From: tamada@cheshire.oxy.edu (Michael K. Tamada)
Subject: Eddie Johnson and Benoit Benjamin (was Re: Doug Christie)
Organization: Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA 90041 USA.
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1993 23:36:47 GMT

In article <1im86gINNlo0@sumax.seattleu.edu> davidy@sumax.seattleu.edu (Stimpson J. Cat) writes:

>	It is true that EJ has some ability to drive to the hoop and finish
>with some interesting one-handed running shots, creating with his own
>dribble, but this really didn't become evident before last year. Whether this
>is new for EJ, I can't say not having watched him his whole career. But, it
>is something "new" over the last four or five years. However, EJ is still best 
>shooting off screens and picks. He still operates best spotting up for
>open jumpers and catching and shooting, rather than creating his own shot
>with the dribble. I would have to say, if a team wanted to take away his 
>dribble, they could do it fairly easily, EJ's not a great ball handler, whereas
>Pierce has the knack of plowing into the paint and getting the shot off and/or
>drawing a foul.

    Actually, what I was thinking of wasn't EJ's and Pierce's driving ability,
or ability to get the ball 30+ feet from the basket and get two points out
of it.  As far as driving goes, I agree that EJ is not great.
    Instead, I was thinking of the following situation:  EJ or 
Pierce getting the ball, say 25 feet from the basket or closer.  They
may have a defender right in their face.  If hot, EJ just like Pierce
has the ability to get a shot off that has a decent chance of going in.
While Pierce likes to square up and use his strength and jumping ability
(although he'll take drifting, off balance shots too if necessary), EJ
will give some head-and-shoulders fakes and pump fakes and is as likely
to shoot AROUND the defender or UNDER the defender's arms as to try
to shoot over him.
     To me this makes him the spitting image of Fred Brown, who like EJ
was a streaky shooter, had virtually unlimited range when hot, and who
relied on fakes to get the defender off balance before shooting a 
twisting, off-balance shot.
     It was the Portland playoff series two years ago that revealed this to 
me; I'd never watched EJ closely when he was with KC and Phoenix so I
didn't know too much about him.  The Sonics surprised everyone 
by taking the Blazers to the limit, and most of the games 
were close.  I think it was EJ more than anyone who kept the series close;
he was hot and when he's hot, no one, not even the Blazers, is going to
stop him.  (Pierce, in my recollection, had a poor series.)
     Anyway, if we're talking about 30 feet plus from the basket, then
EJ cannot create his own shot.  But if he's 25 feet on in, and hot,
then all you have to do is give him the ball and let him shoot it.  It
doesn't matter if he's got a defender draped all over him, he'll shoot
it anyway and make it.

>Still, with regard to Benjamin, my feeling is if Portland can find
>27 minutes a game for Kevin Duckworth, Seattle can find 20-25 minutes for
>Benjamin. If you've seen some of his boxscores the last few weeks, (not counting
>the ones he was out with injury) the minute totals are ridiculous - 7 minutes
>against the T-Wolves, 5 minutes against Golden State. Whatever one thinks of
>Benjamin's skills, that seems awfully low to me.

     One difference though between Portland and Seattle is that Portland
doesn't have a lot of choice in playing Duckworth.  Cliff Robinson and I
imagine Buck Wiliams see some time at center, but even between the two
of them the Blazers need someone else to play some major minutes at center.
So they play Duckworth.  The Sonics have the luxury of having Cage and 
Kemp around to play the middle, even though neither of them are true 
centers they can do the job; and the Sonics still have McKey, EJ, and
Askew to man the forward positions.
    On the other hand I agree with David Yee that it seems that the
Sonics could use Benjamin more.  
     Interestingly, Mark Eaton's been playing maybe 10 minutes a game
at best for the Jazz -- maybe it's an injury, but maybe the Jazz like
the Sonics have decided to put their bulky shotblocker on the bench
in favor of a smaller lineup.
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