It could say more about how he feels about Risacher than anything else. Personally I'm not high on Risacher at all.
Another interesting thing about this trade is that it’s not just that his shooting can help this team. But there’s a chance to rehabilitate his value and trade him for something else of value. Right now Griffin’s value is in that toilet, but if he has a great summer league and a strong preseason, maybe he gets dealt for a couple of future 2nds even before the season starts. Or if he finds a way into the rotation and shoots well, maybe someone gives us an asset at the deadline for him, or perhaps he’s seen as a positive asset in a packaged deal. These upside swings on the margins are wise.
seems to only use it when needed... in his rookie highlights he's dunking on a lot of heads including embiid
From what I've read (and not from watching), I've heard he can't process stuff on the fly very well. Like, if you go tell him to stand in the corner and shoot, he'll do well, but his on-the-fly BBIQ isn't all that great. Some in the Hawks sub-reddit were saying his style didn't get along with Quin Snyder's. Snyder was trying to run/move fast, but Griffin had a more probing/methodical style of play that had him playing more like he was an option 1 looking for openings, getting to the mid-range, etc. instead of quick shots. Who knows. It's a cheap gamble that may or may not pay off without too much repercussion, I guess.
His lateral movement isn't the greatest despite his hops. It's probably one reason why his defense was considered sub-par. He also has been through a lot of injuries pre-draft and after. Not to mention there's not a lot of opportunity to show off 40" verticals when you're known for shooting 3's and mid-range, I suppose.
moving side to side on D he seems a bit stuck in concrete like harden. but the dunks i saw were in transition and impressive. in halfcourt he wasn't really going all the way to the rim, but stop&popping midrange instead -- i was actually thinking alpi/adams in the paint isn't going to be an issue for him
Yeah, no doubt he can dunk the ball or just go straight and dunk it. He's always had some crazy dunks. There was a high school dunk he had with Isiah Thomas watching that went viral a couple of years ago. I don't know if his knee injury contributed to the poor lateral defense I kept reading about, but I could've sworn he's had those issues on D even back in high school.
Snyder is a very bright coach - but sometimes he forms an opinion initially about someone and it doesn’t change. MDA, Larry Brown, and Phil Jackson are examples of coaches like that. I don’t know why Snyder decided he didn’t like Griffin - but it doesn’t matter. Udoka will give Griffin a shot if he plays hard.
He isn’t a below average athlete. He is at times a hesitant athlete but he has a great body, very strong and can be explosive in right spaces.
Through his junior year of HS he had zero lateral issues, he was at worse top 3 in his class and was considered to have a lot of upside… then he had injuries and missed a lot of time. At Duke he was injured too and just tried to fit in when he came back. As a rookie he was still playing with hamstring issues but looked good.
I watched a bit of him on the Hawks. This guy has all the tools to succeed as an NBA starting role player but because of what happened to his family behind the scenes, he is mentally broken. That's why the Hawks dumped him. This might be KPJ 2.0 but even when you see the best psychiatrists in the world, it takes years to cure trauma and you'd have to cut ties with toxic family members which will be hard at his young age. Also, he's a huge religious nut. Prepare to see some quotes coming mid-season like "every sinner is going to hell and what's the point of playing when the rapture is upon us" type of ****.
