Scouts' take on NBA teams

Rather than a columnist's opinion about each NBA team, this has an opposing team's scout give an analysis of each team. Scouts have some interesting insights and obviously know the game, not to mention the teams and players, much better than a sportswriter.

Once you go to the page for a team, you can select another team from the drop-down list at the top or bottom.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/basketball/nba/10/25/nba-season-preview-enemy-lines/index.html?eref=sihp&sct=hp_t11_a0

Outside,


Nice link, thanks, and it's nice to see you posting again.

This scout, the one who did the Celtics, isn't all that excited, is he?

"LeBron's too good and the Heat got better"? Yeah, and Wade's knees are becoming an ongoing issue, Ray's ankles are still an issue and they're still small and have no beef. Rashard Lewis is one of the worst low post big men I've ever seen, he must be allergic to paint. I love Shane Battier, but he's a 34 year old defender. He made a point of mentioning KG's mileage and Pierce's age, but he doesn't mention the health of 2 key players on the Heat? DWade without knees is a decoy. Ray Allen without ankles is a decoy (which is what he was last year and that pissed him off).

His comments on Lee don't mention anything about how Lee's game will fit in well with a team where he's not expected to have the ball in his hands and score in buckets. Interestingly, he cited Bradley's questionable shooting as a reason why he's not sold on him, but he doesn't mention Lee's shooting. Neither player is expected to shoot like a traditional 2.

Terry shoots better moving, it's true, but we've been seeing him knocking down face-up 3s all pre-season.

He has completely overlooked how much faster we are. Granted, the Heat is an uptempo team too, but if you can limit their advantage by running yourself and take advantage of their lack of size, then that's good isn't it?

Well, we're less than a week from our first chance to see what's what.


bob


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Not sure who wrote this....but this "scout" clearly is working off OLD NEWS. Here are a couple of gems from his comments:

-Avery Bradley started to show consistency on defense last year

-If Green could improve (his ball handling) enough so that he could get by people, that would be a big help.

Comments that are that off base make it hard to take anything else Mr X has to say seriously.

In the Celtics report, I thought, like MrKleen, that the assessment of Bradley was odd. Not just the underwhelming assessment of him directly, but also projecting Lee as the starting 2 for the next several years.

I thought Green's ballhandling and driving ability (along with rebounding) were acknowledged limitations to his game. Up to this point in his career, if he got the ball on the perimeter, he passed or shot the ball the vast majority of the time. He can run like a deer and is a good finisher on the break, but scoring on drives hasn't been a big part of his game.

I haven't seen any preseason games to know whether Green has improved in those areas, but even if he has, I assume that many of these reports were put together before the preseason. And it's not like he's awful in those areas; it's more that he's below average for a player who mostly fits the small forward profile. I think of it like Ray Allen's ballhandling and driving -- those weren't his strengths either, but he was able to drive effectively on occasion. On another note, I actually thought the scout's assessment of Green's defensive potential -- being able to guard LeBron -- was a real plus.

And while I realize the last line about LeBron and Miami is grating for Boston fans, I thought the rest of the report was accurate and overall quite positive. While they have a lot of nice pieces, they will only go as far as Garnett's aging wheels can take them. He HAS to stay healthy.

If you want to see a really negative assessment, look at the Warriors' report. Talk about puncturing a balloon of even modest hopes... sigh.

Outside, if the pre-season is any indication - Jeff Green has greatly improved his ball handling skills and drove to the basket and finished with dunks against NBA and European opponents with EASE.

I also dont see how Miami got "much better" as the scout claimed.

Ray Allen is better than Mike Miller on offense....worse than him on D. Rashard Lewis....who knows what you get with him..he is certainly more of an unknown than nearly any of the new Celtics additions IMO.

Outside wrote:In the Celtics report, I thought, like MrKleen, that the assessment of Bradley was odd. Not just the underwhelming assessment of him directly, but also projecting Lee as the starting 2 for the next several years.

I thought Green's ballhandling and driving ability (along with rebounding) were acknowledged limitations to his game. Up to this point in his career, if he got the ball on the perimeter, he passed or shot the ball the vast majority of the time. He can run like a deer and is a good finisher on the break, but scoring on drives hasn't been a big part of his game.

I haven't seen any preseason games to know whether Green has improved in those areas, but even if he has, I assume that many of these reports were put together before the preseason. And it's not like he's awful in those areas; it's more that he's below average for a player who mostly fits the small forward profile. I think of it like Ray Allen's ballhandling and driving -- those weren't his strengths either, but he was able to drive effectively on occasion. On another note, I actually thought the scout's assessment of Green's defensive potential -- being able to guard LeBron -- was a real plus.

And while I realize the last line about LeBron and Miami is grating for Boston fans, I thought the rest of the report was accurate and overall quite positive. While they have a lot of nice pieces, they will only go as far as Garnett's aging wheels can take them. He HAS to stay healthy.

If you want to see a really negative assessment, look at the Warriors' report. Talk about puncturing a balloon of even modest hopes... sigh.

outside,

I read the report about the Warriors and I was exhausted from all of the negativity.
I believe every player other then Klay Thompson were talked about negatively.
Bogut and Curry are serious question marks for the Warriors.
They are a 20 something win team at best without major contributions from them.
I have no faith that Curry won't continue to sprain his ankles.
It has happened so many times over the last few years.
I really like Klay's game. He is one of the top 10 shooters in the league, in my opinion.

Outside,

Based on the eight preseason games I saw, I believe Green is the best Celtic in terms of finding innovative ways to get to the hoop and, most important, finish when he gets there. And he often collects a bonus free throw in the process. He's FAR more aggressive than I recall in the past—both on offense and on defense (where he says he's determined to become one of the best).

Yes, I'm including Paul Pierce among those whose slashing ability I believe is exceeded by Jeff Green. Paul is very shrewd, but he lacks the suddenness to his game that would prevent defenses from anticipating, and often thwarting, his moves. At the end of games, I'd prefer seeing Jeff penetrating and Paul shooting from the perimeter.

Obviously, we can't know how his health and endurance will hold up. And, in the preseason, he seems to be operating on natural high that could be difficult to maintain over the entire season. But, right now at least, I'd view him as one of the Celtics' top offensive weapons.

Sam