Yeah I agree. I'm pretty excited about him. Not only those 2 things but, layups, penetration, and those mid range jumpers. His dribbling/ball handling skills are soo much better.
He did look better tonight, but then again, it didn't look like the Spurs were really trying hard to defend him. It was when there was defensive pressure that Head had ballhandling problems last year. He did look pretty good out there, but we'll have to see how he does during the regular season.
Luther seems somewhat more confident with his midrange game and finishing the layups. But I don't see a huge improvement in the ball-handling or decision-making.
Luther never was a bad passer in a isolated play, he can be very creative in that situation. His problem was, is setting the pace and passing in OPEN COURT.
the problem is he was very erratic with his play. he seems to have calmed down a bit but i can still sense some nerves in him.
As someone who played under a very JVG-esque coach in high school and hated it, I feel that Luther's improvement is probably about 90% mental. Adelman encourages players to use their offensive skills to the fullest, where as Van Gundy obviously preferred that players defer to Yao and Tracy in order to keep mistakes to a minimum. The mindset that "I can try to create a shot for myself and coach isn't going to bench me if I mess up" will make a player a lot more comfortable out there. Some people have said that he used to do more in college and that's because he's got the skills, he just hasn't been using them in the NBA.
I always thought Luther was a fairly good passer. His problem was his ball handling skills. Also I think our rotation was set tonight the first three quarters.
I agree that playing for Adleman probably has a lot to do with it. I've noticed Battier seems to be a lot more creative on offense as well.
