Gani Lawal Showing Improvement After Rough Start

I think we'll call this the Gani Lawalong weekend.

Over at FanHouse, I broke down Lawal, on assignment from the Phoenix Suns, and his Saturday night game - which was significantly better (at least in the fourth quarter) than his first few D-League outings.

over 1 year ago Scott Schroeder 2 comments 0 recs |

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Great write-up Scott, and thanks for the info.

I understood that Gani was drafted as a hustle/rebounding type, someone who had the potential to fill the vacant Lou Amundson role. I also knew he was very raw and inconsistent offensively. But I watched most of his summer league games, and he showed me glimpses of offensive potential. He just needs time and a good coach to work on it.

But for now, I just want him to work on 3 things: defense, rebounding, and the pick-and-roll. How is he doing in these areas overall from what you’ve seen? Is he still a year or 2 away from cracking the rotation, or could he be that Lou Amundson guy later in the year or early next year?

Anthony Tolliver says "Get that weak stuff outta here!"

EXTEND JASON RICHARDSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

by Omaha Sun on Nov 29, 2010 11:34 PM EST reply actions

Honestly

Pick-and-roll offense was good. His aggressiveness in posting up was good. Other than that, he still needs work in all other areas.

The tough thing about watching a guy in the D-League is you don’t know how his effort is going to be when compared to playing in an NBA game. He really seemed like he didn’t care on defense Saturday, but that could be because he had such issues with fouls the game before and was a bit timid.

The same went with rebounds – when they were there for him, he grabbed them. When he was boxed out or didn’t have a good angle to begin with, he didn’t work to get into better position.

I would be surprised if he’s a rotation player this season, but I think he could be solidly in the rotation next year if he keeps improving.

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by Scott Schroeder on Nov 30, 2010 5:52 PM EST up reply actions

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