Hornets' New Sixth Man Impresses
by Steve Weinman on Oct 31, 2008 1:47 AM EDT
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PrintHe doesn't look as good in turquoise and pinstripes as he did in green and white. It just doesn't seem as natural.
But everything else about James Posey last night in Phoenix brought me right back to his work last spring.
When the game got close in the fourth quarter and the Hornets needed a big shot, Pose was there. Watching him step into that goofy, off-one-leg three-point stroke, one seemed to know the way each play would end. He would catch, bend his knees and then go through that relaxed stroke that envelopes his entire body, right wrist extended outward as the ball swished through the hoop. The swingman went 3-for-5 on threes and 5-for-8 overall for 13 points.
What I loved about this guy in Boston was that it could be Game 2 of the Finals or game two of the season, but he always seemed to be equally focused and poised. The same held true once more Thursday evening.
Even if he's not a Celtic, it makes me smile to see James Posey playing good basketball.
He spent last year earning a place in my heart, and that spot won't be vacated anytime soon.
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He isn't going to shoot quite like that
or give you double-digit scoring every night, but what’s great about this guy is that the effort and composure are going to be there every night out. He is going to bust it defensively (as you know), and he’s going to get his hands on more 50-50 balls than you ever thought possible. He just seems to want it more than everybody else. The guy understands the value of name on the front of the jersey like you wouldn’t believe.
Enjoy having him. So long as it isn’t against the green, I’ll be rooting for him.
In the meantime, I’m about to write my longer piece for Friday about another one of your players – did Mo Pete look spectacular tonight or what?
Good to hear from you, ATH. Come on by anytime…
-sw
Manuel Aristides Ramirez is the greatest hitter I've ever seen.
by Steve Weinman on Oct 31, 2008 2:32 AM EDT up reply actions
Yeah, the 50-50 balls he got to tonight were amazing. He drew two charges in a span of a minute as well (after drawing 2 yesterday). I don’t know if I’ve seen a 30+ guy sacrifice his body like this. I thought he was overrated last year until I watched you guys play extensively in the playoffs. He definitely brings something that’s tough to replace and also tough to put a finger on.
Mo-Pete looked awesome. I’m feeling pretty good, because a couple weeks ago I thought I pretty accurately identified his biggest problem last year- http://www.atthehive.com/2008/10/15/593236/the-morris-peterson-conund – and the Hornets’ offense definitely fixed that tonight. I doubt we see production like this from him on a consistent basis, but it’s nice to see him step up when need be. I’ll certainly swing by tomorrow again to read your piece.
It won't necessarily be anything earth-shattering
but I was very impressed with his play tonight. Really seemed like he was drifting to open spots well and being assertive with the basketball. If he can give them a real scoring threat out of that two spot, how much more dangerous do you guys get? That’s just huge…
And yes, I spent last season trying to find a way to put a finger on what Posey brings (check our archives…my love for this guy probably nauseated our readers after a certain point), but wow, what a pleasure it was to have him on our side night in and night out. Nothing seems to faze this guy.
That point guard of yours, he’s okay, too, you know?
-sw
Manuel Aristides Ramirez is the greatest hitter I've ever seen.
by Steve Weinman on Oct 31, 2008 2:47 AM EDT up reply actions
Yessirree
CP3 is averaging 20.5 ppg while dishing out 10.5 asssists along with 6.5 rebs and 3.0 steals. I know it’s only two games but if he keeps this up, he must be a favorite to win the MVP.
by Amager Celtic Fan on Oct 31, 2008 4:04 AM EDT up reply actions
Love the early use of the per-game averages :-)
But seriously, ACF, you’ll meet no disagreements here. The dude is just an absolute stud. That said, I think we’ll see plenty of high-level production out of a few other candidates this year, too. Should be another great MVP race.
-sw
Manuel Aristides Ramirez is the greatest hitter I've ever seen.
by Steve Weinman on Oct 31, 2008 4:12 AM EDT up reply actions
Indeed!
But as we all know too well, mr.Stern has two certain favorites in Cuyahoga County and LaLaLand, repectively. I’m sure, though, that Chris well get his moment in the sun in the not-too-distant future.. He’s still young. Come to think of it, the league can have it’s RS MVP, as long as the Finals MVP is a Celtic ;-)
I want to wish you a great seson and I’ll look forward to your daily artciles as always.
On to 18!
by Amager Celtic Fan on Oct 31, 2008 7:32 AM EDT up reply actions
Gotta say seeing Pose in someone else’s uniform was a little upsetting.
We haven’t replaced the perimeter shooting yet. Still to be seen if Allen’s defense will offset the brains Employee 41 brought to the floor.
And Chris Paul? Great, great player.
Give you Brian Scalabrine for him.
////////////////////
By the way,
sweet article on the Mo Pete Conundrum. I’m always happy to see some good ol’-fashioned correlation coefficients…takes me back to junior year stats class – and I think your significance testing makes a lot of sense. Certainly a good reference while I’m writing deep into the evening (morning?)…
Stunning to think that his four FTAs tonight obliterate his per game averages for his career, huh?
-sw
Manuel Aristides Ramirez is the greatest hitter I've ever seen.
by Steve Weinman on Oct 31, 2008 2:55 AM EDT up reply actions
Hahah yeah
Getting to the foul line, our one gigantic flaw as a team. I don’t feel so bad now that we got Posey, but I had grand designs on acquiring Corey Maggette at the beginning of the offseason and solving that problem in one move. Seems kind of silly now, given what he signed for…
He sure did look good in the opener against you folks, no?
I’ll have to be honest and admit I didn’t see a ton of it, but between the line in the box score and the clips I did see, he certainly looked effective.
All that said, what’s the reasonable expectation for Mo Pete from a season-long perspective?
-sw
Manuel Aristides Ramirez is the greatest hitter I've ever seen.
by Steve Weinman on Oct 31, 2008 3:06 AM EDT up reply actions
He definitely did
He even showed some three point range I didn’t know he really had. One of the more underrated guys in the league. I think he had something like 27 points on 11 field goal attempts? That’s kind of crazy.
For Mo-Pete, I think he will continue to hit threes at a high clip. He hit almost 40% last year, and he gets to open spots on the floor so well, that he’ll have his shooting opportunities every game. But for the Mo-Pete conundrum to be solved, Byron Scott will have to get him more and more non-shooting scoring opportunities. Tonight was a good step towards that, so I envision that Mo will have a slight uptick in points (back into the 8, 9 range).
Are double-figs a realistic possibility?
Also, I think you touched on a really important point there: He did a great job of drifting tonight. Granted, I’m sure it’s easier alongside Paul, but Mo Pete seemed to just glide to weak spots against the defense in order to spot up. I can only imagine those type of looks will help his outside percentage…
-sw
Manuel Aristides Ramirez is the greatest hitter I've ever seen.
by Steve Weinman on Oct 31, 2008 3:17 AM EDT up reply actions
When he first came over last year
I don’t think he did a great job aligning himself on the court. It wasn’t so much getting used to Paul as it was getting used to the fact that there was another, even better three point shooter on the court in Peja. But as the season went along, he really perfected getting out of Peja’s way and still being accessible via a pass.
They’ve gotten so good at working together now, that they’ll literally be as far from each other as physically possible, almost without even looking at each other. I was actually going to do a post on this last year with NBA Hot Spots, but they inexplicably stopped updating that : (
frustrating when that happens, isn't it?
interesting that this is something Peterson has had to work at. The progress in his awareness alongside his once-new teammates certainly was on display this evening.
-sw
Manuel Aristides Ramirez is the greatest hitter I've ever seen.
by Steve Weinman on Oct 31, 2008 3:25 AM EDT up reply actions
Oh and 10 a game
I’d be pleasantly surprised if it happened, especially with Posey and Butler stepping up the way they are, and Julian expected to return soon.
Bleh, that last comment is a bit misleading on my part
seeing as I should mention that two of this free throws were when Phoenix was inexplicably fouling in the last minute down double-digits.
Apparently, no one told Terry Porter that he isn’t coaching JV ball here.
-sw
Manuel Aristides Ramirez is the greatest hitter I've ever seen.
by Steve Weinman on Oct 31, 2008 3:05 AM EDT up reply actions
Hehe,
I’m sure I’ll sicken our readers by mid-November as well.
Yeah, I guess Chris Paul’s all right.. kind of funny that he goes for 20/10/8 and I only write 2 sentences about him, both of which imply he had a horrible game. Hornets fans have been spoiled at PG over the years, that’s for sure.
He's such a joy to watch...
I maintain that of all the things that amaze me about him, what I’ll call his foul-line-to-block quickness tops the list. That stutter step move that he uses to get from the elbow to the opposite low block is lethal. That he manages to dish while doing that or get himself ready to finish lay-ins with some semblance of control…wow.
Whenever Jay Bilas first coined “blowbyability,” he was bracing for this guy.
-sw
Manuel Aristides Ramirez is the greatest hitter I've ever seen.
by Steve Weinman on Oct 31, 2008 2:58 AM EDT up reply actions
Yeah, the foul line to block is pretty unbelievable. I don’t know how he manages to keep his dribble when he turns around at the end of that. I really wonder how he became so good at dribbling. I guess just practice…? I mean, there’s that story about how Steve Nash dribbled around SCU’s campus while going to class every day. I’m guessing something similar.
for all the grief we give NBA players about loafing,
It’s hard to really even comprehend how much time some of these guys devote to being in the gym and working to get to the points they’re at. Difficult to imagine CP3 not being one of those guys.
-sw
Manuel Aristides Ramirez is the greatest hitter I've ever seen.
by Steve Weinman on Oct 31, 2008 3:14 AM EDT up reply actions
Yeah
It’s all too easy to write off the work these guys put in as “they’re just doing what they love anyway.” Anyone that’s been on a basketball team can tell you that shooting drills or footwork drills are probably the least fun thing in the world. And that’s at an amateur level. Have you seen the Hornets’ training camp videos the last couple years? Absolutely brutal.
Byron Scott used to have this thing where practice wouldn’t end until all the guys on the roster lined up, and all 14, 15 of them made consecutive free throws without missing. Hah, that must’ve been fun with Baron Davis on the team. Probably even more fun with Tyson on the team now.
Takes me back to high school
Man, I ran my share of extra suicides thanks to poor touch from the stripe during my JV days. Fortunately, a few five-hour days alone in the park helped rectify that (to some extent, at least) for the next two seasons…
-sw
Manuel Aristides Ramirez is the greatest hitter I've ever seen.
by Steve Weinman on Oct 31, 2008 3:30 AM EDT up reply actions
and speaking of footwork
is anything more torturous than defensive slide/sprint-and-recover drills? Oh, boy…
-sw
Manuel Aristides Ramirez is the greatest hitter I've ever seen.
by Steve Weinman on Oct 31, 2008 3:31 AM EDT up reply actions
I think that's probably the worst on my list,
although with a bit of time, I could think of some torturous drills. That might have to be a Daily Babble soon – worst ten basketball drills of your playing career at any level. Fun for everyone…
-sw
Manuel Aristides Ramirez is the greatest hitter I've ever seen.
by Steve Weinman on Oct 31, 2008 3:41 AM EDT up reply actions
I assume that one drill big men do
with those cords strapped around their waist and pulled by trainers, as they try to dunk must be excruciatingly tiring. Jumping up and down to dunk on a 10 foot goal 10-15 times in a row with 2 or 3 people actively pulling you downwards? Just thinking of it is painful.
Ugghhhh
Definitely a valid submission.
Similarly, the Mikan drill can really strain you a bit if you go at it for long enough.
Fortunately, the drill you mentioned was never too much of an issue for me because dunking was never part of the program. Hard to imagine that at 6-1, I played on a high school team that was small enough for me to be considered a ‘big’ at least more often than not. Yeesh.
And yes, we did a lot of losing in my day.
-sw
Manuel Aristides Ramirez is the greatest hitter I've ever seen.
by Steve Weinman on Oct 31, 2008 3:54 AM EDT up reply actions
Mikan
I am just a scrub pickup player on occasion, but I still do the Mikan drill from time to time to get me loosened up – sometimes the best things stand the test of time
Posey is the kind of guy you love to have on your team but you hate him if he’s on the other team. That can be attributed to his tough style of play, that’s why he’s a love/hate type of guy, and that’s why we all love him.
by TheBetterFaulk on Oct 31, 2008 10:50 AM EDT reply actions
He went for the bucks. The Hornets made a wrong move by giving him that kind of money though. He might look good today, but wait till a few years go by.His contract would have burdened us too much to sign developing players like Rondo, Allen , Powe, etc… when their deals come up. The Hornets are a damned good team. Paul, West, and now Pose. They are real , real good. And of course Byron Scott cannot stomach the Celtics and I am sure he had a lot to do with getting Pose. Personally, I oculd care less. I am happy keeping Tony Allen instead, and he might have gone elsewhere if Posey stayed here. Also, because he no lomger is a Celt, I wish him the worst. I do not want to feel later on that because of him we will not win again. He really is a wonderful player, whose timely play wins many a game for his team, whether that play be a rebound, charge, 3 pointer, loose ball scramble that he wins, making the pass, the out of bounds time out on time. Posey is terrific.
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