Did you read the article? He's sweating so hard his shirt is sticking to him like Saran wrap. Saran wrap, man. You can't fake that kind of effort.
Good read. CD has amassed quite a legacy here. If he can help Asik develop some offense and round out his game, the Rockets might have a solid 5 for years to come. There's a place here in town where I see NBA guys now and then. Asik seems to be there at least a couple of times a week with another guy who looks to be a bit older and just a tad shorter than Omer. I'll probably say hi next time I see him; just haven't wanted to bug him so far. He seems like a fairly quiet guy.
I said before that Omer is a great talent & is going to have a great season next year. Very excited to see him in action.
Asik weighs 295? Really? I had no idea. I thought he weighed about 260, but if Dawson says 295, then 295 he must be. Right? Anyone else having a hard time believing that he weighs that much? The guy is going to be unmovable in the low block. I hope he still has the quick feet and leaping ability that he's known for. CD says that he does, so this is freakin' encouraging. If only a decent percentage of the offensive improvement carries over to the regular season, and CD remains skeptical himself, that would be huge. Also huge (besides Asik, evidently), would be the ability to play at a high level for 30 minutes a game. If nothing else, Dawson will have Asik's conditioning ready for the season. Whether or not Asik can manage the minutes and has improved his offensive game at all, especially those free throws, is something we'll just have to see. I can't wait to see how he does in a Rockets uniform. Great read, and thanks.
by the time he has a layup and a nice hook shot, he will be a free agent again. =( But I guess those are daryl morey problems . we should all just enjoy the tenacious defense he will provide. It's been four seasons that we've gone without a true smart defender manning the paint. Feel the wrath of the turkey!
If the contract would have been spread over 4 or 5 seasons then Morey wouldn't have been able to snag him or Lin in free agency. The structure of the 3 year contract was the only reason why they are both Rockets today. At his age, even a small improvement this Summer, and work throughout the season will pay major dividends. Just add the ability to increase endurance to play 30+ min a game and a half way decent free throw % would make him a near max level contract normally in free agency. Shouldn't take longer than 12 months to work on just those two aspects. If he doesn't improve and digresses in his PER production then we should be glad that he only signed on for 3 seasons.
"hitting his free throws at a better than 70 percent clip." At this point, the main thing I'm hoping for is for him to be able to hit 65% on FTs. That'll let him stay on the court for 30mins and at the end of games. If he can add a lay-up later on, then that'll be nice too.
Conditioning is essential. If he can give us 33 solid minutes on any given night then he will probably be earning every bit of his paycheck.
Sounds encouraging but can some1 recall what was said after CD worked out with Dorsey? My bet it was full of the same, "very strong, can be a beast, is willing to improve". I'm not saying he's Joey, he's far superieur and we've seen he can handle Dwight so I have no doubt he's a monster. Just saying be cautiously optimistic about this.
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/5RTi77n9XaI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> And yes, he was ridiculously high on Dorsey.
True, but remember at that point Dorsey had yet to prove anything in the league. Asik at least has a limited body of work to lend support to your your optimism.
The difference here is that Asik will actually be on the court to test. Dorsey was buried on the bench and undersized at his position to ever get on the court. That is until Yao went down and the coach had no choice. Like the article said, its easy to do it on the practice floor but what matters is doing it in the arena. The only way to do that is repetition. Hopefully Asik will have the opportunity to play through his offensive mistakes.
