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Where is Favors off season improvement?

zbone

zbone

Well-Known Member
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So 8 games into the season and I see Derrick Favors from April-May 2011. Where is improvement everyone have been waiting for?
His Per36 stats pretty much the same as his rookie season, no post moves, lousy FT shooting, 0 assists in 182 minutes this season, questionable decisions with the ball and occasional poor body language when things don't go his way. If he continues like that I'll be concerned he eventually won't live up to his potential.

If he turns out to be nothing more than a strong defensive presence would you consider it as a fail?
What do you expect from him in his sophomore season to label it as success for DF?
 
Wes Mantooth said:
I hate to say this but I sort of agree. Thankfully he's very young.
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This.

He never seemed to be the type of guy that would suddenly just be amazing, though. I see some strides, but they're not huge (MORE of a post game, the intensity is more visible).
 
Difficult to tell since no one other than Harris or Jefferson are allowed to touch the ball.

Just look @ Millsap's stats. Or Hayward's. No one is having a very good year with a point guard that has no clue how to run an offense and a big man who thinks he's Shaq.

I'm not making excuses for Favors. I just haven't seen him with the ball in his hands... Or anyone else's for that matter!

For the one game Jefferson sat, Favors looked pretty damn good. Or was his 20 point, 11 rebound, 10-16 FG performance really a fluke? And our offense finally started to resemble what we all thought it was going to look like. Was it a coincidence that Favors, Millsap, and Hayward were in double figures when Jefferson sat?

The biggest hurdle to Favors (or anyone else on our team) to look good and/or getting an accurate measurement of, is Black Hole Jefferson.
 
I think the lock-out hurt Favors perhaps more than anyone else on the team. Ron Boone once said he wonders if Favors himself actually realizes how talented he is. He seems to get dejected after the smallest of setbacks.

The kid needs some hand holding - but I wouldn't be surprised if he takes off about 25-30 games in.
 
P.S. Millsap has the 4th highest PER for PFs. We should trade him, becuz im sorry hes just 2 short 2 play okay sorry okay.
 
What I've noticed is that he doesn't seem to be able to get very low in the post, often catching the ball at about 8-12 feet out. That would be fine if he was very capable of just backing a guy down but at this time, he doesn't seem to have that ability to get low, and just back a guy down with legs and butt. Like I said, he is very young, and I'd hope he can gain about 5-7 pounds a year of pure muscle so that three years from now, he's about 15-20 pounds stronger and able to just out-specimen everyone else. But even if he does follow that path, he needs to get a couple go to moves.
 
My position on Favors is we weren't going to see offensive improvement until season 3. He's just so raw. But he is rebounding like a monster and his defense, particularly help defense, is coming along. That's pretty much all I wanted to see out of him so I'm good with continuing the Favors Experiment.
 
Hopefully we will see improvement thruout this year. He seems to be getting time (not as much as I would like some games) and hopefully he will start putting it all together on a more frequent basis.
 
Picking up the slack for the foul-plagued Paul Millsap, Favors recorded his second double-double (12 points and 10 rebounds), while continuing to make his defensive presence known with two blocked shots. He is getting more and more confident offensively and had some nice moves over Warrior David Lee.
 
The Thriller said:
Difficult to tell since no one other than Harris or Jefferson are allowed to touch the ball.

Just look @ Millsap's stats. Or Hayward's. No one is having a very good year with a point guard that has no clue how to run an offense and a big man who thinks he's Shaq.

I'm not making excuses for Favors. I just haven't seen him with the ball in his hands... Or anyone else's for that matter!

For the one game Jefferson sat, Favors looked pretty damn good. Or was his 20 point, 11 rebound, 10-16 FG performance really a fluke?

The biggest hurdle to Favors (or anyone else on our team) to look good and/or getting an accurate measurement of, is Black Hole Jefferson.
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To begin with Favors mostly plays with Watson who is hardly a ball hog.
Secondly, looking for an excuse in "Black Hole" Jefferson for a guy with season total 0 assists? Really?

I agree re lack of touches. We mostly play wings pushing tempo with out 2nd team. Most shots are taken by Howard, Burks, Hayward. I don't see much plays created for Favors. Probably that's because there is no go-to-move in his repertoire and we can't recognize these plays. At least Kanter's got one :)
 
I think Favors needs a lot of game time experience. Everyone rips Big Al, but Big Al has worked hard on his low post moves. I think Favors needs to develop better low post footwork and better post shots. He is sooo athletic and I hope he doesn't just rely on his raw skills and not develop basketball skills.
 
He's hit shots from a little farther out I think. It would be nice if he can starting drawing defenders and finding the open man, but I expect that to come with time.
 
Wow, am I the only one who thinks he has improved. He has shown the ability to now hit some mid range jumpers and his FT looks better; gone 3-4 twice and 4-5 once. His rebounding is very good, 4 double digit rebounding games(in limited time) He is finally realizing how to play great defense, 11 blocks in last 4 games. Also, look for how many shots he alters and how opposing guards miss a lot of layups because of him. His field goal percentage is also amazing!

In the 3 games including preseason, where he has been given 25 mins plus, he has averaged 11 boards and just under 20 points. I say that's pretty impressive. Just wait till he receives starter minutes or around 30 minutes.
 
Favors is still very young and coming into his own. We've only seen 8 games, so it's difficult to draw major conclusions particularly on his free throw shooting, which is a very limited sample size (but when he shoots over 3 ft's, he shoots over 75%). In his first 4 games, his defense was off since he was trying to limit his fouls (1 block and no steals). Over the last 4 he's averaging nearly 3 blocks/game and almost 1 steal. He's just now starting to get comfortable. As Northeast said, his stroke has looked good. Also, in the only game that he didn't have to compete with Big Al, he had 20 & 11. He's also averaging over 2 rbds/game more/36. His scoring/36 is now just about even where it was at the end of last year (14.6) vs. 11.6 with NJ. He's fouling less too. Give him some more minutes and this year to start to wonder about him. People underestimate the value of minutes and Favors has not been getting very many in comparison to players to whom we hope he becomes similar.
 
He also has to play next to Kanter offensively which just makes everything slower and less crisp.
 
billyshelby said:
My position on Favors is we weren't going to see offensive improvement until season 3. He's just so raw. But he is rebounding like a monster and his defense, particularly help defense, is coming along. That's pretty much all I wanted to see out of him so I'm good with continuing the Favors Experiment.
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Agreed.
 
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