[washingtonismoney]

I don't claim to know which philosophy is "right" but I understand that in the European game,  the face-up jump shot is essential for posts and forwards.

European big men shoot threes. Sometimes mid-range shots, but usually threes.

The point isn't to completely eliminate midrange jumpers or pass up open ones. The point is, if you have a ratio tilted towards midrange jumpers over three-point shots, you won't be very good at offense. The Stanford offense took a lot of midrange jumpers and not a lot of three point shots in the first half and consequently wasn't terribly good on offense. When it rediscovered that Nastic was bigger than everyone else it got a lot better. This was obvious the whole time -- was obvious against Dayton last year -- but the team tends to forget and Dawkins is apparently shy about reminding them. Certainly it's not as if Dawkins is installing some sort of free-flowing system that gets everyone good shots, so he might as well yell at the team to get the ball in the hands of the best mismatch on the floor.

Anyway, while I'm being grumpy and contrarian I wasn't as impressed with Travis as the rest of you. There are positive signs -- he seems quite quick, very mobile, cuts well. But then there aren't so many -- his post game appears limited at this point, the jump shot is meh, and I'm not sure about his touch around the rim. On the evidence of one game -- I know, small sample size -- I don't see why he'd be a threat to leave early. Feel free to resurrect this prediction later if it looks stupid, but the NBA isn't exactly lusting for undersized, somewhat athletic power forwards with OK skills.

[washingtonismoney]

I don't claim to know which philosophy is "right" but I understand that in the European game,  the face-up jump shot is essential for posts and forwards.

European big men shoot threes. Sometimes mid-range shots, but usually threes.

The point isn't to completely eliminate midrange jumpers or pass up open ones. The point is, if you have a ratio tilted towards midrange jumpers over three-point shots, you won't be very good at offense. The Stanford offense took a lot of midrange jumpers and not a lot of three point shots in the first half and consequently wasn't terribly good on offense. When it rediscovered that Nastic was bigger than everyone else it got a lot better. This was obvious the whole time -- was obvious against Dayton last year -- but the team tends to forget and Dawkins is apparently shy about reminding them. Certainly it's not as if Dawkins is installing some sort of free-flowing system that gets everyone good shots, so he might as well yell at the team to get the ball in the hands of the best mismatch on the floor.

Anyway, while I'm being grumpy and contrarian I wasn't as impressed with Travis as the rest of you. There are positive signs -- he seems quite quick, very mobile, cuts well. But then there aren't so many -- his post game appears limited at this point, the jump shot is meh, and I'm not sure about his touch around the rim. On the evidence of one game -- I know, small sample size -- I don't see why he'd be a threat to leave early. Feel free to resurrect this prediction later if it looks stupid, but the NBA isn't exactly lusting for undersized, somewhat athletic power forwards with OK skills.