a Tony Snell Question

[vinson555]

I haven't been able to see him play much, but I was wondering what people may think of his future here? My thoughts of the short time I have seen him play (Reasons for not seeing him play include work and sometimes just having to do something else.) Is that he is good enough to play at least every night. I know Thibs don't like to play rookies and that may play some role into this, but I'm wondering if for any reason I'm off on my thinking.

 

[Axl Rose]

i know ppl are going to say im unjustly bashing here because hes not Ben Gordon

but i'll be quite honest...i think hes just ok...i think his ceiling is a mediocre 3&D type guy off the bench....which is fine for the 20th pick in a weak class

 

[Crystallas]

He's very good for a 20th pick rookie. The issue is that he is a soft defender on a hard defending team. But he has the length and does make plays on defense, so he knows how to play defense, he just is half-assing it. As far as offense goes, he doesn't have court vision to see over players as far as making that extra pass. This is all correctable over time. His shot is beautiful, and when given consistent minutes, his shot is consistent. Snell also has this habit of playing much wider than he should, which makes him easy to trap.

He played SF in college, and he is playing SG minutes in the NBA, for the most part. So he's kind of out of position, and a work in progress, more than a plug-and-play guy. Hopefully Snell will keep working hard and we will see his improvements next season. But one thing is for sure, he does belong in the NBA, and if he doesn't stagnate, he has the potential to be a legit starter at some point in his career.

 

[clonetrooper264]

He's alright...he has some definitely tools to work with, but doesn't quite know how to use them yet. Like Crys said, his shot is beautiful and it looks like it's gonna go in every time, but it obviously doesn't. Given minutes he's usually played pretty well though. He's just a rookie, so I can't complain that much.

 

[Xplosive]

He's very good for a 20th pick rookie. The issue is that he is a soft defender on a hard defending team. But he has the length and does make plays on defense, so he knows how to play defense, he just is half-assing it.

Joakim also thinks Snell is half-assing it...

[video=youtube;v1v50_Fne_4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1v50_Fne_4[/video]

 

[Raskolnikov]

I don't blame Thibs as much as rookies just aren't ready to play, and at that range in the draft you hope you get a guy that isn't ready but can develop. It looks like we got one. The guy I wanted at that spot, Ghorgi Diengg in Minnesota is averaging like 2 points in a few minutes with a couple rebounds and plays behind Love/Pekovic so he is limited, but he also looks like he could develop.

Dieng fits our need for a high energy defender/blocker/offensive rebounder off the bench, but would still be fourth fiddle here up front. Snell has a shot that surprised me in its quality for a rookie, if he can build his shot and develop under Thibs and build chemistry with Butler he was a great pick. Wish he would play more minutes,

46 min for Butler, and 43 for Dunleavy last night. I would like Butler around 40 and Dunleavy 33.

 

[Scoot26]

Snell has potential...I saw potential from Jimmy his rookie year too. Thing is he's a rookie. Many of the things are correctable assuming Snell is willing to work for it like Jimmy did.

 

[czman]

Tony Snell has been much better defensively than people give him credit for. He is very close to Butler defensively when Butler was a rookie. Butler was better, but not a lot better. Just a little.

Snell looks lost on both offense and defense to me. I think he has struggled more on understanding Tibs defensive scheme than Butler.

The real problem with Snell is his shooting has not come around as much as it needs to by this point. Outside of November his %s are on the rise, but he still has not shot the ball as well as he needs to. He was brought in to be a 3point shooter and right now he has not shown that he can do that consistently.

At some point he will learn where to be and when to be there. I don't think that will be the problem. He has to shoot the ball well from beyond the arc. Only time will tell if he develops in that area or not.

Snell has a problem that he cannot control. Butler is not shooting so Snell and Butler on the floor together is not working. Butler plays better D and is getting huge minutes. It is making it hard for Snell to get on the floor because he is not shooting well enough to steal minutes from Dunleavy, who can shoot, and Butler who defends.

I think it is too early to make long term claims about Snell. Right now he has to shoot better and learn where he should be on both ends of the court.

 

[Axl Rose]

i highly disagree with he was as good or even close to rookie Jimmy on defense...Jimmy locked up Carmelo

i also dont see the same potential in Snell as i saw in Jimmy....i seen Jimmy as a Ron Artest type (not as strong but better hops)....hes hasnt lived up to that yet....but hes been looking allot better recently....although his FT and 3pt have been bad

 

[Raskolnikov]

Snell has length, a defensive mentality, and a 3-point shot. He would be a great Spur in about 3 years, and I think he will be a great Bull role player.

We never recovered from the loss of Brewer, Korver, Watson. That was a classy bench mob, but a guy like Snell can develop to be in that conversation of best bench player.

 

[The Hawk]

What I like about Snell is that he is long. He also has a nice jumper from range. He can develop like Butler and Gibson did. Butler really struggled his first year if we remember but just like Gibson improved every year.

 

[ChettheJet]

I'd say he needs the rookie year to learn what it means to be an NBA player. He's never played 82 games, he's never played the same opponent this many times in a season. Think about it at the beginning of the year he would have been behind Deng,Butler and Hinrich at the 2-3 so they weren't counting on him for very many minutes. Rose went down, Hinrich was hurt, Deng was traded and they just got Augustin so suddenly he was put out there.

I wouldn't be surprised to see him make the same leap Jimmy did from year 1 to 2. Coming off the bench, understanding his role but knowing the opponents better, like who takes off plays and how often, knowing the refs and what they allow, and getting into the flow more easily.

 

[DirtyDutchDiggler]

The kids length is intriguing. When it comes to his jump shot the only name I can think of is Alex English. His consistency is not there because as a rookie it is such a big difference in distance for the threes but I think Clone said it best, every time he shoots it, it looks like it is going in. I love the arc he puts on it. What has impressed me the most is his ability at this level is how he uses that length to get to the basket. Thibs has such a short leach on rookies so we know he doesn't want to be too aggressive with to avoid his wrath but from what I have seen, he could get to the basket anytime he wanted to and use his "Go-Go-Gadget arms to avoid the block. Snell in the long run has a much better offensive game then Butler but does anyone notice Butler draws fouls like a veteran superstar? Its uncanny. If Butler ever did fix his jumper, I think he could be a 28pt, 8rbd, 2-3steal a game guy and correct me if I am wrong, but with that type of offense and his lock down D, that is all star material.

 

[Bear Pride]

Butler played 8.5 minutes per game as a rook, where Snell is playing 18.5 so far. Butler played in 42 games his rookie year, where Snell has played in 56 already. To put it perspective, the Bulls other rookie Murphy, who I like, is getting 2.7 min/game, and has played in 22 games so far.

Snell was getting a ton of fouls early, and that has backed him off on defense a little, but this is a rookie that is figuring things out. It wasn't until Butler's 2nd season where people started saying this kid can play defense. Butler was his college teams defensive stopper, but so was Snell. I don't see how anyone can compare the two at this point, imo.

 

[RiDLer80]

It's not fair to judge a rookie. Butler's rookie year he couldn't shoot a lick. One offseason later his jumper looks decent. Two years later it looks good. I think we should give Snell an offseason or two before judging him.

 

[Axl Rose]

[video=youtube;qKs7WKMMEyU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKs7WKMMEyU[/video]

:tiptoe: