Posted by Brett on 01/13/2010
This all came up because Alexis had kind of slipped from my mind and I decided to check his D-League stats earlier this week at NBA.com: Click here to view his numbers. When I first looked, Alexis was fresh off 3 straight 20+ points games - and in those games he had at least 5 rebounds and 5 free throw attempts, so some signs of aggression. Overall, Alexis is putting up solid numbers: 13.5 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 2.7 blocks per game in just under 26 minutes of action. The big negative: Nearly 2.9 turnovers in that time as well. Perhaps a little overly aggressive, but the good appears to outweigh the bad and Alexis appears to be improving his game. Now if he could just go on the Oliver Miller diet plan for a month or two...
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As the TrueHoop Network continues to evolve and grow, we have been able to add to the collection D-League coverage from Steve Weinman at D-League Digest. As the D-League continues to grow and mature, Steve is there to remind everyone of some of the talent the league is looking to harvest. With that in mind, I asked him for some thoughts on Alexis Ajinca, as Alexis has spent 16 games in the D-League so far this season. Here is what Steve had to say:
I'll caution my comments by saying in advance that it's been a few games since I had a real close look at Ajinca, but from watching him a lot earlier in the season, my thoughts:No real surprises here: Alexis would struggle to post a lot of high school players, let alone pros. The encouraging news is that he growing and learning the game, becoming more assertive in the post rather than relying on his jumper (which he has more faith in than the rest of us).
The feeling of pleasant surprise you got from looking at his stat line is justified in terms of the change in Ajinca's approach at the offensive end. Unfortunately, there isn't a hotspots chart that I know of for D-Leaguers (and I've been begging Joe Treutlein at Hoopdata to start tracking advanced metrics for the D), but anecdotally, watching Ajinca drove me nuts early in the season because of his penchant for hanging out at the elbows and top of the key. You're seven feet tall, dude! You're in a league strapped for quality big men! Start posting and toasting! Watching his less-than-beautiful mid-range jumpers come off the iron with regularity at the beginning was not pleasing. But the longer Ajinca has been with the Claws, the more we have seen him look to establish himself in the post for some hooks and baby jumpers as well as several power moves to the bucket and finishes off lobs. I've been impressed more than anything else in the progress of his philosophy at the offensive end.
That said, I still have the same question offensively as I do defensively when it comes to Ajinca at the next level: Is he strong enough? As a legit 7-footer in - again - a league strapped for big-time bigs, Ajinca was going to have his way offensively so long as he committed to going inside. Similarly, he has been successful at the defensive end largely thanks to his length. The wingspan leads to a ton of blocked shots and some easy rebounds. But I'm concerned that he will get bullied in the post by fours and fives at the next level. He isn't quick enough to rely solely on that and leaping ability, and I'm not sure how much of it is mentality. Surely, you never want to become an early-career Sam Dalembert in terms of obsession with blocked shots to a point of routinely ending up out of position, but as he's currently constructed, even if he does the right things mentally, I feel like Ajinca will be giving up too much strength. Adding some bulk looks like priority number one to me.
He has made some very nice strides in Portland thus far, but Ajinca still has a ways to go.
This all came up because Alexis had kind of slipped from my mind and I decided to check his D-League stats earlier this week at NBA.com: Click here to view his numbers. When I first looked, Alexis was fresh off 3 straight 20+ points games - and in those games he had at least 5 rebounds and 5 free throw attempts, so some signs of aggression. Overall, Alexis is putting up solid numbers: 13.5 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 2.7 blocks per game in just under 26 minutes of action. The big negative: Nearly 2.9 turnovers in that time as well. Perhaps a little overly aggressive, but the good appears to outweigh the bad and Alexis appears to be improving his game. Now if he could just go on the Oliver Miller diet plan for a month or two...
Click here to comment/view comments for this post.
| vendetta Says: | "Alexis would struggle to post a lot of high school players" When he played against the best high school players of his generation (people like Beasley and Rose) at the Junior World championships he didn't have much difficulty to do so. And the US were very lucky to win, even if Batum was the main player on the French team. | ||
| Fri Jan 15, 2010 6:04 am |
| Brett Says: | Thanks, Vendetta but it was just an exaggeration to make the point that Alexis' biggest weakness is his weakness. He has solid basketball skills, but his body is holding him back. | ||
| Fri Jan 15, 2010 11:30 am |
