Yesterday’s ESPN Insider article by David Thorpe had an interesting take on how to go about analyzing players:
The next time you watch DeMarcus Cousins play, try analyzing him using just one word at a time. It’s an exercise I do when evaluating players. Here’s what I came up with when I watched him in person last Wednesday against Orlando: gigantic, lazy, gifted, infantile, physical, unafraid, vision, anticipation, lost, clueless, different, agile. My guess is you would come up with similar words after observing him.
I figured it’s time we apply the method to the Raptors, except we’ll take liberties with words and also use short phrases.
Alexis Ajinca: Big, wide, shooter, uncoordinated, forgets where he is on the court, unpredictable.
Solomon Alabi: Tall, long, smaller Manute Bol, too skinny, decent shot-blocker, lost.
Leandro Barbosa: Streaky, wild, weird release, quick off the dribble, plays passing lanes, unpredictable.
Andrea Bargnani: Skilled, lazy, unorthodox, unaware, scorer.
Jerryd Bayless: Selfish, quick, low IQ, physical, petulant.
Jose Calderon: Fearless, hard-worker, professional, slow, aging, improving vision.
Ed Davis: Competitor, physical, inexperienced, growing, upside.
DeMar DeRozan: Committed, hard-worker, athlete, improving, persistent, potentially dynamic.
Joey Dorsey: Short, strong, muscle, unskilled, garbage time.
Reggie Evans: Intense, rebounder, one-dimensional, injured.
Amir Johnson: Improving, long, finisher, rebounder, help-defense.
James Johnson: Athlete, low skill, unknown.
Linas Kleiza: Slow, streaky, bulky, post-up, offense-no-defense, match-up issues.
Sonny Weems: Mid-range, lazy, doesn’t get it, athlete, dunker.
Julian Wright: Defense, effort, intelligent, streaky.
