Keyonte George’s Star Ascension

[HermanG]

Yeah…idk why we would have to turn “Lauri and Nurk help their teammates” into “Key is reliant on them” even if his performance did dip a little bit….but it hasn’t. There’s some shooting variance when you chop up his minutes into smaller SSS’s off, but he’s actually been remarkably consistent.

As much as I’m a skeptic of his defense, I’m very bullish on his offense. He has taken a major step and at 22 he still has the potential to level up. The takeaway I get from looking at his production with and without teammates is that he can succeed in different roles. He can play in PnR as a heliocentric guy. He can play off the ball next to an extremely ball dominant ball handler. He can play when the offense is run through an offensive hub center. He can play when there’s bad spacing. His versatility isn’t talked enough imo. Even some of the very best guards don’t have the ability or willingness to pull that off.

Ive noticed but I try to control getting overly excited. Cant crown him yet.

Last game against Wolves he scored on just about every which way possible, and the makes were mostly contested.

I would love to see his left hand vs right hand comp as well, but dont know a reliable source for those stats.

 

[tksavis]

I don't know why but in some ways it feels like Keyonte's break out is completely surprising and none of us saw it coming even though we've been watching him for 2-3 years. It's almost like his year 1 and year 2 struggles made us forget the original potential and so we discounted the flashes of great things along the way. Maybe because we couldn't see his work ethic and coachability behind the scenes. Maybe it's that we still have a hangover from Donovan's explosion -- from Day 1 he seemed like a star. Whatever it is, I'm now starting to wrap my head around Keyonte's being a star -- assuming he can continue his strong play, which seems likely possible.

 

[SoberasHotRod]

I don't know why but in some ways it feels like Keyonte's break out is completely surprising and none of us saw it coming even though we've been watching him for 2-3 years. It's almost like his year 1 and year 2 struggles made us forget the original potential and so we discounted the flashes of great things along the way. Maybe because we couldn't see his work ethic and coachability behind the scenes. Maybe it's that we still have a hangover from Donovan's explosion -- from Day 1 he seemed like a star. Whatever it is, I'm now starting to wrap my head around Keyonte's being a star -- assuming he can continue his strong play, which seems likely possible.

There were plenty of us who thought he would be good this year. It's pretty predictable for a young guard to struggle his first few years and typically year 3 is when they break out.

I don't know if anyone thought he would be this good.

 

[Tremendous Upside]

Even just last season Keyonte was putting up a **** ton of horrible shots. If he was pounding the ball beyond the perimeter and wasn't sure what to do, he'd often launch a tough three pointer for no reason.

When he drove, he threw up sloppy, gliding floaters and got mad when he got no calls after making minimal contact.

He seems to have fixed all that now. His shot selection has improved 100%, his drives have gone from meh to deadly, and his jump shot simply looks better. More elevation, better balance, no leaning this way or that.

 

[NAOS_pt2]

Even just last season Keyonte was putting up a **** ton of horrible shots. If he was pounding the ball beyond the perimeter and wasn't sure what to do, he'd often launch a tough three pointer for no reason.

When he drove, he threw up sloppy, gliding floaters and got mad when he got no calls after making minimal contact.

He seems to have fixed all that now. His shot selection has improved 100%, his drives have gone from meh to deadly, and his jump shot simply looks better. More elevation, better balance, no leaning this way or that.

It's just weird that there's been all of this development when "there's no real development when a team is tanking"