He wants to be a three. But he has no elite handles to match with defenders like lebron. He's gonna be a anthony randolph 1.5
Wasn't that Rudy Gay's knock? You don't need elite handles to be a SF in the NBA. See Danny Granger... or any current Rockets SF.
Let me guess, those two GMs were David Kahn and Otis Smith before he got fired, right? I've never heard of a low motor guy that became extremely motivated after he came to the NBA. THe closest I can remember is Rudy Gay, and even till now he has disappeared every other game (unless you ask what, in which case he was on KD's level).
Most of that can be taught. An aggressive PJ 3 is a damn good player and prospect. We saw that version in the second half against Anthony Davis.
PJ3 is a small-forward http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_forward_(basketball) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_forward_(basketball) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_forward Why is everyone calling him "soft"? He isn't Kevin Martin frail. And what is up with his handles not being good enough. Name me all these small forwards who just have these amazing handles? If anything a small forward with good to great handles is an elite skill not required one unless you are a point forward. Look up what a small forward is. The key word I got was VERSATILE and that is exactly what he is. With being versatile though he needs to improve on his defense. I think if a coach demands and shows him to play better defense he will be an All-Star caliber player. And I see the argument that he was out of position. There is a difference between MOSTLY guarding Rudy Gay, Danny Granger types then guarding Zach Randolph, David West types. He is a tweener so he will have to guard both but the bulk should be small forward.
Good news. Now we just need a couple of more workout wonders to jump into the lottery, so that Tyler Zeller falls to #14.
Without mentioning his name, Perry Jones III blames Scott Drew for not using him correctly at Baylor. Perhaps the real problem is PJ3 excels in non-pressure situations that have no consequences but plays soft against tough opposition during games that actually count. It's one thing to free-stroke in repetitive drills and another to do it when Ws & Ls are at stake. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/20...ebook.santa.barbara/index.html?sct=nba_t12_a0 Baylor's Jones finally tapping into potential; more NBA draft notebook SANTA BARBARA, Calif.-- Anthony Davis doesn't need a draft strategy. The big man out of Kentucky could spend the next three-plus weeks vacationing in Barbados and likely still be taken first overall, as he's living the life of luxury that comes with being seen as the cream of this draft class crop. But Baylor's Perry Jones III is the poster boy of a different kind, the kind of prospect whose stock could change significantly depending on the workouts and interviews with teams that take place leading up to the big day on June 28. As such, Jones and his representatives devised a new plan in this eleventh hour stage of the process. Despite being seen as a power forward during his prep days and two collegiate seasons (a face-up four with the ability to go inside, to be more specific), Jones' small forward skills are being emphasized now in an attempt to make him even more marketable to the many talent evaluators who no longer see him as a top-five pick like they did a year ago. Jones, who has been training here for the past six weeks, took a break between his morning strength work and his afternoon basketball sessions to discuss his situation on Friday. He is considered one of the greatest mysteries of this group, a supremely talented player with the rarest of skill-sets and size (6-foot-11, 235 pounds) whose lack of assertiveness, toughness or consistency in college raised questions about whether he'd ever maximize his potential. And while we'll delve deeper into Jones' personal story soon as part of our ongoing draft coverage, he had a message to share that simply couldn't wait: regardless of what position he plays, he's finally starting to see how special he could be. "I feel way more confident than I ever was at Baylor," said Jones, who will head for Chicago predraft camp next week like most of the top-level prospects. "Working out three times a day, I feel great. I see the potential I have. I'm actually using the potential I have. "I've been using it in workouts. They've been going great, playing three-on-three or one-on-one. I do a lot that I normally wouldn't do. I'm just a lot more confident when I'm playing ball." Why now, and not before? Because, Jones claims, the group that surrounds him here is providing the vision that both him and the Baylor boys apparently lacked. His strength and agility work is being handled by the team at P3 Peak Performance, an athletic science laboratory of sorts in Santa Barbara where players from around the league come to get stronger while learning how to use their bodies more efficiently. His hoops training, which takes place on the UC Santa Barbara campus as part of the program headed by the Bill Duffy Agency, often involves playing against fellow prospects and former NBA players like 28-year-old Al Thornton. The specialized work is handled by Ross McMains, a sprite 23-year-old whose playing career ended at Santa Monica Community College but whose coaching career unofficially began when he started attending coaching clinics at the age of 16. McMains, who spent more than an hour walking Jones through a series of nuanced and deliberate offensive moves during my time in their gym, is also improving his arsenal through a variety of video sessions. The digital tape on McMains' laptop on this day was cued to Quinton Ross and Bruce Bowen, both renowned defenders in their NBA days who McMains wanted Jones to learn from. "It's probably the level of training (that has helped his confidence), the level of competition that there is now," Jones said. "It's far greater than college. Just playing against older guys, against more experienced people, all the time, having the freedom to just play basketball. That's the best part." Which indicates, of course, some level of discontent with the way things went before. The Bears were a balanced scoring team during a season in which they finished with a school-record 30 wins and reached the Elite Eight, and Jones said he was hesitant to demand the ball as a result. His scoring and rebounding numbers were almost identical the last two seasons (13.7 points per game as a freshman, 13.5 as a sophomore; 7.2 rebounds per as a freshman, 7.6 as a sophomore). Asked if he thought he was used properly in college, Jones said, "I don't think so. Not at all. Seeing the player that I've become over the past month or so, I wasn't used well at all. "For example, the first day (in Santa Barbara) we did a 25-shot drill. For college-range threes, I made 18-of-25. And from pro-range threes, I made 15-of-25. I didn't shoot threes well in college, and I barely shot the three -- I think -- because I was thinking a lot in college." The numbers, as Jones indicated, weren't pretty: he shot just 30 percent from beyond the arc as a sophomore while averaging one attempt per game. "I was thinking instead of just playing off of instinct," he continued to explain. "And I had a team (around him). I didn't feel pressure to be a great scorer because I had so many other people who could score around me. Just now, I realized that it doesn't matter who's on my team or who's around me, it shouldn't hinder what I can do best -- and that's score the basketball. "I think now, if I could do it over, I wouldn't let anybody get in the way of me being able to score the ball. I wouldn't think twice about shooting it. I'm probably the most confident that I've ever been (now)." Those same teammates that he so often deferred to saw the progress recently, too. "I played open gym with a couple of my (former Baylor) teammates when I went to take my finals, and they were asking me why I didn't play like that the past two years," he said. "I had no explanation for it. I don't know. I guess the hard work is paying off." Truth be told, though, even this well-constructed pre-draft program won't clear the memory banks of scouts and executives who spent the last two years wondering why Jones didn't do more. It could be argued that he has more raw talent than anyone in the draft, yet he could turn out to be a late lottery pick (I have him going tenth to New Orleans in my first mock draft). Of all the high-profile prospects being so seriously scrutinized, no one has more convincing left to do than Jones. "(NBA executives) can either base things off what I did in college, or they can base it off what they see in the near future," Jones said. "If they want me to come in and work out for them, they can base it off what they see there. If they don't see that I've been working hard every day and that I really want this, then I can't say nothing about it."
He's huge and athletic with very good potential. I think he goes 6 or 7, but wouldn't be surprised to see him go in the top 5.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>So I don't know if Perry Jones will pan out, either, but man can he get up. The evidence - <a href="http://t.co/WVQ8Lz0Q" title="http://twitpic.com/9saevt">twitpic.com/9saevt</a> and <a href="http://t.co/gaQsqtaO" title="http://twitpic.com/9saf0d">twitpic.com/9saf0d</a></p>— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) <a href="https://twitter.com/sam_amick/status/209183521653268480" data-datetime="2012-06-03T07:23:32+00:00">June 3, 2012</a></blockquote> <script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <a href="http://twitpic.com/9saevt" title="So I don't know if Perry Jones will pan out, either, but... on Twitpic"><img src="http://twitpic.com/show/thumb/9saevt.jpg" width="150" height="150" alt="So I don't know if Perry Jones will pan out, either, but... on Twitpic"></a> <a href="http://twitpic.com/9saf0d" title="So I don't know if Perry Jones will pan out, either, but... on Twitpic"><img src="http://twitpic.com/show/thumb/9saf0d.jpg" width="150" height="150" alt="So I don't know if Perry Jones will pan out, either, but... on Twitpic"></a>
