Doesn’t need the ball to be effective, plays winning basketball (Wallace): “Tyson is a great guy to play with because he doesn’t need the ball to be effective. He’s out there getting all the loose balls, a lot of rebounds and loose balls, and he’s got great hands so he catches everything. He finishes great around the basket and he knows his game. He’s not out there trying to shoot 15-20 foot jumpers. He knows his game, he knows it well, and right now he’s probably the best at that – just playing that game within his game and dominating.”
Great hands (Frazier): “(Jeremy) Lin is not thriving in Houston because he doesn’t have a guy who has hands who he can run the pick-and-roll with. The center they have (Omer Asik), his hands are not that good and Lin isn’t living up to expectations because of that.” Translation: Tyson Chandler has strong and sticky hands that would help to make any point guard look that much better.
Can Tyson Chandler become the second player ever to average over 70% for a season?“Well, Wilt Chamberlain did it for a whole season,” said Frazier. “Tyson’s gonna have a tough time doing that.”
Though it was probably the last thing he cared about following a tough loss – “It is one game, but I’m not gonna say I’m OK with any loss, especially with a game like this,” said Chandler – his reaction to challenging Wilt’s shooting percentage record was of the type you’d expect of a player whose singular focus is winning basketball games.
“Any time you’re mentioned in the same sentence as Wilt, it’s a good thing,” he said. “Hopefully I can get it.”
BONUS – Tyson Chandler and CP3 used to run together during their early days in New Orleans… What a filthy pick-and-roll combination that was:
Jeremy Bauman is an aspiring scout and shooting coach. After covering last June’s NBA finals for this site, he’ll be blogging for SheridanHoops.com weekday mornings (and clearly some afternoons) during the 2012-13 basketball season. Follow him on Twitter.