...approach and the ball movement stopped when it hit their hands so they could look to go one-on-one. We saw that several times from Nick in the B/W Tip-off and it was pretty noticeable in contrast to the way the rest of the team was playing on offense. In the first half he took three fadeaway 3’s from the bend with defenders in his face with plenty of time left on the shot clock and an open shooter standing in the corner and several other times when he got it on the perimeter he stopped the ball movement so he could try to beat his man one-on-one.

It’s a tough thing to adjust from when you’re used to being your team’s “Kobe”, often times those guys love that limelight too much to be part of an ensemble cast. Kobe refused to give up that mantle and led his team to ruin as a result. I don’t know how well Eric would’ve adjusted to not dominating the ball like he did last year. I actually think a year away from bball might help Nick in that regard. He’ll be a better player overall when he changes his mindset from thinking he’s the next Jimmer and instead desires to play a role on a really good team.