What a game from Luke against the Kings. I really like what Adelman has done and how Luke is showing his ability to adapt and overcome. Ridnour has always been a better than average shooter. What impresses the most is how he has elevated his defensive play. Kudos to Luke!

Judging from other forums I'll assume until proven otherwise that folks here are hesitant to show support for Ridnour.

I'm a recent convert to the Luke bandwagon. He's a fine shooter and he plays hard. As long as he's not your distributor and he's counted on to simply score points, I like him. Glad he's on the team.

daddyfatsax wrote: Yeah, true. I've hated on Puke Ridnour this year but he's actually played pretty stellar. As long as he's not your main PG playing major minutes, then he's ok. I like him playing with Rubio (since we have no SG), so there's not too much to complain about right now. Plus he's a good shooter and has been playing very well of late.

Puke Ridnour. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that your not ignorant, just misled!

daddyfatsax wrote:
agreed. he cant play PG for many min in a game, but when he is along side rubio (maybe jj) he really can score and plays really hard. the fact of the matter is he is a SG.

hoopnuts wrote:
Luke has recently been the only player on the entire team who can consistently hit jump shots. He is earning his money.

Luke is a fine shooter but a poor facilitator. A shot with no passes is never a good shot unless it is 1) an uncontested layup, 2) an uncontested jump shot late in the game where your team needs a bucket and your teammates will forgive you the sin of not passing the ball.

Ridnour shoots way too many pull up jump shots without any of his teammates seeing the ball. This leads to his teammates shooting the ball right away because they are concerned that it might be the last chance in a long time that they actually receive the ball and have a chance to do something positive on offense.

Ricky on the other hand almost always works the ball through at least some of his teammates, even when he takes the ball himself it's been rotated to someone else first so they have a chance to contribute.

I like Luke, but I don't think he understands the psychology of the point guard position that well.

Selfishness breeds selfishness, selflessness breeds winning.

However, as an undersized shooting guard I think he does an excellent job. Not everyone is cut out to be a point guard after all.

I've watched his roll evolve more to the SG since the onset of BJ in Milwaukee. Personally I think an extra ball handler in the back court has helped his game. It will probably translate to an extra year or so on his career. When you are surrounded by confident scorers it's easy to rack up the assists. Winning breeds confidence. I totally disagreed that he is a ball hog and shoots too much. Look at how many games his shot totals averaged around 7-8 attempts. Then look at his shooting %'s. Not including or using Ridnour less in the offensive flow is a losing strategy. Luke seems always aware and never disregards the hot hand. Beasley having to take 20 some shots to score in the teens has been fat we can afford to trim on. And pound for pound he seems to hold his own on defense. Some may disagreed on this board. What I believe are my eyes and comments of his teammates and coach.
"Everybody contributed tonight, especially Luke," Love said. "He's taken the reins of the team while having to defend bigger guards at the two-guard spot. He's going to continue to make us better. He's showing us leadership by leading by example."
“Luke was terrific,” Adelman said,
And on Monday night, there was no need to say anything more."

I like Luke, don't get me wrong.

It's not simply how many shots he takes, though. It's *how* he takes those shots. I'm talking from a coach's perspective here. There are qualitatively good shots and qualitatively bad shots. Kevin Love's 20 shots per game are usually better shots than Michael Beasley's 20 shots per game, to give a simple example.

If your teammates touch the ball and get involved, even in a seemingly insignificant way, they can be 5 passes removed from the bucket but still feel that they contributed to the success of the possession. This builds more effort.

I just don't think Luke really "gets" that about being the primary ball handler on the court. You can't take every good look you get, or even some of them if it doesn't involve rotating the ball through your teammates first. A no-pass pull up is never a good shot unless you NEED a bucket and the game is on the line. Middle of the game? Never a good shot, even if it goes in. Luke shoots those way too much.

Again, he's a very good contributor as a SG, in those instances when he can hang on D. He's also a scrappy competitor which I like.

Also his last game was obviously a really solid game too. I didn't get to watch. I'm glad he's finding a way to log time next to Rubio, it makes those 10 minutes when Rubio's off the court much less painful.

I hear ya on the quick pull ups.

It's great when darko is hitting early, when wes can hit 2 in a row, when Beasley is being what the team needs him to be, when Love is on. But you know that all of those guys struggled at times, some alot more than others. In those cases if I were Ridnour going 5-6 minutes watching poor, missed shots, fumbled passes, TO's I'd be itching to knock a few of my own down, even if it's early in the clock. The PG has got to knock down shots when most all else fails. We've witnessed the lows. Hopefully the culture of increased effort, more ball movement, less whining keeps this train rollin. This a fun and exciting team to watch.

hoopnuts wrote: I was just joking...

Ridnour is a great shooter but has low basketball IQ and his court vision is not so great. If he could learn to catch and shoot he could be pretty stellar.