The biggest problem I have with Exum is that he's not playing like himself. I've seen him play long and athletic, I've seen him play fast, I've seen him play aggressive, I've seen him be creative. Right now he's none of those. He plays timid and with no confidence. He plays short, he plays stuck to the floor in the lane and never looks to attack the rim. He plays like he's 5'11' who's not allowed to jump'. There's no conviction and determination in his step. And his offensive skill-set to be fair looks horrible. Absolutely horrible. Absolutely nothing to do with what he used to do in U18 competitions. His handle is shaky and unreliable, his touch around the rim is quite bad, a lot of his passes are soft and telegraphed. He almost never uses his quick first step to attack and create advantage. His floater is ugly as **** and not very successful. He has virtually no pull up game. His whole offensive game looks incredibly awkward, which a complete opposite to what he used to be - he was described as a smooth skilled athlete who can get wherever he wants on the floor and finish around the rim and draw a ton of fouls. He was actually supposed to be a great offensive player with variety of moves(hell, he was even showing some post-up game in the FIBA WC), and with a suspect defense.
I am very very far from giving up on him and I still have high hopes on him, but that's definitely not because of anything he's shown on the offensive end this year. All my hope for him(offensively) is connected with what I've seen of him prior to the draft - him blowing past Elfrid Payton in the lane and throwing down a dunk in traffic, him attacking relentlessly the rim and drawing a ton of fouls against Spain, the crossovers and explosion to the rim at the Hoop Summit. For all the talk that there is limited footage of Exum prior to the draft, I can probably make a much better highlight reel showing off his best attributes from that limited footage than from 82 games in his rookie season. There have been some flashes, but they've been extremely rare - the blow by Jrue Holiday and finish at the rim(and-1), the crossover and blow by Ty Lawson, the preseason drive in traffic and finish against DeAndre Jordan(and-1), the drive against the Raptors where he actually went up, drew the foul, hanged in the air and finished. I can count them on the fingers of my hand. Am I missing something? A ton of 3pts I guess... Hell it just shows you that when he actually goes strong to the hoop with the purpose of attacking he will draw fouls(3 of the 4 'flashes' that I could remember of this season were situations in which he finished and drew a foul).
He has a ton of work in the summer but the biggest improvement needs to happen between his ears and with his attitude and confidence.
