Don't hafta ask me twice. I posted previously that our current sophomore class is a "core class" ---- the kind that can lead to a championship: Theo is a "secret weapon" who, even when he is forced to play out of position, goes at it with irrepressible energy. Huge cog in the machine.
Pinson posse, I am on it big time !
I love watching the kid play, so much energy, he effects his team mates in a positive way, they seem to feed off his energy at times. Now a couple things I have noticed, first, I am a little worried at his defensive play this season but you have to realize that he is really a wing trying to play the 2, the 2 just is not his natural position, it wasn't JPs either. But you have to have Justin out there so the only other option to get Theo solid PT, especially while Marcus is out, is to have him at the 2. he has struggled some against those quicker 2 guards, specifically staying in front of them on the dribble drives.
You have to realize, Theo didn't have an off season to be able to work and develope physically, where he is right now is virtually a continuation of his freshman season and maybe a little less than that. I say maybe less because rather than tuning up he spend the off season on the shelf, his conditioning had to suffer from that and you need your legs when you are trying to guard those quicker 2 guards. I have noticed he is not as lock down a defender as I saw him at times last season and he is logging many more minutes per game than he did at any point of last season. I am telling ya, these are huge factors the kid is having to play thru, kinda amazing considering how much he has given this team so far this season, better is coming from Theo, take that to the bank. Also notice, Theo seemed to struggle more defensively during this road trip than he did the first couple games, if your stamina is not there yet it will show more when you have to travel than at home, travel tends to wear on you a little bit, how do you feel when you fly from the east coast to the mid west compared to a car ride to work from home.
Now his much discussed shooting stroke, yeah, I talked about this last season, love the kid but that shooting stroke is butt ugly. He actually has a different release depending on where he shoots the ball from, his preferred shot seems to be the foul line extended beyond the arch where he can get his whole body in to the shot. Yeah, that shot is ugly and inconsistent but I tell ya what Theo has that great shooters have, that JP never had, he has feel for the shot and he takes it with confidence. I don't care what a shot looks like, if a kid has that feel for the shot it stands much more chance of going in than a kid that has great form but no feel. You can work on mechanics to develope solid form but feel for shooting, well God has to give that to you at birth, some have it, most never will. It is hard to improve form a ton during the season, it takers those thousands of jump shots one after the other in the off season to really work on the shooting form but I do expect to see things like his form be repeatable from where ever he shoots by mid to late this season. Again, the kid was not able to put up those thousands of jumpers during this last off season, I can not stress that enough.
By the way, thou he harped on it Dakich was right, Theo does have a bad habit of falling away on his jump shots, he is near falling down backwards on his landings, has to learn to catch, square, go straight up on balance and you will know when he does because he will not be falling backwards when he lands and you will not see him air ball and his release will be quicker. At least we know the kid can hit a fall away when he has to cause that is mostly what he does on his jumpers right now.
