People keep mentioning the rookie wall, but I’m wondering if what we’re seeing might more accurately be described as growing pains. As in, he’s in the process of taking a step forward but things aren’t there yet, which is still a form of progress and means he should work through it.
Basically, I feel like he’s not seeing himself as being one of the “big boys” and as such isn’t bodying up when he drives. (Although as
@Blacken has pointed out to me, he still only weighs like twelve pounds...)
When he does a good job going to the hoop aggressively, he flies right past people. He gets in trouble when he eye into a position when he should be bodying up and driving with his shoulder. This also leads to turnovers because he tries to “protect” the ball from defenders by holding it away from them instead of bringing it into his body as the protection, and then it gets slapped away. Plus the lack of drawn fouls called.
He still is running some aggressive drives, so I don’t know if I see the rookie wall. If anything, I see him making more aggressive drives, but then fucking up on the ones where he stops short of laying into contact.
But if he keeps doing it, he should find it, yeah? Or is he still too small at 19? And if so, how should they approach his learning arc?