I expect him to ride pine just like last year. We have brought in 2 free agents to replace 1 James Posey. He scored 23 points against Isreal, who has lost 4 straight including a 30 point loss to France. He could probably light it up against a JUCO team as well. He couldn't hit the broad side of a barn during pregame and halftime warmups the last couple of games I went to last year. Let's hope I'm wrong about him.
he only had 5 points from inside the arc or from free throws? that's pretty sad. i hope he's not thinking about playing soft and shooting threes til he's a starter.. it's not going to happen that way.. I don't buy into summer league or even preseason the way CD does. *COUGH cato COUGH* whether they planned for him to get a lot of PT next season or not, who else were they going to focus their plays on? or did you think they'd just play pick up ball and evaluate talent like that? And for that one good game Nacho had, the rest were terrible games... don't look too much into his summer unless he learns to play defense on at LEAST an NCAA level, because he's not even up to par with that. the 64 points Israel scored were probably by his defensive assignment I'm all for keeping him around for Yao's entertainment, however. Jack Haley is reborn!
JVG's comments on the radio were interesting, basically Boki better get stronger because he's not up to NBA stuff otherwise (is what I heard). It sounded like JVG'll challenge Nachbar and if Nachbar responds he'll be a contributing NBA player. That works for me.
Is Boki really not as strong as Peja, Pike, Rice, Nowitzki....Basically, the sharp shooting outside threats. How strong does he need to be for his role? Does JVG view him as a PF? He is pretty damn tall. I know he's listed at 6'8 or 6'9, but he looks damn near 6'10.
In that Rockets picture posted in another thread, Boki was the 2nd tallest player. only JC was taller & just barely. Boki looked to 6-11 in that picture.
IMO, JVG is doing the right thing. If he'll say this much in public, imagine what he and his staff will (positively) say privately or in practice. Boki is not an 18 year old Euro sensation - he turned 23 in July. Van Gundy and his staff have both the duty and obligation to determine quickly how much upside (if any) there is with Nachbar. And given Rice's recent history of injury, they need to get Boki mentally and physically ready now. From my vantage point, the new staff appears to be doing just that. On a related topic...I think the new staff is going to have a "hands on" approach to Badiane as well. Malik is not Yao Ming, but I could envision (in the manner of Falsone going to China) some member of the staff going to watch Badiane's Euro League games.
I think they want Nachbar to gain strength so he is stronger going to the basket so he can finish on his plays. Also the added strength will allow him to be able to shoot while being banged on in traffic and make him stronger later in the game to be able to shoot long distance.
I think Boki will surprise everyone this year...However, that could be a good or bad thing... I hope he does well...
There are players who are sharpshooters who do nothing more (ie Dell Curry, Tracy Murray, Dale Ellis, Bullard), and then there are players like the one's mentioned above who have a variety of offensive skills but also happen to be pure shooters. Add Allen Houston's name up there. I think our expectation is for Boki to fall into the second category. From an offensive perspective, if Boki's role is to be our starting 3, he can't just sit outside and shoot 3s (the same can be said for Eddie at the 4). A starting SF has to have some semblence of a complete game, and strength is a definite factor. As a starting SF, he'll be expected to take the ball in from time to time and he needs to be strong enough to take hits and finish plays. Boki is probably as strong as Pike, but Pike doesn't have to be as strong at the SG position. The other guys you mentioned are not soft at all and can score in a variety of ways, not just the jumper. Shooting is simply the strongest part of their games. Rice and Dirk have strong post up games, and Peja's is developing. Peja is a very solid 6'9". Boki looks like he's pretty wiry. On the flip side, he needs to get stronger to be able to defend other 3s. Because he doesn't have particularly quick feet to move laterally, he needs to be able to compensate by using his strength, which he currently doesn't have. It would be ideal if he had both quick feet and a strong base, but it's a must that he has at least one of the two. Otherwise, he'll get butchered against the likes of Antawn Jamison next year.
