Schultz on Rivers

[Jim3k]

From the dreaded Huffpost comes a pretty complimentary article about Austin Rivers' performance against MSU by Jordan Schultz (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/17/dukes-austin-rivers-a-pointed-evaluation_n_1099481.html).


Even still, Rivers forced the action a little too often against the Spartans. In a sense, it's as if he gets jumpy when he doesn't shoot the ball after a couple minutes. I watched him intently -- sometimes not even the game -- just to see how he handled these situations. Instead of letting his scoring come in the natural flow of the offense, he over-asserted himself and forced errant drives. In 23 minutes, he finished 1-7 from the floor with 5 points, two turnovers and just one assist. That's the bad. But the good correlates with the bad. Let me explain: Oddly though, it didn't seem like Rivers was being actively selfish. He wasn't trying to dominate the ball like many young scorers will. Quite honestly, I'm not sure he's ever been in a situation like that, where he just couldn’t get a shot to fall.

I'm not sure I entirely agree, but clearly Rivers is learning about driving against the trees. DeMarcus Nelson needed some time to learn how to do it, so I think Rivers will find a way, too. Schultz thinks Rivers is so quick he's a lock for success at the next level; he's really impressed with Rivers' first step. But we've has many guards with terrific first steps and while they did fine at the college level, it's not clear to me that it correlates to an NBA career (assuming there is an NBA in the future) since not all of them had NBA careers of significance.

Anyway, the article is worth a read.

[dukelifer]

From the dreaded Huffpost comes a pretty complimentary article about Austin Rivers' performance against MSU by Jordan Schultz (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/17/dukes-austin-rivers-a-pointed-evaluation_n_1099481.html).



I'm not sure I entirely agree, but clearly Rivers is learning about driving against the trees. DeMarcus Nelson needed some time to learn how to do it, so I think Rivers will find a way, too. Schultz thinks Rivers is so quick he's a lock for success at the next level; he's really impressed with Rivers' first step. But we've has many guards with terrific first steps and while they did fine at the college level, it's not clear to me that it correlates to an NBA career (assuming there is an NBA in the future) since not all of them had NBA careers of significance.

Anyway, the article is worth a read.

Rivers is growing up. None believed that Nolan would be ACC player of the year and a National Player of the Year candidate when he stepped on the floor as a Freshman. River's problem is that he was anointed as the best player in his class. Sometimes it takes a while for the the potential to be realized. Ultimately, it will come down to how hard he works on the flaws in his game- every player has them. He needs to rework his jumper mechanics, develop his left hand and work on his floater in the lane. Good news is that he has time. By midseason we will see a much better player- until then it will be an adventure.

[Olympic Fan]

I don't know where the idea came from that Rivers was a selish, self-absorbed player, but it's become gospel on the Duke-hater-sites (it's a big theme on the Kentucky boards and the UNC boards).

The guy is a born gunner ... except he had six assists in the Jordan Brand All-Star Game. He had five assists in his firs exhibition game on the China tour. He had six assists in his second game at Duke. Right now, he's No. 2 on the Duke team in assists. Pretty good for a shooting guard.

Does sometimes make poor decision about when to drive, when to shoot and when to dish off? Yes ... but after three college games he's got a positive assist turnover ratio and he's shot LESS than his two backcourt mates -- Dawkins and Curry.

The kid is a scorer. That's what we want him to be. He's got to put the ball up. I would hope he learns a little better judgment, but to complain that he "forces the action" -- jeez, he took seven shots in 23 minutes (actually, he took nine shots, but drew fouls on two of them). That's hardly an excessive number.

And, although nobody seems to mention it, he played aginst Michigan State with a painful hip injury that forced him to miss a day of practice leading up to the MSU game.

I LOVE what I'm seeing from Rivers. He's very willing to give the ball up. He's working hard on defense -- K praised his defensive effort after the Belmont game, plus he's tied for the team lead in steals. His teammates like him. He's saying the right things to the media (at least since he's arrived at Duke). He's trying his best to find his place in the offense.

If that's a selfish, self-absorbed kid, I'll take a bunch of them.

[OldPhiKap]

I don't know where the idea came from that Rivers was a selish, self-absorbed player, but it's become gospel on the Duke-hater-sites (it's a big theme on the Kentucky boards and the UNC boards).

The guy is a born gunner ... except he had six assists in the Jordan Brand All-Star Game. He had five assists in his firs exhibition game on the China tour. He had six assists in his second game at Duke. Right now, he's No. 2 on the Duke team in assists. Pretty good for a shooting guard.

Does sometimes make poor decision about when to drive, when to shoot and when to dish off? Yes ... but after three college games he's got a positive assist turnover ratio and he's shot LESS than his two backcourt mates -- Dawkins and Curry.

The kid is a scorer. That's what we want him to be. He's got to put the ball up. I would hope he learns a little better judgment, but to complain that he "forces the action" -- jeez, he took seven shots in 23 minutes (actually, he took nine shots, but drew fouls on two of them). That's hardly an excessive number.

And, although nobody seems to mention it, he played aginst Michigan State with a painful hip injury that forced him to miss a day of practice leading up to the MSU game.

I LOVE what I'm seeing from Rivers. He's very willing to give the ball up. He's working hard on defense -- K praised his defensive effort after the Belmont game, plus he's tied for the team lead in steals. His teammates like him. He's saying the right things to the media (at least since he's arrived at Duke). He's trying his best to find his place in the offense.

If that's a selfish, self-absorbed kid, I'll take a bunch of them.

If Rivers didn't have the green light, K would have yanked him long ago.

Austin is our best -- perhaps only -- slashing attacker. K always preaches attacking the rim. I am sure he has been told to attack, attack, attack. Learning the pull-up and the pass will come as he adjusts to the speed of college defenses.

Rock on, kid. Rock on.

[Rogue]

It's too early in the season to show concern ,, but the assist to turnover ration is not where Austin would like it to be,, I'd like him to get settled in on his out side shooting..
If he was shooting 59% of coarse I'd be shouting how great it was..

[Indoor66]

It's too early in the season to show concern ,, but the assist to turnover ration is not where Austin would like it to be,, I'd like him to get settled in on his out side shooting..
If he was shooting 59% of coarse I'd be shouting how great it was..

Canned air onto the keyboard might loosen those sticky punctuation keys. :cool: