Hakim Warrick prepared for new season

In today's Commercial Appeal, Grizzlies beat writer Ron Tillery has an article titled "Grizzlies' Warrick ready to run". Here's what Warrick had to say:

"I'm looking forward to this season because I think the opportunity will be there for me. It's going to be an up-tempo system. Coach said he wants us to get out there and run," Warrick said after working out with several teammates last week in FedExForum.

A good, positive article that should get most fans excited about the upcoming season. Be sure to read it if you haven't already.

Edit by Zack (9/17/06, 9:48am)...

I wanted to throw a little bit more out there on Hak.

In particular, two things in the above mentioned Commercial Appeal article caught my eye.

The first was Hak's mention of working on his mid-range game.

"We got a lot of shots up, working on my mid-range game," Warrick said. "I'm trying to become a more polished player from 15 feet."

Something very similar to this was said last offseason about Hak working on his mid-range jumper. Did it help? Yes, I think it did.

In 05/06 Hakim shot 44% from the field (in only 10 mpg). In 06/07 Hak shot 52% from the field in increased minutes of action. From those numbers alone, that shows that Hak's practice paid off.

But there is more to it if one looks at stats provided by 82games.

In 05/06 Hak shot just 27% on what 82games labels as "Jump" shots. Not good. In addition, 16% of those jump shots were blocked (!) and only 37% were assisted.

Compare that to 06/07 where Hak shot 41% on jump shots, with only 4% getting blocked and 61% being assisted.

Looking at the 82games stats, it is easy to see how much Hak improved his mid-range game between his rookie and sophomore campaigns. He almost doubled his percentage of made jump shots. But more important, he got less shots blocked and let the shots come more naturally in the flow of the offense evident by having more be assisted shots.

The next point that raised my interest was Iavaroni mentioning that Hak would be asked to pass more and specifically mentioned the hand-off pass.

"He has to be versatile enough to make that mid-range shot and be a confident passer," Iavaroni said. "He needs to be a confident dribble hand-off guy. That's big in our offense. (Frontcourt players) in our offense have to be able to make decisions."

How well will Hak do given more responsibility passing? I'm not sure. Last year, particularly when Pau was hurt, Hak regularly would shoot almost anytime the ball came his way in the post. On top of that he averaged almost 2 turnovers per game last year.

Being asked to pass more will most likely challenge Hak to raise his overall game, not just his ability to score from inside and out. Keep in mind Griz fans, this is Haks 3rd coach in as many years. If he doesn't immediately show Boris Diaw like passing skills in Iavaroni's system, just be patient. He might just find that next offseason will be devoted more to passing and less on scoring.