I know, he's 20. But, man.. I'm starting to wonder. His outside shot is inconsistent, at best. He doesn't have much of a mid-range game. He can't take the ball to the bucket at this level. He's not much of a penetrate and dish player. He's not much of a pick & roll player. He doesn't really ever create his own shots. He's a decent passer, I suppose, but no better than NBA PG average. He's fast in transition, but we never run, and he loses his handle a lot in these situations, or turns the ball over on an ill-advised pass. Leadership intangibles appear to be a complete non-factor at this point. And, most disheartening of all, he can't stay in front of the vast majority of NBA PG's he faces on defense. The fact that he didn't put an ounce of muscle on in the off-season ~ something he desperately needed to do ~ also is discouraging. The fact that he hasn't appeared to improve one bit from season 1 to season 2 in general is discouraging. Am I the only one starting to wonder what's special about this kid?
His assists per 36 minutes have gone from 4.2 last year to 8.4 so far this year, while his turnovers have only increased slightly. If this trend continues, it will mean that he has fixed the biggest flaw in his game. His ast to tov ratio was completely unacceptable for a PG last season. His outside shooting is really solid- .378 for his career so far. And given that he was born in 1991 (wow), I'm nowhere near the point where I would start to consider him a bust. Chauncey didn't get it until he was 25. Pros: Good shooter with real range Willing slasher Athletic/ plays tall Attitude- positive and focused on improvement Cons: Ast/tov ratio was bad Doesn't have the traditional PG mindset- doesn't explore the D, except to get to the rim himself High dribbler Not enough gravitas to be a leader yet
Totally agree with your assessment of BK's game and the fact that it's way too soon to be using the word "bust" whe talking about this kid. It's been mentioned that he hasn't shown a lot of leadership yet. I think that moving Tay and Stuckey would help solve this. Like it or not, Tay is the leader of this team. Like it or not Stuckey still thinks that he's the "co-pilot" along side of Tay. The number of "addition by subtraction" opportunities with this team is ridiculous.
His handle is much improved. Last year, he couldn't be trusted to handle the ball so Stuckey had that duty a significant chunk of the time. Last night they made a concerted effort to get Stuckey involved but Knight still retained primary ball handler responsibilities. Is it elite? No. Its still developing. But both his handle and passing/vision have improved over last year and it continues to improve. He is not Kyrie, CP3, or Wall. He is his own self. He needs to find that out. He is attacking the PG skill set with the same OCD tendencies as his workout. He is over distributing. Over thinking. He is trying to master floor generalship this season so he's going to work on those things (maybe at the detriment of his overall game and even winning). Things might not come together for him until next year. But bust potential is really low. He's a tremendous worker. At worst, he would be an undersized starting combo guard. For #8 overall, thats not too bad.
Part of the disappoinment is that we know he is a hard worker and we expected a dramatic improvement. I guess the stats show a great improvement but just watching him play, it's hard to see.
One thing that I've noticed is that on the majority of possessions, Knight dribbles up the length of the court and immediately hands the ball off or passes it to someone at the top of the circle and then he takes off and effectively becomes the shooting guard. You'd have to watch one of these past games with that in mind and see what is really going on. He isn't playing PG the same way that Nash and company do it. So, I don't think that Knight is overdribbling in that sense. He is just dribbling into trouble when he gets the ball and decides to drive. Bynum is doing more of the traditional over dribbling where he is forcing pick and rolls on occasion. But I think he's doing really well with it more often than not lately. Just a quick comparison of these 2 so far: Stat: WB/ BK (per 36 min) Pts: 17.5/ 7.9 eFG: .435/ .329 Reb: 4.6/ 4.1 Stl: 1.0/ 0.6 Ast: 8.2/ 8.4 Tov: 4.1/ 3.8 PF: 5.7/ 1.7 It's so early, but they are both doing a great job with assists. Bynum is loving the Drummond connection. Knight is feeding Monroe. Knight's scoring has really suffered and it's not purely through decreased attempts. He's been in against some formidable defensive bigs and has been blocked a lot, so not worried. The biggest takeaways for me is that Bynum is playing exactly to the level that justifies the contract that Joe signed him to and that Knight is showing early progress of trying to be more point guard like.
Agreed. I really want him to be more of a scoring threat (as we know he can) and have more plays run for him, but it seems that he is really trying to work out how to get his team mates into the game first. Unfortunately his team mates have been horrible in helping him do this so far as they have been sucking, but he keeps persisting until around the 3rd before he tries to get his own. Even then he is still distributing more. I think once he has worked hard on the PG duties, we may seem him take a game into his own hands earlier if his team mates are sucking like currently. I'm impatient and want him to do this now so there is less chance of us getting blown out, but I understand the benefits.
I have Knight's back.. I like him. I don't blame him for anything that is going on.. I mean, the boy is 20 years old, he only spent 1 season at Kentucky (a bad season for the Wildcats) and then he jumped into the NBA and found himself in a problematic team with players like Prince that doesn't always pass the ball when asked, players like Stuckey that doesn't assume the role of NOT BEING A PG, and the lack of inside defense. Knight is a great defensive player for his age. I recommend patience with this kid and he can be really a cornerstone for this franchise.
I like Brandon as our pg....I don't love him yet though. He is still learning and sometimes learning is hampered by either your coach or the players he puts out on the floor with you. We all can tell why Kyrie Irving was picked first and Knight 8th. The jury is still out as Joe could have gone with Kemba Walker or Jimmer if had not already sold his soul to Stuckey. Even Klay Thompson who was picked 11th in that draft and so far is out performing all of three of them could have been selected if there was no need for a pure PG So lets let him play out this season before start calling him a Stuckey, er, I mean bust..
Right. I'm not criticizing him for doing that. Just pointing out that we're not seeing him really play pg.
It's hard to be the floor general when you are required to have the ball palmed by a certain player every other possession. Knight is a better player than Stuckey. So, he's serviceable. Not a bust, and probably won't be either, but he's a second tier PG. He can be the PG on a championship team with another ball handler/superstar on the roster (a la Fisher/Kobe).
Bust? No. Special? No. He's just an average PG, long term he's probably best suited in a back up role because>>>>>>>> And with ALL of that said, his best value to the Pistons is in a TRADE! Trade him NOW while he's 20 and still has "upside" Remember when Danny Ainge offered us Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen in exchange for Rip, Tay and Stuckey? Joe said NO because many though Rodney was going to be a real STUD! I guess the joke is on us!!!!
