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Exum interview on Sports Illustrated

Spinoza said:
"It's not even a confidence thing".

That line really worried me. What is it then? Laziness? Stupidity? I'm just really concerned at this point about his passion for the game. Feels like another Kirilenko situation... possibly, but hopefully not.
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Reading the article makes me think he's at this point he's too worried about deferring to other players and basically doesn't believe he can score at the rim as well as Gordon can, and because of this is hesitant to try. It also sounds like he is a little overwhelmed with some of the more studious parts of the game such as defensive gameplanning. I hope he'll begin to play better, have a flash or two these last couple of months.

I'm a little frustrated with him, although I expect him to turn out well in the end it's tough to watch a guy with a lot of physical gifts just not use them on one side of the court. His ability to stay in front of good players on D makes it pretty obvious that he at least has the CAPABILITY to be effective on offense in terms of getting in the paint.
 
Cy said:
Not sure if this makes me more or less frustrated with his play.
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I kind of had the same response. TBH, I might be a little MORE worried after reading the article.

What kind of player do you hope to become?"

"You know, I don't know," Exum says.
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Seriously? He never had a player he imagined himself to be as he was practicing? Never evaluated his strengths and weaknesses and compared them to any player? With > 50% of the season over, he's probably faced pretty much everyone. How about saying he wants to be known as a great defender and assists guy like Rondo. Or maybe with his size he could be an all-around play like Jason Kidd was. There are a lot of players and answers he could give. But he say's "I don't know." Well, if you don't know, how are you going to get there?

And then there's this:
"It is one of the most difficult things ever," Exum says. "For me—being in a system like in Australia—I've always been a guy that's had the ball in his hands most of the time, at the end of the shot clock, end of the game. But it's been good taking that backseat role and seeing guys who've been in this league four or five years and how they're able to position themselves to score. I'm kind of at the point where I want to be given a bit of that responsibility and try to make the most of it."
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Damn, Dante, you ARE given responsibility every single game. Your head coach is BEGGING you to make the most of it. You take a backseat role because you're too damned scared to drive. Don't make excuses. You don't have to go to a gym with a coach using pads to practice taking it inside. You have those opportunities every single game.
 
Stifle Tower said:
I kind of had the same response. TBH, I might be a little MORE worried after reading the article.


Seriously? He never had a player he imagined himself to be as he was practicing? Never evaluated his strengths and weaknesses and compared them to any player? With > 50% of the season over, he's probably faced pretty much everyone. How about saying he wants to be known as a great defender and assists guy like Rondo. Or maybe with his size he could be an all-around play like Jason Kidd was. There are a lot of players and answers he could give. But he say's "I don't know." Well, if you don't know, how are you going to get there?

And then there's this:


Damn, Dante, you ARE given responsibility every single game. Your head coach is BEGGING you to make the most of it. You take a backseat role because you're too damned scared to drive. Don't make excuses. You don't have to go to a gym with a coach using pads to practice taking it inside. You have those opportunities every single game.
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You ready to overpay to draft Russ yet?

The question for me is what kind of impact his defense has on our overall defense. Is it just the bigs or does having dante make them even better. I wonder what the on off defensive numbers look like with him and trey when they play with favs and Gobert.

Exum is the limit to our teams ceiling. Have no idea if that's good or bad.
 
ONE LOVE said:
Yeah and he's been watching Hayward do it too which is interesting to me. At the beginning of the season I suggested that Hayward and Exum work out together and let Hayward mentor Exum about how to get to the rim and be aggressive and score.
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It took Hayward 3+ seasons to get this down.
 
Exum is an insanely smart player. Very smart. And he is CRAZY competitive. Remember that.

Now, if you are Exum, and every time you drive to the hoop in practice you either get slammed to the ground or can't finish because you just aren't strong enough, why would you do that in games, knowing that you probably won't get the call from refs and you probably won't finish. Driving to the hoop right now if almost a guaranteed TO from Exum.

So, he doesn't do it. He defers. He works his guts out on defense because he knows it gives his team the best chance to win.

I'm going to keep saying this: he will get stronger. When he does, watch out.
 
The thing is, I don't even mind it when Exum drives in hard and misses or turns it over. I just appreciate that he's trying to be aggressive, and I'm sure others feel the same way.

You can't improve by never even trying.
 
KD's Framily said:
The thing is, I don't even mind it when Exum drives in hard and misses or turns it over. I just appreciate that he's trying to be aggressive, and I'm sure others feel the same way.

You can't improve by never even trying.
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People say this now, but the second he starts doing that, everyone on this forum is going to be saying things like: "Jesus Exum, you suck, let someone else touch the ball and come back next year to try again." Need proof? Look at any thread from the past year involving Trey Burke.
 
Exum will benefit from Alec returning. Burks is our most aggressive slash n finisher. Practicing with/against him and watching him in action day in and out will help him tremendously.. imo
 
I wonder if Gobert packs Exum so hard in practice that it has given Exum PTSD from going into the lane.
 
Handlogten's Heros said:
That quote from the article about how he is confident but then just doesn't do it is very puzzling. Overall his defense is very good. I wouldn't say he is a bulldog like tony Allen or one of those types, but he gets in front of people and moves so well. When he is active with his hands he gets steals and deflections but I'd like to see him more active with his hands without sacrificing positioning. Millsap does this very well.

On offense he just needs to turn the corner and go sometimes... Take the contact or get the ball blocked it's not the end of the world. Doing so will open up good passing lanes for him. Guys just drop back and ignore him completely... I just want to see him try it a few times a game.

Dude needs to live at P3 this summer.
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Also needs to play for Australia in whatever tournament happens over the summer.
 
After reading the article:

I came away thinking Exum and Hayward are very similar thinking players. They are team first, super competitive guys. As a rookie Hayward deferred to Deron (and was hazed by Deron). Over time Hayward grew into a leading scorer's role. Now think about how Exum never played in big time college ball. He has figured out how he can play D and make some drive and kicks that help us win. He is spending the rest of the his time watching Gordon and others to try discover who he wants to be.

Think about it. Who is a good comparison to Exum's Ceiling? I can't think of one. He is much bigger and a better shooter than Jason Kidd. He doesn't seem to be vertically explosive. He is freakishly quick for his size. He has natural passing instincts. He has good hands. I am not surprised he doesn't have a basketball role model because he is kinda unique.

He could become an awesome post threat. He could be 1st team all-nba defense. I see the physical tools. I see some basic skills. He just needs time and an unholy amount of work.
 
Cy said:
I thought the FIBA Tournaments happened every year?
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It's EuroBasket-->Olympics-->Eurobasket-->FIBA World Cup. So yes, every year, but not one general 'tournament'.
 
Cy said:
I thought the FIBA Tournaments happened every year?
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They do, but I don't think there is one where Australia plays this year. There is European championship this year, so Gobert is probably going to play in that one.

Just checked... So there is U19 WC where Australia is supposed to play, but I wonder if Exum will take part in that one, probably not. It's in June.
 
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