Steinmetz blog: Leftovers from a couple days in SLC at NBA..

Leftovers from a couple of days in Salt Lake City at NBA's Rocky
Mountain Revue
POSTED July 23, 2:54 PM


Quick impressions of a two-day Salt Lake City trip:

♦ I bumped into a scout for the New Jersey Nets and presented my
theory that Ryan Anderson might be having trouble adjusting to the
longer 3-point line in the NBA. He assured me that wasn’t the case and
that Anderson actually has prolific range, capable, he said, of going
out to 27-feet.

Shows you what I know.


♦ ♦ Clearly Anthony Morrow has a chance of earning a roster spot. You
can’t ignore his shooting the past three games. He’s 28-for-48 from
the field (.583) and 10-for-14 from 3-point range (.714).

I don’t care if it’s the Rocky Mountain Revue or an empty gym, those
numbers are big-time. The Warriors have tons of players who can shoot
the 3-pointer, but nobody on last year’s roster did it consistently
well.

Morrow was under the radar at Georgia Tech, playing with the likes of
Thaddeus Young and Javaris Crittenton.


♦ ♦ ♦ Word out of Las Vegas was that Robin Lopez looked very good
while playing for the Suns. Apparently Robin was very active, running
the floor well and establishing a defensive presence in the paint.

Brook, on the other hand, didn’t play well against the Warriors on
Monday, and I heard more than one person wonder if when it’s all said
and done Robin may be the better pro.


♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ When I asked one Eastern Conference scout what Marcus Williams
was like, he replied: “Surly.”


♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ Nice to hear that former Warrior (OK, and Bull) B.J.
Armstrong is representing Anthony Randolph. Of all the players I’ve
come across in my 15-plus years around the NBA there are none more
professional than Armstrong.

He knew that in order for him to play in the NBA _ let alone succeed _
he had to dot all his I’s and cross all his T’s. Not only did he take
care of his body, get his rest, eat right, practice hard, etc., I
remember him paying attention to detail.

Armstrong used to have a cup of coffee at a specific time,
approximately 75 minutes before tip-off, then go out and do his
pregame shooting drills. And they were drills _ a specific number of
shots from specific spots for a specific amount of time.

He would then return to the locker room and begin to look over the
scouting report. He had this ritual worked out to the minute and he
rarely strayed from it.

In other words a nice pick by Randolph.