I havent had the time to really stay up on this thread but I wanted to post a nice game to watch tonight.
Tue Dec 22
9:00 ESPN2
Cal vs Virginia
This will be the first chance I have seen to watch potentially lottery bound freshman SF Jaylen Brown and PF Ivan Rabb. Brown should have a nice match up with potential first round pick Virginia SG Malcolm Brogdon.
Observations from watching the game...
Granted this is only one game and these Cal players are really young
Jaylen Brown, 31min 18pts 5-11FG 0-3 3PT 6RB 4TO. His stat line isn't bad but he definitely showed some major peaks and valleys in his game.
His strengths are clearly his physical strength, explosiveness, and ability to get the the hoop.
His weaknesses clearly not comfortable shooting the ball outside, seems to lack defensive awareness, over dribbles in isolation.
I came away less then impressed with Brown while I was expecting to see a Winlow/Kid-gillcrest he instead reminded me more of our own J Young. Like Young he can be very impressive on offense though young and brown have different strengths. However the negative is clearly the defense. At one point late in the game Cal even pulled an offense/defense sub and took Brown out. A telling sign for such an elite prospect.
Ivan Rabb , 42min 9pts 4-6FG 12RB 2ast 4TO. Statistically he came just short on a double double though it took over 40min. I was surprised by his lack of BLKS and Stls.
His strengths his rebounding specifically his Sully like ability to pull the ball down in traffic do to great hands, his length, his mobility, and appears very vocal on the court
His weaknesses his lack of bulk/strength, lack of go to offense, aside from passing seems limited in the face up game.
Rabb impressed me but not at all how I expected. I had this vision of Rabb being a multi dimension modern bid man. Instead he is a very blue collar player reminding me alot of Brandon Wright. While very skinny and physically outmatched in the pain he consistently came down with big rebounds and really seems to have a nack for getting his hands on the ball. He is a very fundamental rebounder and looked great boxing out. I was also very impressed with how vocal he was on the court. A few times I noticed him directing players where to be on offense, not something I would expect out of an 18yr old big man. He clearly has alot to work on but I really like the foundation he has as a prospect.
