mook
The 2018-19 season was the best I've seen
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For fun I took a look at his best performance this year using NBA broadband. It was 12/14/14, a loss (but not a drubbing) against the Spurs in Denver, where he scored 31 (his second highest of the season--his best mark of 34 was against the lowly Twolves, which didn't seem worth watching.) I watched him exclusively the entire game.
My takeaways from a very small sample size:
- This is a surprisingly revealing game to see him in, in terms of how badly organized his team was compared to the incomparable Spurs. That team really didn't do much to generate offense as a team. He was the only reason they were even in it.
- He pretty much created for himself in much the way Wes would in a similar situation--post-ups, step-back threes, simpler (no fancy dribbling) transition buckets. No fancy or clever passes. Not much of a facilitator. He was fantastic until Pop put Kawaii on him, and then just like Wes probably would, he kind of vanished for a while.
- There was one possession where AA could clearly predict Lawson was going mano-a-mano, and the body language was hilarious. AA goes to the corner, leans on knees with his hands like it's a timeout, and just stares. For 9 straight seconds. I had to rewind it to be sure. It was just classic. His body language screamed, "Yeah, I've got 24 points so far and it's just the third quarter, but you assholes aren't going to pass shit. Nobody is moving. Ball ain't moving. So I won't even pretend to have my hands ready to catch something. Because it ain't comin.'" And it didn't. So maybe he's seen a lot more Denver games than me. But it seemed weird.
- His defense was spotty. He'd rotate nicely on one play to cover a cutter on pick-and-rolls, and then he'd throw a hand up lamely as somebody blew by him on the next play. There was one possession where something got into him and he went into overdrive, and he created all kinds of havok. And then he went indifferent for a stretch. Hard to figure out. It was like watching an old german shepherd occasionally getting up to tear after a squirrel in the back yard, and then going back to sleep.
- When the team is winning, he's playing hard. When they're not, he's not. Causation? Maybe they'd have been better if he just tried. Correlation? Maybe he's so used to losing (they lost 9/10 of his last games) that you just give up hope. I haven't seen enough to see. If he were playing last night in Utah, though, I don't think he's the guy to pull us out of our doldrums in the early 4th quarter.
Anyway, I realize Afflalo has been around a long time, but he's always been one of those guys I never paid attention to. Hope somebody else here got something out of this. I did just by putting my impressions down. Overall, I was hoping to watch this game and see how AA turns over this massive leaf by fitting in perfectly, much like Rolo did when he got here (and Kamen did at the start of the year). That ain't happening, I don't think. I just get the vibe he'll be more like Steve Blake. He's going to be somebody who does what he's always done, consistent in his role. No surprises, good or bad.
My takeaways from a very small sample size:
- This is a surprisingly revealing game to see him in, in terms of how badly organized his team was compared to the incomparable Spurs. That team really didn't do much to generate offense as a team. He was the only reason they were even in it.
- He pretty much created for himself in much the way Wes would in a similar situation--post-ups, step-back threes, simpler (no fancy dribbling) transition buckets. No fancy or clever passes. Not much of a facilitator. He was fantastic until Pop put Kawaii on him, and then just like Wes probably would, he kind of vanished for a while.
- There was one possession where AA could clearly predict Lawson was going mano-a-mano, and the body language was hilarious. AA goes to the corner, leans on knees with his hands like it's a timeout, and just stares. For 9 straight seconds. I had to rewind it to be sure. It was just classic. His body language screamed, "Yeah, I've got 24 points so far and it's just the third quarter, but you assholes aren't going to pass shit. Nobody is moving. Ball ain't moving. So I won't even pretend to have my hands ready to catch something. Because it ain't comin.'" And it didn't. So maybe he's seen a lot more Denver games than me. But it seemed weird.
- His defense was spotty. He'd rotate nicely on one play to cover a cutter on pick-and-rolls, and then he'd throw a hand up lamely as somebody blew by him on the next play. There was one possession where something got into him and he went into overdrive, and he created all kinds of havok. And then he went indifferent for a stretch. Hard to figure out. It was like watching an old german shepherd occasionally getting up to tear after a squirrel in the back yard, and then going back to sleep.
- When the team is winning, he's playing hard. When they're not, he's not. Causation? Maybe they'd have been better if he just tried. Correlation? Maybe he's so used to losing (they lost 9/10 of his last games) that you just give up hope. I haven't seen enough to see. If he were playing last night in Utah, though, I don't think he's the guy to pull us out of our doldrums in the early 4th quarter.
Anyway, I realize Afflalo has been around a long time, but he's always been one of those guys I never paid attention to. Hope somebody else here got something out of this. I did just by putting my impressions down. Overall, I was hoping to watch this game and see how AA turns over this massive leaf by fitting in perfectly, much like Rolo did when he got here (and Kamen did at the start of the year). That ain't happening, I don't think. I just get the vibe he'll be more like Steve Blake. He's going to be somebody who does what he's always done, consistent in his role. No surprises, good or bad.
