Amile Jefferson ~ Brian Zoubek?

[DukieInBrasil]

Is Amile Jefferson really 6'9" tall (with the arms of a 7' tall player)? If so, are those arms attached to the hands of Brian Zoubek? Otherwise, how to explain Amile's apparent inability to dunk a basketball, despite being passed the ball with an open path to the rim numerous times, and then generally finishing with shots off the backboard (which have been blocked about as often as they have gone in)?

Absolute bunk, that one single block that you are focusing on is the only time i remember Amile getting blocked. In fact, i am usually quite surprised at how quickly he gets to the rim and softly puts it in. And who cares if it's a rim shattering dunk? Were you more excited about the time that Josh went strong to the rim and clanked it? Did going up strong withe intent to dunk give Josh 2 points? No, putting the ball through the hoop does, and Amile has shown an excellent knack for converting offensive boards into points through his quickness and angles to the rim and collecting passes and immediately going to the rim rather than gathering himself for an explosive and powerful dunk. In fact, I remember Mason getting blocked much, much more often by gathering himself withe intent of going up strong (this happened at least 3 times just in the Miami game).
I for one appreciate what Amile does on offense and have been pleasantly impressed by how much he has improved over the course of the year so far.

[Mudge]

Absolute bunk, that one single block that you are focusing on is the only time i remember Amile getting blocked. In fact, i am usually quite surprised at how quickly he gets to the rim and softly puts it in. And who cares if it's a rim shattering dunk? Were you more excited about the time that Josh went strong to the rim and clanked it? Did going up strong withe intent to dunk give Josh 2 points? No, putting the ball through the hoop does, and Amile has shown an excellent knack for converting offensive boards into points through his quickness and angles to the rim and collecting passes and immediately going to the rim rather than gathering himself for an explosive and powerful dunk. In fact, I remember Mason getting blocked much, much more often by gathering himself withe intent of going up strong (this happened at least 3 times just in the Miami game).
I for one appreciate what Amile does on offense and have been pleasantly impressed by how much he has improved over the course of the year so far.

Well, you obviously have not watched enough Duke games this year then, if that's the only one you remember-- or else you aren't paying attention-- it's happened at least 5 times, probably closer to 10.

As for Hairston, I must bite my tongue, lest I get banned for violating this board's prohibition on being overly critical of Duke players-- cold-eyed assessments of Duke players are not particularly welcome around here-- as your response above only underlines... the attempted dunk that you mention was not simply "clanked" off the rim-- Hairston's lack of quickness and jumping ability meant that two opposing players managed to get clean partial blocks on that shot attempt, such that Hairston started to lose control of the ball before he got to the basket, causing him to clank it off the rim... this is not unusual for Hairston-- but Jefferson does not have Hairston's physical limitations-- so, no, Hairston would not be my role model for things that I would hope to see Jefferson begin to do on the court.

[flyingdutchdevil]

Just saw this on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F6LHnkOUdA

It's about the physical transformation of a few Mizzu players, including Alex Oriakhi. I wish DukeBluePlanet would do something similar with Amile - I have a feeling that transformation will be ridiculous.