Hoops

Dante Exum disappoints in open practice scrimmage

Would be much worse in a bigger market.

Utah people are a lot more tolerant than others

Don't think anyone is calling Exum a bust.

We all know his potential.

I just think there is a general consensus that he went high based on what comp he played in.

I have seen alot of kids come out of the AIs with funny techniques/poor shooting.

My theory is this:

The kids go in every a.m and get shots up with that shooting machine that rebounds and passes the ball back out. They are unsupervised and the aim is volume of shots i.e. get as many as you can up.

Without supervision and with the focus on volume they develop poor habits. as they shoot.more and more with those bad habits it becomes ingrained.

Maybe this happened to someone like Delly who has a release from his chest. Did he develop that at the AIS. Not such an issue with him though as he is lights out

Really! Not a fan of the heading on this post, so subjective and without a real understanding of what an opening pre season session is all about.

Hi hits one or two of those shots and it all changes does it? He will be fine, those who know something will be there to guide him and the rest will take care of itself in time, which is what he has in spades...

Some_Fulla,

Smart matched up with Exum directly 6 or so times

Exum turned it over 4 times and the other time he was denied.

But chill im on your side. Exum will be a good player and has the potential to be a very high calibre all star.

Unfortunately the FIBA comp is all we have to work on and im simply.commenting on what i saw from his matchup with a guy who went a fewspots behind him.

I'm with others who really have no idea how he went so high, but there's no doubting his natural ability and other non-shooting skills that he's impressed with, and as long as the coach is happy and understands his likely progression (from interviews it seems he does) then I think the only people that have expectations too high are fans that think he's the second coming...

For that they're going to have to wait for Simmons, I think... Now THAT kid is a beast...

Some_Fulla,

Go to youtube.com and watch Dante Exum vs Team USA U19.

Smart made him like second rate. Exum had 4 turnovers in just 11 mins..all of those were strips/result of pressure from Smart.

I counted numerous times in the video where he denied Exum from getting the ball and Exum didnt want it (because he didnt want to get striped) - for me that was an early indication that he isnt a natural PG.

But Smart is an absolute beast defensively. I havent seen a PG play D like that since The Glove Gary Payton.

Exum had little trouble against Payton. Payton fouled him a bit and couldnt keep him in front.

But yes Some_Fulla, Smart tore him to shreds IMO. Dont have to score 30 on someone to tear them up. Theres a whole other side to bball called defense and Smart eliminated Exum from the game defensively and it got to the point where Exum didnt want to handle the pill.

But as above there is no disrespect to Exum..Smart is the new glove

So so far some are saying his shooting has always been a problem and his ball handling needs work, these are his deficiencies as a PG. What the hell did they do with him at the AIS all those years, and if these are his deficiencies then why has he ranked so high, surely these are main requirements for a PG. Think his PR management have over marketed this kid way too much.

He will struggle a lot in year 1 i think.

I am still trying to figure out how/why he went so high (regardless of what he done today). 5th pick is exceptionally high for a guy who hadn't played in any real competition - he scored 16 pts in the 'glorified pickup game' that is the Hoop Summit and had a nice WC but Smart tore him to shreds as a PG against Team USA.

The concern is that people knew his shooting was a concern and this doesn't help that. Unfortunately, they were really bad misses as well.

He will be a good player I think. Nonetheless he went to too high IMO.

I think the whole ' 6"6 PG thing helped him as well". He was marketed as that and certainly from the recent success of Carter-Williams they raised his stock. In reality he is (at this stage) a 6"6 SG without a J.

I know he will do some work in the league one day though. Will just have to be patient.

And this is the exact reason why I think too much too soon, he's still a kid and all this negative stuff could damage the huge potential he has, he would have been better going to college, may not have had the huge money but it would come to him in the end. Just hope these huge expectations that are going to be placed on him are not going to destroy him, poor kid hope his patents are there to keep him grounded.

lol... great to see all the focus on his really shocking shooting in the comments and not the understanding about how well he did with everything else (based on Trey Burke and Coaches comments). Plus not having played proper games for so long and having trained so hard and nerves on top of everything, he's gonna have some rough shooting until he gets his legs under him properly... Get proper match fit, it's not just for players that ate too much cake in the off season...

If he still can't shoot by the end of the season, sure, lay the criticism out, but jumping to this straight away is premature... I think nearly everyone else is expecting more from him since he went #5 but the Jazz know that he's not going to be a starter on their team straight away but he has so much more upside down the track and it will totally be worth the pay off...