About JJ Hickson....

[WillG]

Hickson is massive for this team.
Every rebound he snags effectively stops the chance of points for the other team.
No-one else on the team comes close to Hickson in this department. In fact I half expect the other players to either bobble the ball, or not even be in good position in the first place.
Seems he may be rubbing off on Aldridge too, as LMA has been getting more physical this past week or so.

I hope we sign him long term this off-season.

 

[jlprk]

He bobbles the ball much less often than Batum or Aldridge. I see him having better hands and more athleticism than either of them. Maybe his lack of errors is due to his limiting his actions to what will succeed. Here's an article from 2 weeks ago analyzing him. (The national media hasn't discovered him yet.)

http://www.hickory-high.com/?p=5871

 

[PapaG]

Notice that when Hickson has a bad game, we lose? And when he has a good game, we win? He is more vital to us than some realize. He's the biggest reason for our surprising success.

Hickson averages more rpg in losses than in wins this season.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/h/hicksjj01/splits/2013/

 

[jlprk]

10.8 vs 11.2. You missed that glaring 8 to 9 steals difference.

 

[WillG]

He bobbles the ball much less often than Batum or Aldridge. I see him having better hands and more athleticism than either of them. Maybe his lack of errors is due to his limiting his actions to what will succeed. Here's an article from 2 weeks ago analyzing him. (The national media hasn't discovered him yet.)

http://www.hickory-high.com/?p=5871

Thats a nice little write-up about Hickson.
He does have great hands - how many times do you see him come up with the board when in a crowd of tall timber.

 

[magnifier661]

Hickson averages more rpg in losses than in wins this season.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/h/hicksjj01/splits/2013/

Couldn't that be more associated with Aldridge and Batum having terrible rebounding numbers; which makes Hickson grab more? Basically it may mean that the losses are more on Aldridge and Batum not doing their fair share on the rebounding battle.

 

[PapaG]

Couldn't that be more associated with Aldridge and Batum having terrible rebounding numbers; which makes Hickson grab more? Basically it may mean that the losses are more on Aldridge and Batum not doing their fair share on the rebounding battle.

Of course it could.

Of course, LMA only averages 0.5 less rpg in losses, which is basically a wash. I was making a glib reply to a glib post.

 

[magnifier661]

Of course it could.

Of course, LMA only averages 0.5 less rpg in losses, which is basically a wash. I was making a glib reply to a glib post.

Oh I get it. Don't mind me then.

 

[ehizzy3]

Every rebound he snags effectively stops the chance of points for the other team.

you don't say?

 

[WillG]

you don't say?

The reason I do say is because people are saying how bad Hicksons defense is.

His traditional defense may not be the best, but his effective defensive rebounding (denying the offense the chance of another possesion) is a form of defense in itself.

 

[BrianFromWA]

I'm coming around to the idea that JJ might be here for a while, and surprisingly I find myself ok with it.

I'm also worried about the "contract year" potential, but all year I've been under the impression that his cap hit to us (7.6M) would be prohibitive to the Blazers keeping him AND getting FA's. Maybe Olshey doesn't think that JJ pegs the meter, and will let him go regardless. I might do an analysis on this tomorrow, but my gut feel is that a 10pt/10rpg guy will get roughly 10M a year in a FA deal, and coupled with the fact that he's doing this at only age 24 it might be that he gets more.

If that's the case, maybe sucking up that 7.6M cap hit to be able to get another FA and then re-sign JJ for 10M/yr wouldn't be a bad deal. If you believe in him going forward.

 

[jlprk]

I'm coming around to the idea that JJ might be here for a while, and surprisingly I find myself ok with it.

Why be surprised that we should keep our best player? It's because everyone here is stuck in Pritchard-think, in which we acquire major pieces only through the draft. That's why many fans couldn't accept 2 years ago the fact that our best player was Andre Miller, and sent him packing.

Hickson is this year's Miller.

 

[BrianFromWA]

Miller had a body of work that showed that he was who we thought he was.

Hickson has been doing a good job for about 45 games. Before that he'd been dumped by two teams. Maybe he's seen the light and reinvented himself. But there's way less certainty that you're going to get what you pay for with him than with Miller.

 

[jlprk]

I don't understand why people bring this up. Who cares whether 2 awful team managements stupidly let him go? You're only as good as your last game, so it's ancient history. Many players improve fast and no one holds their prior ineptitude against them. But Hickson wasn't inept. In his last year with Cleveland his PER was 15.6 and he led them in minutes. They traded him after the season to let Jamison and Varejao start.