Learning to Howl: A Buckeye on the Winter Road
I’m here to tell you a story. This story is not about an idea, a world or a place. It’s about a man who’s journey will (hopefully) lead him to be wearing the blue and black next season. This man is Evan Turner.
I know this is early. The draft only ended a few weeks ago and I’m already talking about someone I think the Timberwolves should target for NEXT YEAR’S draft, but this is a special circumstance. As the year goes we may flip flop around, lose and regain our hope that this man is the saviour that we need. But I hope that for now this piece will be informative and interesting to all of you. I hope that you, like me, will fall in love with the Ohio State junior.
Let’s start with the simple. Standing a tall 6-7 with a nice wingspan, the junior weighs in at a decent 205lbs. He’s stayed 3 years (this year will be his junior season) despite rumours that he would have been a lottery pick this year. In the many interviews I’ve seen him do, he’s never once seemed overconfident, cocky, arrogant, self-centred or any of the other nasty traits that seem to inhabit the NBA’s highly paid elite. His on-court play reflects this, with an unselfish and leadership mentality that few players truly master.
Moving on, we come to his stats. Not always a perfect way to evaluate players but in this case Turner’s statistics give a clear example of what he can do on the basketball court.
During his freshman season he averaged a good 27.1 minutes per game. With his time out on the court he played well for his first year averaging 8.5 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.3 steals while shooting 47% from the field, 70% from the line and 33% from beyond the arc. Modest numbers to be sure, but as a freshman he played alongside a numbers of players that were “higher up on the food chain”, such as Kosta Koufos and Jamar Butler.
He improved these stats further in his sophomore season. In 36.4 minutes of action Turner increased his stats per game to 17.3 points (an 8.8ppg difference), 7.1 rebounds (a 2.7rpg increase), 4 assists (a 1.4apg difference) and 1.8 steals (0.5spg increase) while increasing his efficiency by shooting 50% from the floor, 78% from the line and 44% from beyond the arc.
However no player, not even Michael Jordan, is perfect and Turner does have some holes in his game. He shoulders so much of his teams offence that he turned the ball over 3.5 times a game, almost matching his 4 assists although this was an improvement over his freshman year (a 1.12 A/T ratio over a 0.99 one).
He’s also not very confident with his shooting stroke, especially from beyond the arc. Despite shooting 44% from deep he only took 25 shots the entire season, which shows his lack of confidence in his shot.
But I think this is one of his most important aspects; he plays within himself. He doesn’t force the issue like so many younger guys that are seen today. He doesn’t sit around shooting 3s all game when he can get anywhere he wants with his advanced ball handling and physical tools. He doesn’t take a contested lay-up when his big man is rolling to the hole or a shooter is wide open on the wing.
He’s even proved himself on the defensive end, a place where so many young athletes fear to tread nowadays. Always ready for the tough match ups, Turner is not the type to back down and his physical tools and physical nature make him an imposing player to be defended by. With his combination of speed, strength and length he can easily smother any player and this looks to translate very well to the pro game.
Will this man end up in the blue and black? Only time will tell. His unique abilities combined with his outstanding personality and work ethic look to make him a natural candidate for the type of players David Kahn has shown interest in, such as recent draftees Johnny Flynn and Wayne Ellington. Wherever he ends up, I hope you’ll join me in watching Ohio State take the next step with him at the helm.
Shangrila
