If your looking at the entire package, and remember that he's a rookie, he's doing fine. If you only look at how many points he's scored, and that's your measuring stick, then you probably think he's not doing well. In fact, he knows how to play the game. Even when he's not hitting his shot, he does a lot of little things that make him valuable on the floor. No doubt he needs to improve in a lot of areas, especially in the strength area, which will happen. He did a question and answer with his followers on twitter on his trip back to Sacramento after the final game of the road trip. One person asked him what he was going to focus on during the offseason. His response was, his body, and his ballhandling.
His ballhandling while good, isn't elite, and if he can bring it up another notch, it'll improve his overall game. Strength is one of his biggest issues. It affects his ability to finish at the basket, and in general, the ability to absorb the day to day beating that an NBA player takes. If you have a weak core, it affects how you shoot the ball at the end of games. Shots you made early in the game, you might leave short later in the game. So far so good, unless you were expecting him to come in and put up big numbers. I'm sure he had high expectations. You don't realize how hard it is until you get there. In college, he was probably the best player in 75% of his matchups. In the NBA, he's facing a player every night that's as good, or better than he is right now. It's a whole different ballgame. It's about adjusting, and getting better.
In reference to that, I just wanted to comment on McLemore. Where some of the players, like Stauskas and D. Will, have seemed to improve under Karl, McLemore seems to be headed in the opposite direction. I think the reason has to do with basketball IQ. And I'm not saying that Ben is stupid. I'm saying that because of his lack of experience due to coming to the game late, unlike Stauskas whose been playing since he was 5 years old, some things don't come instinctively to him. As an example, if you've been driving a car for 10 years and the car starts to slide on a corner, you correct the slide quickly, and you don't even think about how to do it. It's instinctive. But if you've driving for 6 months, your in trouble, because by the time you go through the thought process, its too late.
Ben spent a year under Malone catching up to the speed of the NBA. And when the next season started under Malone, and the type of offense he ran, Ben started to flourish. But now, under Karl, he's in a system that requires quick decisions. Instinctive decisions if you will. He's now like the driver with 6 months under his belt. He has to think about everything before it happens. The opening for the bounce pass that was there for a tenth of a second, isn't there by the time he realizes it. Instead, it's now a turnover. This isn't mean't to condemn him. I think he'll eventually catch up. But he really needs to improve his ballhandling. He'll never be able to create his own shot until he does. It's up to him whether he wants to be nothing more than a spot up shooter or not. He has the physical ability to be a lot more than that.
Hmmm! I was determined to keep this post short. I failed again! They say that brevity is the soul of wit. I guess I'm witless.
