coach? Not a terrific sample size, but clearly Sessions’ play dipped quite a bit with the Wolves versus other teams.
I was going to bring up the coaching angle...
but decided it would complicate the debate. Mixing Rambis and Flynn on CH in these unsettling times can turn a thread…volatile. Neither dude is doing themselves any favors at the moment.
Flynn would be a better player in an appropriate system with a competent coach
Both parties did badly from his draft.
Climbing Broke Back Mount Everest - T'Wolves 10/11
Fair point
and I"m on record as saying that while the wolves have taken on many reclamation projects, most of them (i.e. Webster, Darko) are too set in their ways to warrant much time hoping they improve. Johnny is still young enough that he could get better, I just have so little faith that it will happen that I think it should only be attempted if we don’t have Irving or Rubio.
Was there
a brain injury from which he is still recovering?
Only four more months until the lockout begins!
It's called Smilitis.
Very debilitating; there seems to be a cluster in upstate New York.
I say SHONDA you say WOLVES" SHONDA! WOLVES!
by Eric in Madison on Mar 22, 2011 1:42 PM CDT up reply actions
Flynn/Curry
iz a million times worse den FOye/Roy. Dis iz de definitive bad Timberwolves pick uv all time. We literally coudl have thrown a dart on a boad uv PGs and ended up better den where we are. I could have been completly blacked out off de henny an de kill an still made a better pick at de time. I dont wnat to hear about injuries, Jonny wuz bad last year and clearly now realizes what a terrible basketball player he iz. He fucking sucksm plain an simple. He cant shoot, he cant dribble, he cant pass, he cant defend, he never makes de easy play, he iz de worst person on twitter, etc
MAYN HOL UP!
by MAYNHOLUP on Mar 22, 2011 4:09 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs
I hear you - still can't believe we passed on Curry
I loved his game in college, I love it in the NBA, and I was absolutely certain he would be a Wolf once we had the two picks in place. Ok, Flynn might have been a less-than-catastrophic pick if we ran an offense for which he is remotely suited (i.e. a pick and roll attack) but Curry would have simply racked up points if unguarded on the perimeter and made the intelligent play if not. If we are going to be a terrible team that puts up horrible shots, I wish we at least gave them a chance with a great shooter (Swish, motherfuckers!)
Climbing Broke Back Mount Everest - T'Wolves 10/11
But mayn
That’s probably the exact draft strategy that Kahn used and look how it worked out for us…
, said Mplax.
I wonder what high Kahn is like
He probably loosens his tie a quarter inch and starts telling long stories about a wild road trip he once took to attend a seminar at Harvard Business School.
Climbing Broke Back Mount Everest - T'Wolves 10/11
To be fair to Flynn...
I might be worse on Twitter
Do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga... gunga, gunga-lagunga.
I don't think Flynn is a completely lost cause
As an outside observer (Blazers fan) I think he’s still got some potential but the real issue is pairing a pick and roll operator with the triangle. That’s like peanut butter and sardines on a sandwich. Just look at Ramon Sessions rebounding to his career average in PER after escaping Kahn/Rambis’ clutches?
If you want Flynn (and Rubio too I suppose) to be succesful in Minny then the offense has got to be be run through his hands, not through some bastardized version of the triangle (which almost always requires a dominant wing scorer/creator to be successful).
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
NBA Playoffs Content Module
Related FanPosts on Canis Hoopus
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
In Association With
Ball Don't Lie - NBA - Yahoo! Sport
- Create-a-Caption: Jeff Pendergraph scares his Pacers teammates
- James Harden is a cake now
- Mike Miller loses shoe, plays two possessions without it, Pacers don’t score (VIDEO)
- Larry Bird calls his Indiana Pacers ‘soft’ following the team’s physical Game 5 loss to Miami
- Dexter Pittman’s elbow to Lance Stephenson’s throat is just one of three nasty hits in Miami/Indiana’s Game 5 (VIDEO)
