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Athletic Slashing White Wings

The Midnight

The Midnight

#Baby_Talk
Contributor
I was watching Gordon Hayward's Locker Clean Out video and noticed something:

- Reporter asked him "What would you specifically work on this summer? Obviously you didn't have a very good shooting series - is that something you're working on?"

- He sort of brushed the shooting thing aside, and said he'd want to increase his 'strength' keep being 'stronger' and to 'use his athleticism and get to the rim' and get to the free throw line more.

[video]https://www.nba.com/jazz/video/2012/05/08/LockerHaywardm4v-2093414

That's pretty smart IMO. Shooting is always going to come and go. But he has figured out what sets the likes of Durant, LeBron, Kobe, etc apart from the rest is their athleticism and their ability to get to the free throw line. He already has his shooting (sort of) and already has pretty good ball handling skills - so it makes sense to branch out his game to 'slashing'. We've always thought of Hayward's ceiling as 'Dunleavy Lite' type player. But obviously he's aiming a lot higher than that.

That got me thinking - Who are successful NBA 'Athletic Slashing White Wings' that have played in the past that could be Hayward's ceiling? Or that he can possibly emulate? I can think of a lot of tall white Centers & PGs & Shooters, but not many 'slashing' whites. May be:

- Chris Mullen?
- Pistol Pete?
- Deflet Schrempf?
- Nowitzki?
- Ginobili?
 
I like the answer as well. Hayward has too high of potential .. too good of court vision, too good of ball handler, too high of bb IQ, and too good of passer (I say a lot of that with the word potential) to be thinking spot-up shooter.
 
orangello said:
I like the idea of this as long as the comparisons are white. If they are anything but white then it won't work. The whiter the better.
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LOL.. it's just something fun. It's just interesting to me how few 'athletic slashing white wings' are in the NBA. Both currently and in the past. I actually struggled to come up with those comps and they're not even good comps! Let me know if you can come up with better ones.
 
Hotttnickkk said:
LOL.. it's just something fun. It's just interesting to me how few 'athletic slashing white wings' are in the NBA. Both currently and in the past. I actually struggled to come up with those comps and they're not even good comps! Let me know if you can come up with better ones.
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I'll play. How about a smarter version of Chase Budinger?
 
Wasn't "Athletic Slashing White Wings" the name of that band in the 90's?

Hayward needs to work on his touch around the rim, defensive anticipation, and handle. Then he needs to learn to dribble through when nothing's there (rather than flying in the air with his athletic slashing white arms to pass).
 
Cyrone Torbin said:
He should have said shooting and posting up people who are 6 inches shorter than him.
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I know you've been on this "posting up" bandwagon for a while now. It's a good idea if the defender is outmatched. But if you're playing him at SF, I doubt he'd be able to back down most SFs in the league.

At least with slashing, he can use his quickness as well as his dribbling skills. He's also a pretty good foul shooter and can make that extra pass if the defender is defending him well (I guess he can do that while posting up as well though - I give you that).
 
Hotttnickkk said:
I know you've been on this "posting up" bandwagon for a while now. It's a good idea if the defender is outmatched. But if you're playing him at SF, I doubt he'd be able to back down most SFs in the league.

At least with slashing, he can use his quickness as well as his dribbling skills. He's also a pretty good foul shooter and can make that extra pass if the defender is defending him well (I guess he can do that while posting up as well though - I give you that).
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Not on the posting bandwagon at all, but he should be able to take advantage if he has a 6'2 combo guard on him. He doesn't at all.
 
Also don't really understand why being white has anything to do with it. He has made the NBA, he has already defied the white stereotype.
 
Cyrone Torbin said:
Also don't really understand why being white has anything to do with it. He has made the NBA, he has already defied the white stereotype.
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It's just something fun - when you're looking for comps, you obviously take into account many factors. I'm just trying to think of a legendary NBA player who was white and was good at slashing to the basket and I really struggled. That is all.
 
Hotttnickkk said:
It's just something fun - when you're looking for comps, you obviously take into account many factors. I'm just trying to think of a legendary NBA player who was white and was good at slashing to the basket and I really struggled. That is all.
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Jerry Sloan.
 
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