Imagine if we had a big 4 of Tyreke Evans, Javale McGee, Goran Dragic and Brook Lopez. Dayum. Morey is so dumb.
Tyreke Evans got comfortable. He takes plays off. You can see how good he is when he wants to play. It's like he's unguardable at times, but then he get's careless and lazy. I was big on him, especially since I saw him play at UH when he came during the Memphis game. Consistency is what divides the role players of the NBA from the stars. I think almost any rotational NBA player can have their moments of greatness.
What he learned in his rookie season is that it's easy to look good in highlights, not play hard all the time and not pay attention to the team around him. Players like Wade or Harden - they're able to put up points and play hard and look good in highlights and treat their team with respect. Evans has never been able to do both, like many players before him. Having said that, I think his maturity has taken a real step up the past two seasons and he's learning how to adapt. Would love to have him off the bench backing up the 1, 2 and 3.
In terms of talent and skills, I see him as Steve Francis 2.0. He did mature a bit recently and seems to have been playing smarter and less selfish.
He was not as talented as Steve Francis. Geez, you would think a Rockets fan would be more familiar with Steve Francis.
He is still a very good talent -- one of the best in the NBA at getting to the rim at will and a good defender. I'm afraid that the repeated injuries have slowed him down a bit though. If he stays healthy and improves his jumper even slightly, he is going to do great. I wouldn't mind taking this "wasted talent" at $11mil per season.
He runs a lot of isos, like Harden , Lebron etc.....but unlike them he's kind of mediocre at producing points out of them: http://stats.nba.com/playtype/#!/isolation/?dir=1&PT=player&OD=offensive
He's still very good. He put up 20 - 5 - 6 his rookie season on the Kings that sucked and had no talent. This year he put up 16.5 - 5 - 6.5 on a playoff team, the Pelicans with Davis, Holiday, Gordon etc on the roster. Sure he's not the next Jordan, but he's still a borderline all star talent at the age of 25, still room for improvement. I think the mix of having inflated stats on a ****ty team his rookie season, and being drafted and playing for an organization like the Kings for 5 years kind of screwed him. I think he has potential to make the all star game still if he continues improving, solid player.
I think you guys are being way too harsh on him. Qauilty coaching and playing in meaningful games has a huge impact on player development. I think its safe to say he got neither in his years in Sac and just tasted a bit of that this year in the NO. He was a huge contributor for them last year and will likely take another step in development with Gentry as the coach. 16ppg 6apg and 5rpg is nothing to sneeze at. I agree he needs to improve his three point stroke and cut out the long twos but he is a net positive on the court for sure.
He's not a bad player he's just not nearly as good as he thinks he is or relative to the way he plays. His ISO heavy game is basically the perimeter version of Dwight Howard post-ups (and about as efficient, .74 ppp vs. .80). Seems like a good idea...but...no.
Tyreke doesn't draw fouls that well (getting worse - was ok at the start), which is perhaps Harden's greatest skill. Tyreke also has become a worse finisher - not that great of a finisher now.
Lots of people come into the league with ridiculous talent, for example Steph Marbury could have been Westbrook before WB,JR Smith could have been Kobe, Gay could have been T-Mac, T-mac could have been Lebron and Rasheed Wallace had as much or even more talent than Tim Duncan. In Tyreke's case I think he got babied too much in Sacramento, their coach wanted him to win ROY no matter what so in his rookie year Reke was encouraged to be a black hole so he can average 20-5-5 and I don't think he got over that, instead of working on his game like James Harden (check out Harden's stats his rookie year he was a scrub) he went the Melo/Rudy Gay route and just relied on his natural ability over the years. If he had played for a coach that forced him to work on his J and had him meet contact head on instead of avoiding it like Melo/Gay he would've been a star, now that he's getting old I think he's starting to fall off the map.
Apparently being the 2nd best player on a team that made the playoffs in the West is considered wasted talent nowadays. Tyreke is a great ball distributor, above average defender. True he could be amazing but he's by no means a bust. Let's see what Alvin Gentry can do though. I imagine he's the exact type of coach who could move Tyreke in the right direction.
I remember watching the Memphis game @ UH. As soon as the ball came into his hands after a rebound, he would sprint down the court. Some sick layup skills, for sure. Though, he lacks a mid-range or 3pt jumper.
