NBA Celebrating Its "Remarkable" Rookie: Darren Collison
by Nestor on Feb 24, 2010 6:25 PM PST
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PrintBob Licht on NBA.com notes how our DC has emerged as one of the most remarkable "rookies" during this NBA season. The classic Ben Ball warrior has teamed up with Marcus Thornton to become "the most talked about rookie tandem in the NBA." From NBA.com:
Collison, the 21st pick in last June's point guard-dominated draft, has opened up eyes all around the NBA for the phenomenal job he's done "filling in" for CP3. He's recorded three double doubles, one triple double, scored 20 or more points seven times, broken Paul's franchise rookie record with 18 assists, and helped the Hornets go 9-9 in his first 18 starts. Over a six game stretch in mid-February the 6-foot, 160 pound rookie hardly played like a part timer, matching Paul's scoring average (24.0 ppg) in the seven games prior to his left knee injury.
The evolution of "DC" from limited play off the bench to major contributor may have never occurred this season had star Chris Paul not suffered two separate injuries. In Jeff Bower's head coaching debut, Friday, November 13th, CP suffered a severely sprained left ankle. In his first extended minutes as a pro Collison nearly led the Hornets to victory, scoring 18 points along with two assists in 26 minutes off the bench. The next day he made his first NBA start at Atlanta, scored 10 points and hit double figures in every game he played for Paul (including his first 20 point effort in Los Angeles against the Lakers). New Orleans split his first eight starts.
The second Paul injury occurred during an overtime loss at home against Chicago on January 29th. This time it was a left knee issue that required surgery and forced the three-time all star out of the lineup for 4-6 weeks. What Collison has done since that fateful day is making believers out of every opposing point guard who thought they were about to take advantage of the Hornets youngest player. The 22-year-old from UCLA has led New Orleans to surprising wins over Charlotte, Boston, and Houston (all playoff contenders) and has now scored 17+ points in his last seven games, including 20 or more in 5 of 6. His surprising production has been a byproduct of an uncanny display of composure, especially in light of the current playoff race the Hornets are involved in.
Read rest of the piece here. Amazing what happens when a kid decides to stay his entire four years in college.
GO BRUINS.
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Couldn't agree with you more
Nestor. What sooo many impatient young b-ballers forget is that it is not to make the NBA, but to STAY in the NBA. That combined with the fact that a college has given you an opportunity to make that transition ( oh and provide an education that will serve you alot longer than the ave. NBA career ), You would like to see a little more humility / loyalty in some ot these guys. But that seems to be a problem with many, not just college kids.
Other than Ryan Hollins scoring 18 points tonight, Collison has been the best story in the NBA this year.
I was very surprised reading this in the article: “Thornton may be an even more amazing story…” That’s absolutely inane imo. Poor Collison plays like CP3 and he still doesn’t get the respect his game deserves.
Quit making the theiving Wall Street Fat-Cat Bankers even richer.
moveyourmoney.info
Title should be "Its", not "It's"
Not to nitpick, but should be “Its remarkable rookie”. Good to read about DC doing well.
In no way were we creative or original
and I don’t think that it came from us whatsoever, but I love seeing him referred to as DC.
For everything UCLA baseball, visit my UCLA baseball twitter.
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Feb 24, 2010 8:20 PM PST reply actions
Good for DC
I thought he would be doomed to obscurity playing behind Chris Paul, but as luck would have it, he has granted the opportunity to show what he can do. I imagine he is going to be a highly sought after commodity when his rookie contract is up. I can’t think of anyone more deserving.
The best thing you can do for your children is to love their mother. John Wooden
Maybe even before that
Hornets may look to “sell high” and bring CP3 some help via trade. That’s the luxury the Hornets have with the best PG in the league on their roster. It could potentially be a good deal for both DC and the Hornets.
Awesome. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy
Look who’s atop the “Rookie Watch: Who’s Hot?” (with his pic front and center)
Captioned: “Chris Paul’s injury has been a blessing in disguise with Darren Collison stepping up big for the Hornets.”
1. Darren Collison, Hornets | Rookie card
If I told you that the starting point guard for New Orleans is averaging 20.8 points, 8.9 assists, 4.4 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game this month, you probably wouldn’t be surprised because the Hornets have the game’s best point guard in Chris Paul. But those are Collison’s numbers, of course, in place of the injured Paul.
The rookie has scored 22 or more points in five of the Hornets’ past six games and added at least nine assists in each of those high-scoring games. In the other game, he scored 18 points and handed out 12 assists. He has been productive while also playing great in the clutch.
He’s not in CP3’s league — in that six-game span, he had 35 turnovers — but for a point guard who is being asked to do so much, the Hornets can live with that. My favorite part of watching the Hornets play is during timeouts, when Collison gets counseled by Paul.
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/insider/columns/story?columnist=thorpe_david&page=Rookies-100224
This is only a pleasant surprise because of the way DC
was shackled offensively in CBH’s slow-down system and when he got “schooled” against Memphis. IIRC correctly before then DC was uniformly considered the best PG in college basketball.
Of course, we Bruin fans knew just how great he was by getting to watch him for four years at UCLA. He is such a class kid. Great to see dreams come true for a fabulous young man of high character.
IIRC
he was never uniformly considered the best PG in college basketball. So one of us is not RC.
by britishbruin on Feb 24, 2010 10:59 PM PST up reply actions
Would be pretty hard to get a consensus on that
Rose’s game against us was not an aberration; he was a beast all season long and was getting plenty of recognition for it. The ACC/BSPN hype machine would have also undoubtedly had something to say about “best PG in the country” with Lawson at UNC.
well, he was a preseason first team all-american
so that says something.
Bruins Forever
by bruinsince69 on Feb 25, 2010 8:40 AM PST up reply actions
Looks like CBH knew what he was doing
There is a lot of fair criticism of CBH lately, but one that never made any sense to me was that RW or JH should be playing point over DC.** Sure RW is definitely holding his own, but there isn’t much pressure on him with Durant carrying much of the OKC load. JH is playing ok for a terrible team. DC on the other hand has emerged as the best (with no CP3) player on a near playoff team. I really don’t know what New Orleans is going to do when CP3 comes back. Its never a good sign when your second best player is your backup point guard.
**That isn’t to say that CBH could have better shuffled people around on defense (Rose).
was the argument that either of those guys was a better point?
I thought the argument was that DC – with his superior outside shot – could have been a better 2 guard than those guys and/or balanced the team better (e.g. JH might have been less deferential if he was playing point with DC at the 2, compared with the other way round; and RW penetrating and kicking to DC for the shot might be a better way round than DC penetrating and kicking to RW).
If people were arguing that DC wasn’t the best point guard of the three, that was madness.
by britishbruin on Feb 24, 2010 11:05 PM PST up reply actions
I understood the part of the argument was
that JH wanted the point, and DC should move both because he was a better shooter and to keep JH happy (or maybe to get what CBH promised.)
by 75NatChamps on Feb 24, 2010 11:20 PM PST up reply actions
I think it's also a matter of familiarity with the offense
The 2 guard is the guy that has to work through the maze of picks and get to the open spot at just the right time. I would have trusted the veteran DC to better utilize those picks over Holiday.
Agreed
I was one of those asking for DC to play the two offensively at times. CBH’s offense runs the shooting guard through a ton of screens and gives him plenty of opportunities to shoot open jumpers. In addition to being a better shooter than JH, DC knew the offense better and could free lance when necessary to adjust to defensive adjustments. When AA was getting things done at the two, you would see him veer away from the offensive occasionally to beat a defensive adjustment. DC could have done that too, but JH couldn’t. Putting JH on the ball, where he was more comfortable, was just an added bonus to me.
For everything UCLA baseball, visit my UCLA baseball twitter.
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Feb 25, 2010 1:20 AM PST up reply actions
And the year before that
RW was great at getting to the rim, but he didn’t have much in terms of a jump shot in a year that DC was >50% from beyond the arc IIRC.
That would have been an interesting switch – and if noting else, thrown the opponents off guard
I remember one particular play that said it all about AA's heads up off ball play
I saw AA sprinting through another classic CBH double baseline screen, but you could see the second defender overplaying the lane, trying to beat AA to the spot to come up with the steal. AA pivots in mid sprint and takes two steps to get to the corner three instead, leaving the cheating defender in no mans land, and with a perfect lob pass (probably from JF or DC), AA cans the wide open corner 3.
IIRC the circumstances around that was early in the second half of the FF game against LSU, where we were up big, but I was praying we would put it away quickly. If that was the shot I remember it being, that was a huge statement to LSU; a statement which was then given voice later in the game with JF’s “We are F*cking Killing You” taunt at LSU’s bench. Not our classiest moment, but he was figuratively accurate.
poncho I agree with you mostly
The argument I was making last season was not play Holiday exclusively at the 1 but to mix it up and shift DC to 2 at certain stretches during the game. My thought behind that was not just to use Holiday’s potential as a pg, but more importantly set DC up for outside shots as he was one of the best 3 pt. shooters in the country. Otherwise, I completely agree that DC was our unquestioned starting pg.
Understood
I always understood the argument that DC could be a more capable shooting guard than RW or JH in addition to being a better point guard. In my opinion, DC is the type of player who needs the ball in his hands to be effective, but he is going to have to learn to play off the ball when CP3 comes back. Amazingly, JH is shooting a respectable 37% from 3 this year while RW is down at (yikes) 24%. If RW ever gets a jumpshot down, he will very quickly become one of the top 5 point guards in the NBA. DC doesn’t have as high of a ceiling as RW or JH, but I think what a lot of people are “surprised” by is that how good DC already is, regardless of how much better he can get.
by bruinponcho on Feb 25, 2010 11:02 AM PST up reply actions
And Draft Position Was Dictated By Projected Ceilings
The 76ers gambled that JH will mature into a star, perhaps maturing into a Baron Davis. After watching him for a full season, I woudn’t have made the gamble that they made. In comparison, DC was a known quantity with perceived defensive limitations due to his size. His shot also has a very slow release. Ironically, with all the big bodies in the NBA and the help defense that they play, team defense can hide much of DC’s size deficiencies. I absolutely love his game, and hope he can keep shining in the NBA.
It always boggled my mind that the draft predictions and actual draft positions of JH and DC were so out of whack with all of the available data. The draft slots of those two is a microcosm of everything that is wrong with the NAB. A proven four year UCLA starter that played in three final fours with proven statistics playing the same position being drafted far behind a one year, all hype freshman with generally disappointing college numbers and never even played his NBA-destined position. What the crap, NBA GMs?
Good for DC
I just wished he could have played a little better in some of the tournament games he struggled in…
"Success is never final, Failure is never fatal. It's Courage that count's"
John Wooden.....
IMO
I understand where you’re coming from, but that may be unfair to DC. He gave us everything he had—much of the time against bigger, more physical opponents. I believe Coach Wooden would say that we couldn’t ask for anything more than that.
by truebluebruin on Feb 25, 2010 8:59 AM PST up reply actions
true but
he’s playing against some pretty big & physical players in the NBA? hey he’s a bruin and i’m happy to see him doing so well!
"Success is never final, Failure is never fatal. It's Courage that count's"
John Wooden.....
You make a good point but
It’s nice to practice day in and day out against the world’s best point guard. Also, having that role model share your body type must provide invaluable experience (especially learning from him how to attack and defend bigger PGs). Too bad we didn’t have CP3 in our program while Darren was here. No matter, I share your joy for DC’s success.
by truebluebruin on Feb 25, 2010 2:26 PM PST up reply actions
If you could have combined DC's defensive toughness, shooting ability, and overall quickness...
… with JF’s ballhandling (sorry, but DC couldn’t split the double like JF), finishing ability, and physical frame…
Dayum.
"In this program your passion bucket must be full to play SC." -- CRN, to Dan Patrick, 1/2008
JF
is still pretty skinny for an NBA guard. I’d combine DC’s quickness and brains with OJ Mayo’s body.
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