Ok, maybe a week ago I saw an old Maryland game on ESPN Classic back when Steve was there. I remember watching Terence through his whole career in Maryland, but I guess I forgot how he played back then. Last season his shooting percentage was brutal. Honestly Dan Langhi looked alot better when he got play compared to Morris. Remember the preseason where Morris was looking like he would be pretty decent and then during the season turned out to be only rarely so. Well maybe some of you all still have faith in him or lost all hope. Anyway, watching that game I saw what he was lacking during the season. He was SO MUCH more confident and aggressive when he played for Maryland. Someone needs to light a fire up his ass next season. I don't necessarily think he'll be an all-star, but I think he can be definitely above average. Remember how many of his shots were bricks. It's not like he cannot make those shots, I just think he needs to gain confidence. He needs to have some swagger. Just because he isn't the big man on campus, doesn't mean he can't think he is. He has good size, good poise, decent shot and (ball handling?), can rebound and get occasional blocks. He didn't have the hesitation then that he has now. He seems to not be trying, to never jump on the floor for the loose ball, to be lost on the court, make stupid mistakes, play uncomfortably. I don't know what I can say to give an example, but if you look at an old Maryland game and see how he carried himself and the way he played then, and the awkwardness he had last year, you can see that he definitely has alot more in him and hopefully the Rockets can get that out of him. Maybe since he's not a "rookie" anymore, he'll be prepared and turn some heads next season.
Agreed, he seems tentative on the court and appeared to be just going through the motions. After his junior year at Maryland, wasn't he projected as a possible top 5 pick and the next Scottie Pippen? Then after his junior year, his stock just dropped. Since you watch Maryland games, maybe you can shed some light on what happened to him between his junior and senior year.
I think that at some point organized games stopped being fun for him. If you watch the old tapes from his sophomore year you definitely see more aggressiveness and poise, but you also see someone who's out there because he just loves to play and compete--he almost never smiled during games after that year. I think that a lot of things that happened at MD after that year left a bad taste in his mouth--Gary Williams has more than his fair share of players who leave like that. I'm sure he even considered not playing the sport for a living. I think if he plays as much as he can this summer and if RT puts some trust in him next season (read: 20 mins. per game) he will have a very solid season and career. Which wouldn't necessarily be undeserved; Terence is from the projects and the first thing he did when he signed an agent was to buy his mother a new car.
I don't know if I quite agree with you Tmo; I don't think it's quite as cut and dry as that. Basketball critics were pretty disappointed with Terence's junior year, and while he didn't improve much I think he played a much more well rounded game compared to his sophmore. I think part of the problem Tmo had that junior year came from the fact he broke a bone in his foot, the summer after his Sophmore season. If I'm not mistaken that's the reason he didn't play on USA's world team that year. I'm not sure he was 100% ready at the start of the season and his game never really elevated because of it. Bubba, his stock had been dropping through his junior year because he didn't elevate his game as much as critics had wanted. After his Junior year I think he was projected as a mid-first rounder. As for his senior season, like maryland's overall season, Tmo had a rollercoaster ride of production. Frankly he was doing quite well at the beginning of the season up until the Duke collapse in Cole fieldhouse. Morris was putting up 15.7ppg / 8 boards / 2.6 Blocks, while shooting 47.6 from the field; 80.5 from the line; and 38.1 from behind the arc. That right there's a pretty good line and similar to the production he had his junior year. The one bright spot was his stats were getting even better as the season progressed. Unfortunately, after Morris missed the 3 that could have iced that Duke game, he lost all confidence in his shooting and became less ascertive in the offense. I think Dixon decided to take over the offensive identity of the team and be a leader. The saving grace was that Terence didn't completely withdraw from the team. Even if his shot wasn't falling, he showed a much greater desire to succede in the other aspects of his game. Most notably his defense improved by bounds. If Terence can find his confidence again I think he'll surprise a lot of people. Hopefully he'll be able to do so this summer and come on strong next year.
good post, JB Originally posted by Jaybird I don't know if I quite agree with you Tmo; I don't think it's quite as cut and dry as that. Basketball critics were pretty disappointed with Terence's junior year, and while he didn't improve much I think he played a much more well rounded game compared to his sophmore. This is true; his game was more well rounded. He posted similar numbers while facing double teams he didn't face the year before. I think people were expecting he would improve as much between his second and third years as he did between his first and second. Still, by the end of that year--when UCLA humiliated MD in the 2nd round of the tournament--you could tell Terence wasn't enjoying it anymore. I think part of the problem Tmo had that junior year came from the fact he broke a bone in his foot, the summer after his Sophmore season. If I'm not mistaken that's the reason he didn't play on USA's world team that year. I'm not sure he was 100% ready at the start of the season and his game never really elevated because of it. Yep, he broke his foot playing pickup I think. I remember talking him on campus when he had the cast and saying, 'hey, it's your team next year.' He said, 'Yeah, that's what it looks like," but did not seem particularly enthused. If he had not broken that foot I still don't think he would have gone pro, because he was projected at like #10, but at 1 or 2 if he played one more year. Bubba, his stock had been dropping through his junior year because he didn't elevate his game as much as critics had wanted. After his Junior year I think he was projected as a mid-first rounder. I don't know exactly what his draft status was, but I can assure you that he was ACUTELY aware of it and decided not to go out. As for his senior season, like maryland's overall season, Tmo had a rollercoaster ride of production. Frankly he was doing quite well at the beginning of the season up until the Duke collapse in Cole fieldhouse. Morris was putting up 15.7ppg / 8 boards / 2.6 Blocks, while shooting 47.6 from the field; 80.5 from the line; and 38.1 from behind the arc. That right there's a pretty good line and similar to the production he had his junior year. The one bright spot was his stats were getting even better as the season progressed. It's true that he was playing very well up until the Duke collapse. But he had already clearly slipped to third fiddle on the team and you could tell that his teammates and the coach had lost some confidence in him.
Sounds to me as if you guys are saying that the Duke collapse really had a profound negative impact in terms of his basketball confidence. If this is the case, there may be a chance that he never regains his prior form and that his game just continues to slide. There are instances of this in sports history, ie. Mitch Williams, Calvin Shiraldi,
TMo might be the only player I have seen whose shooting percentage started a monotonic decay after their sophomore season in college. He can't shoot. He couldn't shoot from the COLLEGE three. There is no way he is going to shoot from the NBA three. I can't believe the Rockets wasted a first round pick on this joke. Play Damn Lanky and cut T-brick.
Blah blah blah blah blah blah Neither could Rodney Rogers Neither could many other pros who later developed a shot. You trot out the exact same two line argument every time. But just because you couldn't shoot in college doesn't mean you won't be able to shoot in the pros. He's got the hand-eye coordination and decent mechanics. It's a question of reps and confidence. Tmo blows, we all know that, stop pointing out the obvious. The question is: must it be so?
I'm interested in where you see this monotonic decay? Considering each year he shot better from 3pt land excluding his senior year. When up until the Duke collapse he was shooting better from behind the arc than his 3 prior years. If you don't like Morris and prefer Langhi plays, it doesn't much matter to me. But at least use facts to backup your opinion.
Even if someone told me that TMo would never become anything more than a defensive stopper, I'd still have a place for him on my team. Having said that, I think he has the skill to become much more.
Hydra, your quote: "TMo might be the only player I have seen whose shooting percentage started a monotonic decay after their sophomore season in college. He can't shoot. He couldn't shoot from the COLLEGE three." I have seen you post this many times over the last few months. Terence's 3 point % over his first 3 years at Maryland was: 35.1%, 35.5%, and 36.2%, or overall FG% was .523, .551, and .493. You say his decay after the soph year, I suggest you do your homework on a player you evidently did not see firsthand, at least do your homework.By the way, check out his career stats in Maryland's Top 5-10 categories. FREDTERP
Maybe you folx should read what I wrote. I said AFTER HIS SOPH. YEAR. That means he was bad his junior year and got worse from there. Including falling to below 20% this season. Even if you want to include his soph campaign, that only gives him a .7% jump from soph to junior, hardly something to write home about. The argument that others who were crappy 3pt shooters in college is not bad, but trying to say that the miniscule improvement (basically just staying the same) from 2nd to 3rd year at MD disproves my point, especially since the sample I was discussing did not include that period, is weak.
Well if you claim his percentage decayed after his sophmore year, it implies that his sophmore year was his highest shooting percentage year. Making it a part of the argument. Had you claimed a monotonic decay after his junior year that would have excluded his sophmore one. By your logic, Walt Williams must have never been a good NBA 3pt shooter. His college average 3pt shooting percentage was only 35.9% and his Junior year he averaged a cool 29.5%. But you'll advocate playing Langhi, who was a better college 3pt shooter than Terence. But maybe you can explain to me some of the poor stats that Dan had his college carrear.... How is it that his carrear blocked shot total at Vandy is a whopping 26? Tmo trippled that number of blocked shots twice in two different seasons with a total of 256 almost 10 times what Dan managed to block. How is it that Dan's carrear steal total at Vandy is only 58? Terence got 55 in a single season, and almost trippled that number for his carrear 167. What about carrear assists? Dan's total is 83. Terence had 229 carrear assists. How about carrear rebounding totals? Dan's total is 559. Tmo 925 boards. So what can we conclude from these college statistics? Langhi can't pass, can't rebound, and can't play defense. And dispite all the statistical evidence that he could shoot the college 3. He's not taking many 3pt shots and is only shooting 25% Not that far from Tmo's percentage who you so like to trash.
Hydra, your quote: "Maybe you folx should read what I wrote. I said AFTER HIS SOPH. YEAR. That means he was bad his junior year and got worse from there." My previous post said he did not shoot bad through his junior year as stated by the stats I provided. You said he was bad his junior year, where does a FG% of .493 become bad, where does 36.2% at 3 point range become bad? His serious decline was his SENIOR YEAR at .432 at FG% and 29% at the 3 point line not during his junior year when he shot .493 FG% and 36.2% at 3 point range. When Terence FG% took the serious decline in his senior year, it was his dropoff at the 3 point range that affected his FG%! When his shots were not falling he subsequently took less shots, 366 attempts as compared to 406 the previous year. Terence did not force the shots, he just continued to put up good numbers in other areas by passing, rebounding and blocking shots, but more importantly over his career usually played better in Maryland's bigger games. In the automatic W's, he would not pad his numbers since he would shoot far less. TRock was the #2 career leader in blocks, #4 in rebounds, #8 in points, steals, FG made, and 3's made at Maryland. Look at his OVERALL game before trashing him and research the stats instead of trashing him secondhand. Take away his disasterous start in the first two months and you will see his FG% much better than Griffin's FG%. Terence finished at .384 overall FG% while Griffin was at .366. You fail to mention that his 20% shooting this past season was at the 3 point line not his overall FG%. I guess you did not see his improved play in the final month or two. Hydra when you trash Terence at least do your homework on the stats. FREDTERP
I would say thus far that is a pretty accurate assesment of Langhi, wouldn't you? I thought it was obvious what I was referring to, I could shoot 20% from the field in the NBA. I didn't specify that it was not his FT percentage either, but you seemed to figure it out. BTW, good 3pt shooters should not be shooting 35% from the college three. The argument that he did not force shots when they weren't going in only highlights how bad he was from beyond the arc, since the games of few makes on many attempts would not be there to pull his percentage down further. I sadi when he was drafted that he couldn't shoot the college three so there was no reason to expect him to hit the 3 in the pros. You and Tmo I believe said that his mechanics were good so he probably would hit those shots. So far, I think the ~19% from beyond the arc supports my side more than your's. I never mentioned Griffin's shooting, but he did shoot significantly better from behind the arc and from the charity stripe than Morris. So your implication that Morris is a better shooter than Griffin is false, he just took a higher percentage of his FGA from closer to the basket. Unfotunately for him, we already have 3 PF on this team that are in the rotation ahead of him.
I think if you get Morris into a moving type offense, he can be fine. He's not a great shooter but he is a adequte scorer. Give him a chance to use his slashes t the basket and other things he can do and he'll be ok . If you think he can sit out 23ft away and wing 3's ,you're sadly mistaken. He has all the tools you want in a sf, he's long, can dribble,defend,rebound and maybe score. I liken him to a younge Derrick McKey. He has a good stroke, he just needs to wrk on his shot and not worry about missing. If nothing elsehe can be a very valuable backup for this team.
So, basically what you're saying is that he is just like Shandn Andersn? There isn't a player in the league that can't score when they are given the ball on a cut to the basket. That means he has no offense. Our SF must be able to hit jumpers coming off of screens and step behind the arc for the three pointer. That is the way Rudy's offense runs.
Hydra, I never said Tmo would hit threes because of his mechanics, I'm saying he could hit them. Some players just have no business shooting beyond the arc, because their mechanics get all out of joint once they go beyond 18 feet or so (see most seven footers, or even Jordan and Bryant, who line drive it too much). What I said--and still say--is that there's nothing about Tmo's mechanics that keeps him from being a good shooter. He needs reps, particularly from nba 3-point range, which is new to him. If a confident Terence was able to hit 35% of college threes, there's no reason that he shouldn't be able to hit the same from NBA range if he just practices enough. That %'s not great, but certainly it's passable. Besides, the pro arc is only three feet further out; I don't know if you've ever shot the nba three, but it's really not THAT much harder than the college three. Especially not when you're spotting up like SFs do for the Rockets.
What I'm saying is that a good offensive system uses everyone to the point to where they are in a position to succeed. The Kings run a variety of cuts and bk doors for everyone, does that mean teir players have no offense? I'm basically saying what I've ben saying all yr that if you have slashers, why make them 3pt shooters? If you have a team full of atheletic players, whywalk the ball up every play? Morris is similar to Anderson except longer and a better ballhandler and rebounder. Its true he will have to make jumpers, but do all or most have to come from 23ft?
I wouldn't say I'm qualified to make that assesment, seeing as I've only seen him play for a total of maybe 15 minutes. But I am interested to know why you advocate cutting Morris and playing Langhi, when neither of them are shooting the ball well and Tmo does other things much better... You never really answered that question. I'm also curious as to this quote: When I brought up Walt Williams, whose college carrear 3pt percentage is 35.9%, Walt's made a pretty good carrear for himself with his 3pt shooting, but by your logic he shouldn't have been able to, because he wasn't a good college 3pt shooter. How does that work exactly? You never clarified that, and I'd be interested in hearing what you had to say. I'm also confused where you're getting the assumption that we're arguing that Morris will become a good NBA 3pt shooter. Unless I've missed something everyone for the most part has said that they think Morris will be able gain some consistency to his shot and bring that 3pt percentage to where it was around his Junior year. I'm confident he'll be able to get to the 35-36 area and maintain that through out his carrear. While not being 3pt sniper that's a decent percentage and that combined with his passing, ball handling and defensive play and he's a pretty good SF to have. If he were able to keep the 3pt percentage I've brought up, what other problems do you have with Morris' game? No one seems to want to answer this question. Doesn't that just imply that Morris is the smarter shooter of the two because he's able to get his attempts closer to the basket?
