And as a side note, in the 2009 draft combine, the players with the 5th and 6th worst in agility were Demar Derozan and Tyreke Evans.

Derozan finished right between Luke Harangody and Tyler Hans-bruh in the sprint results.

He's turned out ok.

Witherspoon was more agile, quicker, and jumped higher than Will Barton in their combine. And no one ever accused WW of being "athuletic."

(05-19-2016 10:49 AM)midtowncowboy Wrote:  

(05-19-2016 10:46 AM)salukiblue Wrote:  

(05-19-2016 10:44 AM)NigelTufnel Wrote:  

(05-19-2016 10:34 AM)salukiblue Wrote:  

(05-19-2016 10:15 AM)Antonio5fan Wrote:  One look at Dedric and you can tell where improvement "could" come from. Even though he has size, he still has boy muscles. He is not lean and cut like say AA was or Sylvester Gray, Joey Dorsey. If he even gets half that he will improve dramatically. I always try to add a caveat to a post (just in case I'm wrong). In baseball, steroids do not make batters hit a curve ball better or have better timing, the ball just goes further when they hit it, i.e., Mark McGwire. In the some have it and some don't camp, Mantle could hit a ball further than anyone before steroids were ever heard of and drank beer every night. You change that soft muscle tissue Dedric has to lean hard muscle and increase the size of his legs and see what happens.

Add to that, some of the "skill tests" are completely useless when it comes to actually playing basketball well.

One of the agility test requires a player to essentially run the lines of the ft lane by sliding sideways, running backwards and then turning an shuffling sideways again.

In reality, how often does anyone really need to do that?

Perhaps a dead sprint from baseline to the other foul line would be more indicative of speed, but dancing through cones or running backwards isn't a real need in basketball.

More importantly, those are skills that can be taught--basically to fake the funk.

I can't dance for crap, BUT I guarantee, with dedicated training, I could pull of some credible 3 minute routine that makes me look proficient. Basically just replicating that required skill.

The combines have gotten a bit ridiculous. You've got guys training their asses off to be good at "shuttle drills" and crap like that.

I say put these dudes on a Ninja Warrior course without telling them what's coming and call that your combine.

Or put them on a basketball court and have them shoot 100 shots, dribble the ball while being defended, do some post up moves and defend a guy.

There's a novel idea.

Doesn't simulate the speed of the game or how to use teammates. Which is a huge part of the NBA game.

No kidding, not like running through some cones in the lane alone to really simulate real life situations.

(05-19-2016 10:55 AM)salukiblue Wrote:  And as a side note, in the 2009 draft combine, the players with the 5th and 6th worst in agility were Demar Derozan and Tyreke Evans.

Derozan finished right between Luke Harangody and Tyler Hans-bruh in the sprint results.

He's turned out ok.

Witherspoon was more agile, quicker, and jumped higher than Will Barton in their combine. And no one ever accused WW of being "athuletic."

I think if Dedric was 3-4 inches bigger than the average player for his size, his athletic shortcomings would be overlooked, with Derozan (6'7" at the 2) and Tyreke (6'6" at the 1).