He's Von Wafer. Speaking of Cookies, Yao needs to watch and rewatch film of today's game and mimic exactly what Dikembe does on the defensive end. I've been so conditioned to Yao losing the ball on rebounds that it shocked me when Dikembe pulled down what I thought would be a sure strip from Chandler/Paul. Back to Wafer. I don't want to hear any more about how he has "tunnel-vision" "makes bad decisions", is unreliable blah blah blah. The guy is the explosive 2 guard we have needed for ages on our team. He is not overrated, he does not play the bad defense he's made out to play, and he is an overall positive on most nights. More importantly, he needs more time and less hate. Jump on the Bandwagon while there's still room.
Ok he played well tonight. No bonehead mistakes that I remember. Didn't fall in love with the 3. Didn't force anything. Great game. He's still a work in progress IMO.
i'll eat a little crow from my "love him as much as i loathe him" comment i made last week... he's got to play like this consistently, but watching him drive and kick out or make heady passes to the open man instead of taking the shot was a delight. especially when he said as much in his post game interview - saying he was watching film and realizing that he was missing a ton of open teammates and looking for his shot too much. kudos to von.
I dont want to be pessimistic but who here gets the feeling we might not be able to resign the guy. He might get bigger offers from other teams judging by his on-court play. Dude is becoming an all-star. And to think that many teams dumped the guy. Underdog story right there..
I wholeheardly agree. The guys does make mistakes, but his ability to make plays when he drives to the bucket makes me forget any mistakes he makes. To the guys that make those horrible threads: stop hating on the guy. he wasn't even supposed make the team. he doesn't earn 21 million and is not a superstar. he is a very good role player with star potential kinda in a jason terry role. talent wise he is not better than tmac but he definetly has more heart and fearlessness than tmac. Besides I LOVE VAKEATON.
Someone, or everyone, pulled Wafer's ass aside and said, dude, you're a good player. Don't act like you won't ever get to touch the ball or shoot the ball again. You're just killing yourself. Play the game. tonight, he played his game, but didn't just charge into his move, hurl himself into the paint. Several times, he drove hard, took a look, saw the defense set, and pulled it back out. That's a sign of maturity (or a guy that heard from Adelman that if he keeps his shiet up, he won't get to play). The pulling it back out is vastly more important, as a sign of maturity, than dishing to teammates for layups, which is a reaction and clearly within his skill set. Knowing when to pull back is very tough for a guy like Wafer. That said, his drive and dish is key. And will make him some money.
He had a couple of good passes in the Lakers and Spurs game too. He said in the post game interview that he has been watching tape and noticed he's been missing guys when he had the ball. I think he is showing improvement and needs to keep making the right play for the team to be at its best when he is on the floor.
He's maturing for sure. Even before the last two games I never understood how the hell people criticized him so much. People on this forum (including me) have complained and whined for years about not having a slashing, big guard who could also shoot. Our superstar SG wouldn't do it consistently and our PG couldn't finish when he got to the rim. Along comes Von Wafer, 6'5", freak of an athlete with a good shooting stroke who is already planning who he is going to dunk on the second he grabs a defensive rebound and starts streaking down the court like a blur. So here we have a fearless slasher whose biggest fault is that he wants to score so badly that he makes some bad decisions. Nevermind that the same mind set that caused him some turnovers also sparked him to some big games and some personal scoring runs that won games. He brings qualities like athleticism and fearlessness that this team has been missing since a young Stevie Franchise and he brings it at a bargain price yet people still cry because he isn't perfect.
Really, really happy with Von's play tonight. His drive-and-dish game was as good as I've ever seen it (though it's hard to be worse than something that was never really there ), his decision-making was sound, and most shockingly, he played pretty sound defense throughout. He still bit on a few pump fakes he shouldn't have, but he kept his man in front of him and got a hand up to contest the shot every time. If he was serious about his commitment to examining his own game in order to better himself, we could have a truly solid and explosive bench player for years to come.
