Comments on: Is Brandon Knight progressing? Yes, but it’s complicated http://www.pistonpowered.com/2012/12/is-brandon-knight-progressing-yes-but-its-complicated/ Your Go-To Source For Pistons Coverage Sat, 18 May 2013 04:36:16 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 By: Patrick Hayes http://www.pistonpowered.com/2012/12/is-brandon-knight-progressing-yes-but-its-complicated/comment-page-1/#comment-100293 Patrick Hayes Mon, 03 Dec 2012 16:33:04 +0000 http://www.pistonpowered.com/?p=11925#comment-100293 <p>Per 36 minutes, BK is at 4.0, Isiah was at 3.8. Knight's TO% is 22.2, Isiah's was 15.6 that season.</p> Per 36 minutes, BK is at 4.0, Isiah was at 3.8. Knight’s TO% is 22.2, Isiah’s was 15.6 that season.

]]> By: Scott Free http://www.pistonpowered.com/2012/12/is-brandon-knight-progressing-yes-but-its-complicated/comment-page-1/#comment-100270 Scott Free Mon, 03 Dec 2012 14:14:44 +0000 http://www.pistonpowered.com/?p=11925#comment-100270 That would be ridiculously unfair, Thomas averaged a whole TO more than Knight for his sophomore season! That would be ridiculously unfair, Thomas averaged a whole TO more than Knight for his sophomore season!

]]> By: Mitch http://www.pistonpowered.com/2012/12/is-brandon-knight-progressing-yes-but-its-complicated/comment-page-1/#comment-100179 Mitch Mon, 03 Dec 2012 03:28:54 +0000 http://www.pistonpowered.com/?p=11925#comment-100179 Everybody, I am from South Florida and watched BK throughout his HS career. (On the order of 30 games over multiple seasons.)  What you are seeing is JUST what he is: a shooting guard who can handle up to a point.  Of course, in HS he could handle the ball fine for HS, but that was not where his obvious "future-pro" skills were.  He was a scorer, and in that regard was incredible - as you would expect a future first-round pick to be.  Now, he HAD to score in HS for his team to win, but his talent, his obvious, off-the-chart talent, was that he was simply unstoppable. One night, the away crowd was taunting him because he only had 5 points in the first quarter.  Unusually, he got juiced, even pissed... glaring at some close-by fans...  and dropped 30 on them in the 2nd quarter alone.  Finished with 50+. He went over people, went by people like nothing, shot from the next zipcode, stole the ball I think on 5 defensive series in a row and dunked... just gave a jaw-dropping lesson to everyone.   He may never do that in the NBA, but he is NOT a distributing classic PG... although he IS definitely very smart and willing to work until tomorrow morning on whatever is asked of him.  Still, I think if somehow he is able to not carry all the load of handling endlessly, and can instead be able to catch and shoot, come off of picks and shoot, etc... I guess like a 2, you will be much happier with him.  I am sure he could average 20 that way. Everybody, I am from South Florida and watched BK throughout his HS career. (On the order of 30 games over multiple seasons.)  What you are seeing is JUST what he is: a shooting guard who can handle up to a point.  Of course, in HS he could handle the ball fine for HS, but that was not where his obvious “future-pro” skills were.  He was a scorer, and in that regard was incredible – as you would expect a future first-round pick to be.  Now, he HAD to score in HS for his team to win, but his talent, his obvious, off-the-chart talent, was that he was simply unstoppable.

One night, the away crowd was taunting him because he only had 5 points in the first quarter.  Unusually, he got juiced, even pissed… glaring at some close-by fans…  and dropped 30 on them in the 2nd quarter alone.  Finished with 50+. He went over people, went by people like nothing, shot from the next zipcode, stole the ball I think on 5 defensive series in a row and dunked… just gave a jaw-dropping lesson to everyone.  

He may never do that in the NBA, but he is NOT a distributing classic PG… although he IS definitely very smart and willing to work until tomorrow morning on whatever is asked of him.  Still, I think if somehow he is able to not carry all the load of handling endlessly, and can instead be able to catch and shoot, come off of picks and shoot, etc… I guess like a 2, you will be much happier with him.  I am sure he could average 20 that way.

]]> By: Desolation Row http://www.pistonpowered.com/2012/12/is-brandon-knight-progressing-yes-but-its-complicated/comment-page-1/#comment-99870 Desolation Row Sun, 02 Dec 2012 01:42:28 +0000 http://www.pistonpowered.com/?p=11925#comment-99870 We did a good job with Greg Monroe... and Arron Afflalo. We did a good job with Greg Monroe… and Arron Afflalo.

]]> By: Desolation Row http://www.pistonpowered.com/2012/12/is-brandon-knight-progressing-yes-but-its-complicated/comment-page-1/#comment-99869 Desolation Row Sun, 02 Dec 2012 01:40:48 +0000 http://www.pistonpowered.com/?p=11925#comment-99869 I can get behind that, I agree with your premise alongside the general sentiments on the comments here. If Knight is essentially a future Jason Terry (which I'm all for having), we need to avoid the pitfall of drafting/acquiring players on the assumption that we are set at PG. I wonder -- and this is probably the million dollar question for every GM in the league -- at what point we can say we have a large enough sample to make a judgement call.  I can get behind that, I agree with your premise alongside the general sentiments on the comments here. If Knight is essentially a future Jason Terry (which I’m all for having), we need to avoid the pitfall of drafting/acquiring players on the assumption that we are set at PG. I wonder — and this is probably the million dollar question for every GM in the league — at what point we can say we have a large enough sample to make a judgement call. 

]]> By: Lake Side Live http://www.pistonpowered.com/2012/12/is-brandon-knight-progressing-yes-but-its-complicated/comment-page-1/#comment-99867 Lake Side Live Sun, 02 Dec 2012 01:25:04 +0000 http://www.pistonpowered.com/?p=11925#comment-99867 I guess the quandry with Knight is do we have the time to let him develop, if he can, with say a mike conley career arc?  By the time he does get to the level of a serviceable pg will be losing our other good players like Greg Monroe to FA? If he were to move to sg where he could be serviceable as is, what happens in regards to a pg?  Allow stuckey to take back over for one year or keep on the 2nd squad and bring a fa?  One of the biggest issues as pointed out by many contributors and commenters has been knights regression on defense, unfortunately it seems that is also an issue with next years fa pg jose calderon is known defensive liability, jarrett jack also doesn't jump out in any statistical defensive category, devin harris has averaged 1.2 steals over his career but is oft injured. I won't get into the draft class because that sample right now is smaller than the nba's for this year.   So once again i'll beat a dead horse and throw out terrence williams, frank said he always saw him as a pg his teams in sacremento had good things to say about his unselfish passing mentality, and he has a career turnover percentage of 15.9.  Defensively the guy can guard three positions and provided 4 bounds 2.5 blocks and .5 steals in two games with us in the preseason.  Get him on the cheap with a two year deal see how he does and explore your pg options after next season when rodney and charlie's contracts come off the books in 2014.      I guess the quandry with Knight is do we have the time to let him develop, if he can, with say a mike conley career arc?  By the time he does get to the level of a serviceable pg will be losing our other good players like Greg Monroe to FA?

If he were to move to sg where he could be serviceable as is, what happens in regards to a pg?  Allow stuckey to take back over for one year or keep on the 2nd squad and bring a fa?  One of the biggest issues as pointed out by many contributors and commenters has been knights regression on defense, unfortunately it seems that is also an issue with next years fa pg jose calderon is known defensive liability, jarrett jack also doesn’t jump out in any statistical defensive category, devin harris has averaged 1.2 steals over his career but is oft injured.

I won’t get into the draft class because that sample right now is smaller than the nba’s for this year.  

So once again i’ll beat a dead horse and throw out terrence williams, frank said he always saw him as a pg his teams in sacremento had good things to say about his unselfish passing mentality, and he has a career turnover percentage of 15.9.  Defensively the guy can guard three positions and provided 4 bounds 2.5 blocks and .5 steals in two games with us in the preseason.  Get him on the cheap with a two year deal see how he does and explore your pg options after next season when rodney and charlie’s contracts come off the books in 2014.     

]]> By: Mark http://www.pistonpowered.com/2012/12/is-brandon-knight-progressing-yes-but-its-complicated/comment-page-1/#comment-99866 Mark Sun, 02 Dec 2012 01:22:11 +0000 http://www.pistonpowered.com/?p=11925#comment-99866 Knights only flaw is his TO's, which is normal for a young PG. Plus his TO's seem to be more a product of impatience than poor skill, imo. He's just an impatient person by nature I think. Being young probably only adds to that. And if thats the only thing keeping him from being great, then hes in good shape. Because patience can be taught and learned. When that happens the TOs will be a non factor imo. FWIW Kyrie Irving avg more TOs than Knight.  Knights only flaw is his TO’s, which is normal for a young PG. Plus his TO’s seem to be more a product of impatience than poor skill, imo. He’s just an impatient person by nature I think. Being young probably only adds to that. And if thats the only thing keeping him from being great, then hes in good shape. Because patience can be taught and learned. When that happens the TOs will be a non factor imo.

FWIW Kyrie Irving avg more TOs than Knight. 

]]> By: Juan http://www.pistonpowered.com/2012/12/is-brandon-knight-progressing-yes-but-its-complicated/comment-page-1/#comment-99861 Juan Sun, 02 Dec 2012 00:24:17 +0000 http://www.pistonpowered.com/?p=11925#comment-99861 WHY DETROT IS SO POOR DEVELOPING ROOKIES? MAYBE IS THE REASON FOR BK DEVELOPMENT. WHY DETROT IS SO POOR DEVELOPING ROOKIES? MAYBE IS THE REASON FOR BK DEVELOPMENT.

]]> By: 19880607 http://www.pistonpowered.com/2012/12/is-brandon-knight-progressing-yes-but-its-complicated/comment-page-1/#comment-99860 19880607 Sun, 02 Dec 2012 00:03:54 +0000 http://www.pistonpowered.com/?p=11925#comment-99860 I think the crucial developmental question that needs to be answered with BK is not what type of guard he is but rather it is whether his game is compatible with Monroe's. As much as I would love for BK to become a Rondo clone what the Piston's really need is a guard who can plays solid defense against the league's elite point guards, bring the ball up under pressure, and hit the open jumper when Monroe passes it back to him out of the double team. I think he has the potential for all of that. If he tries to evolve his game in some other direction I don't see it working.     I think the crucial developmental question that needs to be answered with BK is not what type of guard he is but rather it is whether his game is compatible with Monroe’s. As much as I would love for BK to become a Rondo clone what the Piston’s really need is a guard who can plays solid defense against the league’s elite point guards, bring the ball up under pressure, and hit the open jumper when Monroe passes it back to him out of the double team. I think he has the potential for all of that. If he tries to evolve his game in some other direction I don’t see it working.  
 

]]> By: Chris H http://www.pistonpowered.com/2012/12/is-brandon-knight-progressing-yes-but-its-complicated/comment-page-1/#comment-99857 Chris H Sat, 01 Dec 2012 23:42:31 +0000 http://www.pistonpowered.com/?p=11925#comment-99857 I believe that Knight can be just fine as a point guard.  I'm not sure how well of a distributer he will be, which I think is what everyone wants him to be.  PH and DF have pointed out several times, as well as others in this forum that distributer type point guards are more and more rare in the NBA.  I mean hell I can't name many that can't score at will as well as find the open man.  Paul and Nash, we are talking about elite talents that can score whenever they want to they just understand that they need to share the ball, and then their numbers will come much easier.  Face it, if you take away all of their options they are still going to drop 40+ points on you.  Rondo?  The guy has been able to play with other stars for years, he was able to progressively take on more responsibilities as his big three faded and broke up.  Parker? While he was pushed into the line up on a good team while he was very young (19 as well I think) the game can be a whole lot easier when you have an established TC drawing all of the attention.  While I think we all agree that Knight possesses several physical gifts the fact is that he doesn't have them on the level the Wall, Westbrook, and Rose so he is not going to have that sort of mismatch on a nightly basis.  Of all of those guys I think Knight's best move would be to study Steve Nash and Chauncy.  He might not have Chauncy's strength, but those two are not, and haven't never been the most athletic PGs in the league and when things finally clicked for them they became two guys that EVERYONE would have loved to have on their team.  I believe that Knight can be just fine as a point guard.  I’m not sure how well of a distributer he will be, which I think is what everyone wants him to be.  PH and DF have pointed out several times, as well as others in this forum that distributer type point guards are more and more rare in the NBA.  I mean hell I can’t name many that can’t score at will as well as find the open man.  Paul and Nash, we are talking about elite talents that can score whenever they want to they just understand that they need to share the ball, and then their numbers will come much easier.  Face it, if you take away all of their options they are still going to drop 40+ points on you.  Rondo?  The guy has been able to play with other stars for years, he was able to progressively take on more responsibilities as his big three faded and broke up.  Parker? While he was pushed into the line up on a good team while he was very young (19 as well I think) the game can be a whole lot easier when you have an established TC drawing all of the attention.  While I think we all agree that Knight possesses several physical gifts the fact is that he doesn’t have them on the level the Wall, Westbrook, and Rose so he is not going to have that sort of mismatch on a nightly basis.  Of all of those guys I think Knight’s best move would be to study Steve Nash and Chauncy.  He might not have Chauncy’s strength, but those two are not, and haven’t never been the most athletic PGs in the league and when things finally clicked for them they became two guys that EVERYONE would have loved to have on their team. 

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