Watching Andrea Bargnani's career is like riding on a roller coaster. He was advertised as a new Dirk Novitzky and drafted first overall by Toronto Raptors. His numbers were not huge in his first year: 11.6 PPG, 3.9 RPG in 25 minutes. Not very impressive for a 7 footer, but not very bad, either. Everybody expected him to improve in his second year, but he disappointed - 10.2 PPG, 3.7 RPG wasn't exactly what we expected. He was abused by other centers, afraid of driving to the rim, just waiting on the perimeter to shoot a trey.
His third year started like a yo-yo: 0, 19, 0, 12 points... Until Jermaine O'Neal got sidelined with an injury, and Andrea had to grow up or be doomed to be a bust forever. So he stopped shaving and started scoring. The three pointers were finally going through the net, but the imprint of his feet was partially removed from the perimeter, when Andrea discovered, that he is big enough to drive to the hole. The rebounds also slowly started falling into his outstretched arms.
He was recently offered an extension worth 50 mln over 5 years. It might me an amazing deal or 'what the fuck' deal, depending on Il Mago himself - he will have to take into consideration if he wants to regress or shoot the lights out on pick-and-rolls with Hedo Turkoglu. I think he's gonna continue the progress - he seems to have gained a little more self confidence in the second half of previous season.
Advantages:
- Shooting. How are you gonna defend a center who can throw a dagger from nearly every place in the court?
- Size. 7 feet is pretty big. Like, he can use your head as a beer stool, big. If he continues bulking up, he might be pretty an unstoppable force, while driving. Remember, when he send Vince Carter flying? Vince isn't a midget himself, but this looked like Andrea kicked a puppy. Also, when you're 7 feet tall, some rebounds are simply bound to fall into your lap.
Disadvantages:
- Still not rebounding as much as you would expect from your starting center, and not enough altering shots. Study, where the ball goes, it's physics.
- A little too much harrased by smaller centers and power forwards. Stand your ground, son. If you don't, people might call you, you know, soft.
- Driving, driving, driving. See that painted area? Yeah, that one near the basket. Visit it more often. And you can close your mouth now.
I met Andrea once on the meet & greet. He looked kinda scared of people, which was astonishing with his size. Hope, he won't be scared or shy anymore. Gotta train this self-confidence.
The offseason hits with a full force, not much news, no games to watch. To kill the waiting I decided to evaluate the players in my spare time. Here's the first one, next will be following soon.
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