Many of you have e-mailed me a couple articles about Aaron Gray making a big impression with the fans, coaches and possibly starting for the Bulls. Just haven’t had a chance to get to it.
Gray has endeared himself to both by being productive in the exhibitions preseason, but also humble and very self-critical.
“I know I still have a lot to work on. I hear about it every day. If he didn’t care about you, he probably wouldn’t say anything. The important thing is, I’m learning a lot.”
Not that Gray’s head had swelled from that double-double against the Mavericks.
”Maybe my stats [were] OK,” he said immediately after the game, ”but I’m making so many mistakes out there. I have a lot to learn yet, especially defensively. My rotations are so slow.”
That might help explain why Gray fouled out Tuesday — his six personals matching his six points in 16 minutes — in a victory against the Washington Wizards.
Skiles said Thursday he wasn’t surprised that Gray’s self-analysis emphasized the negatives over the positives.
”Those are the guys we like,” Skiles said. ”If not all, most of the guys in the gym are like that.
”For a young guy like him who is big and has a skill set, he’s a quick learner. You can tell that he wants to learn, so we’ll keep teaching him. He may end up being a bigger factor for us than we realize right now. Who knows?”
His production and presence on the court has Bulls Coach Scott Skiles considering Gray to be the fifth starter, forming a twin towers situation with Ben Wallace.
“We liked what happened at the beginning of the game the other night,” Skiles said. “We thought Ben Wallace and Aaron played well together. Ben is a good passer. And he found Aaron once the other night. Ben also knows our offense well.
“We have to decide, balancing both units, do we want a couple of defensive players in the starting lineup or do we want more offense. Aaron has shown—and I think he will in the regular season—that he can score. Do we want to use that to start a game? It’s something we have to think about.
…
The rookie from Pittsburgh has impressed many with his fundamentally sound play and steady development.
Despite fouling out against the Pacers, most infractions coming from poor or slow defensive rotations, he’s averaging 10.8 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.8 fouls in 18 minutes per exhibition. He’s also shooting 61.3 percent in five games.
“The mobility issue, in my mind, is much less a factor even than it was in the summer,” Skiles said. “He’s definitely picked up how we want him to move and where we want him to move to. And because his hands are so good and he’s got a soft touch and his size, it makes up for those issues.”
Gray has become very intriguing to a lot of fans, even as some are reserving judgment and think this as much to do with lighting a fire under some other players.
Matty Rosenberg of Only the Bulls blog sought my thoughts/scouting report on Gray when he was with Pitt. On his site, I also came across this video of Mr. Gray showing his musical stylings.
[Editor Note: For whatever reason, the embed keeps failing. Code is being stripped out after I insert it. It then screws up the rest of the blog, so I just pulled it.]
Okay.
