Jermaine Taylor Highlights

2010 March 29
tags:
by rahat huq

I apologize for getting these up so late.  The main thing that stands out in these clips of Jermaine Taylor is the physicality.  On almost every play, he is initiating contact, either on offense or defense, at times getting extremely physical with Kobe Bryant.  The court vision on some of the passes also came as a surprise -- we had not yet seen this from Taylor.  On the downside, while he hit many open 3’s, you can see that there is a bit of an odd, slow release on the jump-shot -- Jermaine probably won’t ever be a guy you can bring off screens for jumpers.

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  • rahat_huq
    Rich - thanks for passing that on. Seems like a fairly high amount of members here are familiar with him from before.

    Jason - that's probably the best comparison for taylor that i have heard of.
  • Jason
    His body reminds me of Jason Richardson. He's an inch shorter in height, 3 inches shorter in wingspan and about 45 degrees less pigeon-toed but he's like Richardson in that he's a great athlete who is in between being short and tall for a swingman. Also like Richardson, he's a limited ball handler and tilts much more as a scorer than playmaker. He's not the versatile shooter that Richardson is though, so in this comparison, he reminds me of a poor man's Jason Richardson. Maybe not a future starter like Richardson but a lesser version who comes off the bench.
  • Rich
    In regards to his awkward shooting motion: This current shooting motion is new to Jermaine. I've known him for many years and he always had a quicker release but his shot never had very much arc to it. Now the shot does look awkward, but has an actual arc. I'm assuming the Rockets coaching staff changed his shooting motion. The reason? I don't know, but it's definately different than everything he did in high school and in college. I'd like to know whether or not the new motion is atually helping his game.
  • tariq
    The thing that surprised me the most was his aggressiveness on defense. Granted, when we're watching him play, its him hustling as much as he can because he hasn't had many opportunities to play. But, if he keeps this up, I will be impressed that he at least plays both ends of the floor. Usually with top-level college scorers, there's a little bit of drop off, or they just cheat a lot for steals. (see: Aubrey Coleman)
  • rahat_huq
    (other than his total lack of a left hand), the defense is the first thing i noticed, most specifically in a game against cleveland where he met the challenge of guarding delonte west, a guy i consider one of the most dangerous post-up guards in our league.
  • rahat_huq
    Easy - Agreed.

    Stephen - Interesting thoughts. However, what I meant by skill was not the actual outcome but the actual tool that produces it: ie brooks is a great scorer because he has elite level quickness, martin is a great scorer because he has the elite-level ability to draw fouls, etc etc. so while we knew taylor was a great college scorer, my question was, what about him specifically was it that they felt would translate over to the pros? many great college scorers don't make it in the NBA because while their well- rounded game allows them to dominate at a lower level, they don't have any NBA-level qualities. someone like miles simon comes to mind. teams usually avoid these players. so the question is, what is it about taylor that made him a great scorer that the team felt would translate? my first impression is the physicality and athleticism.
  • bob schmidt
    Could that quality be the "bull-dog" attitude that Landry and Lowry possess? We may be talking more about an attitude than a specific skill-set that is easily evaluated.
  • rahat_huq
    yeah, that's what i'm thinking per my other post on taylor. how do you quantify that attribute though? i guess you can't. if so, that would be a case that for these stat guys, its not always just numbers as is assumed.

    anyways, what do you guys feel is taylor's upside? i hesitate to say anything for fear of giving way to hyperbole but i've been damn impressed for some time now. i can't believe that with chase, taylor, and hill, we may be looking at a repeat of that draft class of 2007...
  • bob schmidt
    In its own way, it may be something that stat guys can quantify...Call it "energy plays".....Some players make plays solely on their high activity level along with athletic ability...Maybe recognizing players with high energy attributes is a stat guy secret that they don't advertise.

    Taylors upside? Ability to push the game to high speed level and cause mismatches. Plus, easy baskets when the defense doesn't get set quick enough. His release may seem slow, but that might be improved. I don't like the look of Martin's shot, but it works for him. Taylor may be the same way.
  • Stephen
    In your earlier post on Taylor you made the comment he was an anti-Morey player,an athlete w/no special skill. I would disagree in that Taylor's special skill that attracted Morey's attention was/is scoring.
    In college he would routinely get double and triple teamed yet each yr ended up being one of nation's top scorers. He routinely dropped 30 point games in the D-League.
    His shot may be mediocre at best,but he gets points on the scoreboard and that is a skill.
    Taylor mentioned during one of his early meet the press appearances that the Rockets had been following him for a couple of yrs so the Rockets liked what he has to offer.
    During camp and the first few exhibition games his suprising passing ability was mentioned by both coaches and beat writers.
    Put him on a bad team and he'd prob be averaging 15-16ppg(I'm talking Minn especially).

    The question is what will be his role on Rockets? Trade bait? The Luther Head combo role?
    If there's no big trade,Battier,Budinger and Taylor will be fighting for two spots.
  • Easy
    I love how Kobe tried to rough him up early on but he didn't back down.
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