KoreAmBear said:
Big C said:
Sometimes, the Pro Am can be good for players' development. Other times, less so. I could picture this being a good thing for JHD: Maybe he gets to work on his offensive skills in a more "free flowing" environment and can build up some confidence.
Didn't Stephen Domingo light it up at Pro Am right before he came to us?
That was the second best 'past performance does not lead to future success' moment for us. #1 being Nick Vanderlaan his first game for us at the Alaska pre-season tournament. He got like 17 and 11. I don't think he ever did that again in 4 years.
I saw some of Domingo's games in the SF Pro Am. I do remember him making some threes and getting some rebounds, but not particularly 'lighting it up", and he made very few threes at Cal. I was impressed enough to think he could help Cal, and was very disappointed. I should have listened to my cousin who played against him in high school, and he described Domingo as dunking everything, but not much else.
Cal has had several players who played very well in the ProAm and also at Cal like Justin Cobbs and Jabari Bird, and plenty of others in years gone by: Jason Kidd, Randy Duck, Ed Gray, Al Grigsby, Kevin Johnson, Sean Lampley, Mark McNamara, Leon Powe, and Jerome Randle.
One player who fooled me, sort of, was Robert Thurman. I saw him completely outplay Dwight Powell on both ends in one game of the Pro Am, and I came away very impressed. He disappointed at first at Cal. He did improve year by year and become a good contributor at Cal, however, something Domingo did not really do.
Tsubamoto convinced me not to put too much faith in what you see in the Pro Am games. Still it is fun to go to the games, see all the interesting players, and the local fan support from the basketball community.
SFCityBear