My four cents on Trae Young.....

[coolm]

he's not gonna be expected to be a defensive wizard. he'll get positioning down and switches and he's good to go.

 

[AdaSooner]

IMO, the biggest deficit high school players have when they begin as college freshmen is on the defensive end. The fact is that most great high school players don't have to play good defense to get on the court and they know that it's their ability to score that will get them the college scholarship. Plus, they're not used to defending players with their size or skill level. Moreover, defense simply isn't taught or valued in the AAU circuit.

I would, therefore, expect Trae to be a poor defensive player at least early on. Like you, I'm not knocking Trae. It's just a part of the game he's going to have to learn and improve on. From what I've read, defense is currently the weakest part of his game. I'm not saying he can't or won't be a good defensive player but I don't think it'll happen immediately.

I saw Trae play with Mokan Elite in the Nike Peach Jam Classic last summer where he did a lot more than score twenty eight points. He dished out an array of impressive assists and used his quick hands and feet to get some clean steals that led to easy points for his teammates.

I get what you're saying about coaching defense at the AAU level. But, judging by what I saw, Trae is not that far from developing into a very good defender. Let's hope I'm right. If he has to be a team leader from the get go, as I believe he will, he will need to lead by example on defense as well as on offense.

 

[inoref]

Nobody likes you much.

If you don't agree with what I said about Trae Young and helping the team,,that's fine. If you like me much or not is irrelevant and adds nothing to the thread, personal feelings about another member should be kept off the board. But if it is allowed then I too can do so and I'm pretty good at it. But I rather not stoop to the level of a 5th grader

 

[OUHoops]

:griffinwindmill:wwfacial:griffinbros:wwisudunk

Side note: I can't believe these GIFs are still showing up in the "similies" box. I don't even remember how I pulled it off to make them and put them in there. :ez-laugh:

 

[inoref]

Side note: I can't believe these GIFs are still showing up in the "similies" box. I don't even remember how I pulled it off to make them and put them in there. :ez-laugh:

BG got some serious hops..Think what Blake would do to Lattin inside...

 

[TINY]

BG got some serious hops..Think what Blake would do to Lattin inside...

Probably the same thing he does to NBA players.

 

[kev]

Sitting here watching Trae Young play right now, and wow. We got something special.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[chuckb]

I saw Trae play with Mokan Elite in the Nike Peach Jam Classic last summer where he did a lot more than score twenty eight points. He dished out an array of impressive assists and used his quick hands and feet to get some clean steals that led to easy points for his teammates.

I get what you're saying about coaching defense at the AAU level. But, judging by what I saw, Trae is not that far from developing into a very good defender. Let's hope I'm right. If he has to be a team leader from the get go, as I believe he will, he will need to lead by example on defense as well as on offense.

I'll admit to not having seen Trae live, but a lot of great high school players aren't good at playing defense with their feet, mostly because they don't have to. They're athletic enough to sit back and bait lesser athletes and then get easy steals simply because they're so much more athletic. Hopefully you're right about Trae. We definitely need him to lead as you say on defense and stay out of foul trouble. If he buys in, he probably can become the defender you say but he's not going to be able to out-athlete everyone he plays against the way he can in HS.

 

[AdaSooner]

I'll admit to not having seen Trae live, but a lot of great high school players aren't good at playing defense with their feet, mostly because they don't have to. They're athletic enough to sit back and bait lesser athletes and then get easy steals simply because they're so much more athletic. Hopefully you're right about Trae. We definitely need him to lead as you say on defense and stay out of foul trouble. If he buys in, he probably can become the defender you say but he's not going to be able to out-athlete everyone he plays against the way he can in HS.

To be clear, I didn't see the game live. I watched it on television, recorded it and watched it again last week after Trae's announcement.

I can't be certain, of course, how what I saw of his defense will translate to the college game? He was playing with and against some of the best players in the country, so it was definitely a better test than it might have been in a Norman North game. I'm also basing my observation on what I saw from his team as a whole. Mokan Elite appeared to be better coached on defense than most AAU teams I have seen.