actually hurt tyreke. it’s a little known fact that he was a 50% 3pt shooter every year of high school play since the 7th grade. from 9th -12th grade tyreke scored over 3,300 points. at least half were off jump shots. he was actually more of a shooter than slasher. the same people who bashed his shooting after a down year at memphis were the same ones who praised his shooting going into college. cal ran an offense that called for the ball handler to attack the basket in search of his own shot first. if you don’t get a good look, you then kick it out and the next player does the same thing. this style leads to more turnovers and less ast than most offenses. for instance, rose only avg 4.7 ast with 2.7to and that was while playing in the same back court of a first team all american. tyreke was a better play maker before he went to memphis. his junior year of high school he avg 9 ast and his sr year he avg 6ast despite starting with 3 other highly recruited pg’s in the lineup. playing at memphis help his attacking the basket but, it hurt his play making ability. tyreke only struggled off the ball because playing the point was all he knew. it’s not like in jrue holiday’s case who has NEVER played the point in high school or aau and then struggled in college. (which makes me ask why holiday was considered a pg and tyreke wasn’t especially since tyreke is the one who had any experience playing the point in high school or college.) if drose was asked to play sg he’d struggle so why wouldn’t tyreke ?. cal also hurt his confidence in his jumper, which tyreke mentioned pre-draft. whenever tyreke would shoot a jumper instead of driving, he’d get pulled immediately. tyreke couldn’t shoot without looking over his should to see if he’d be subbed. give him time, it will pay dividends. i’ve been watching tyreke since his first high school game (as a 7th grader) when he scored 27 pts on loul deng. (deng was the number 2 sr. in the country behind lebron.) i’ve also coached against him in a few aau tournaments and trust me, he is a special player. the dwade comparisons are legit. to be honest, he’d mop the floor with a 19 yr. old wade. btw i’m a lakers fan. but because i’m a fan tyreke’s, i will root for you guys all year except for a certain 4 games of course.
p.s. don’t worry about jennings stripping tyreke, they’ve been playing since tyreke’s team beat jennings’ at the 14 & under aau nationals and that’s the first time that’s happened. in fact, tyreke floored jennings a few times while they worked out for minnesota last month.