What do you think of Darko Milicic? Will he ever turn into the player that Joe Dumars envisioned when he drafted him? — Mark The kid has a nice soft shot that he can bury from as far out as a step past the foul line. He can drive both ways, and in the post shows a nifty left jump hook over his right shoulder. Being left-handed is a significant advantage for any player. Defense is a problem, and so is playing without the ball. And passing is what his teammates are supposed to do to him. He seems to have the skills (although, like everybody else, I haven't seen all that much of him), and his selfishness might be a result of trying to cram a week's worth of shots into whatever scarce daylight he did receive under Larry Brown. The real question is this: Has Brown's dismissive attitude destroyed the young man's self-confidence? The answer is: Who knows? But you can be sure that the Flipster is under strict orders to give Milicic as much playing time as possible. Should his court-time remain drastically limited, then Brown indeed saw something that Dumars didn't. If it normally takes a young big man three years to prove his worth (or worthlessness) as an NBA player, I'd say that, given the circumstances, Milicic has another two seasons for his ultimate value to be determined. http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/4892760
Selfish? I don't know why anyone would want the opinion of a reporter or sports writer. Sometimes they can get good inside info, but it's amazing how uninformed and clueless these guys are. Now I agree with most of what this guy says, especially about the 2 years for Darko's "ultimate" value to be determined, but he is making a lot of poor assumptions and even admits he hasn't seen much of Darko.
I don't really see how he can call Darko selfish. I mean, when he's out there in meaningful time he's not chucking up bad shots or something. Sure, when it's the finals seconds of a 30 point blowout he has been known to take a few to many 20 footers, but still.
It's pretty simple really. Charley Rosen is an idiot. Remember this is the guy who left Zeke off of his top 10 PGs of all time list. I don't normally click through to his articles because he is a never-was blowhard who tries to impress with insight based upon speculation. Aka, a columnist.
another idiot reporter getting some exposure off the back of darko. the world seems to be interested in darko and the in thing now by the uniformed is to print something about him. i just feel if you call yourself a sports reporter you should at least research what you are reporting. for this guy to call darko selfish shows me that he's probably never seen him play. darko sets pick after pick in garbage time. he usually shoots on called plays for him. he doesn't just jack up shots in garbage time like most players either. then he talks about darko on defense which we are all finding out is one of darko's strong points. where has this guy been over the summer? if we can get video of darko playing over in europe i'm sure he could.
I agree In the ATLANTA game where he started, he did touch the ball alot and he was very quick to move the ball to the open man. I remember that lob play to Ben, WoW what a nice pass. He also had a nice no looker to Tay in the corner for a trey. Darko has NEVER STRUCK me as selfish. I hate it when guys have a "preconceived" notion of how a player is. The same can be said for Delfino. Alot of people dislike him and call him selfish. His oncourt play is definately NOT SELFISH. Delfino also "plays the right way". Delfino often looks to pass before shoot. Just because you don't like a guy's attitude doesn't mean that their play is what their "preconceived" attitude is. I don't think Darko has ever been considered a selfish player. He teammates don't complain about it and they all seem to cheer hard for the kid. I just don't see it. This writer loses credibility with that statement.
SELFISH! How can someone call Darko selfish when all he plays is like 30 seconds a game. He doesn't even play enough.
It took Darko more than a season to earn that spot on the bench, I say let him take up as much pine as he wants. Don't you remember the spent most all of his rookie season sitting on the floor next to the towel boys?
It is too easy to make a joke from this and I am supposed to be setting an example. Where is basketbills when you need him?
30 seconds of selfishness If I'm Darko and I average 30 seconds, and I read this article...I'm ready to throw something. lol!
Where's the problem, he nailed Darko correctly Except for the selfish comment. That only means that he hasn't seen enough of Darko's game, but he did see enough to accurately describe everything else. Charlie says, "The kid has a nice soft shot that he can bury from as far out as a step past the foul line. He can drive both ways, and in the post shows a nifty left jump hook over his right shoulder. Being left-handed is a significant advantage for any player. Defense is a problem, and so is playing without the ball. And passing is what his teammates are supposed to do to him. He seems to have the skills ..." Where's the problem, that's 100% true! You don't throw out a piece that positive over one comment out of 10-15 things.
meh, sounds like he knows as much about Darko as we all do: not too much. i could have written that analysis of Darko.
he said defense is a problem. which we all know to be untrue now that we've been watching him in europe. defense is actually a strong point of his. he also doesn't have a problem playing without the ball. in his games in europe he actually got most of his scores off of offensive rebounds. i would say he's playing pretty good without the ball. he also gets very good post position which often makes other teams have to foul him. i don't see a problem with darko's play without the ball.
I am heartened by Darko's defensive dominance in Euro ball as much as the next. However, how many regular season NBA wins does that get you? Its like the Spurs fans who use Ginobili's International championships to boost his rep. Fabulous! I'll let you know when I give a rat's ass about who's team would do better in a Euroleague tourny. So far, in the Association, Darko hasn't been stellar on the defensive end and has shown an interest in collecting fouls rather than rebounds, blocks, or steals.
There are areas of defense where Darko has been very good. His individual D is pretty good, guys have trouble shooting over him, and Darko is able to swat a good number of shots there. He shows good instincts and quick recovery on pick and rolls, often challenging shots that Ben and Sheed would have conceded. He does need to protect the paint better and not allow so many layups by penetrating guards. Memo has the same problem. This is where Darko usually picks up fouls. His rebounding will get better as he gets stronger and more confident, but he CAN and DOES BLOCK SHOTS.
