A few note on Alando
Wisconsin fan here. Here are a few thoughts on Alando.
Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan always has several glue guys who focus on defense and rebounding, so that his best offensive players can focus more on offense to stay out of foul trouble. When Alando was a freshman, we had Devin Harris and Kirk Penney to carry the offense, so Alando was a guy who crashed the boards and played hard-nosed defense, and was surprisingly effective playing PF at 6'5". When he became our stud offensive player, he did less of the dirty work, not because of lack of effort, but because that is what the coach asked him to do. He averaged just 1.3 fouls the last three years because our coach never wanted to see our stud offensive player sitting on the bench due to fouls. When he was matched up with a top rate player late in the year, you would see him transform into a very good defender. Starting out in the NBA, I would expect him to go back to being more of a dirty work player if that is what your coach wants him to do. I don't think he can defend the PG position, but I think he will do alright defending the 2 or 3 position.
Alando came to college with a very flat jump shot. Every off-season he would work on getting a little more arc on his shot, but it seemed to revert back to the flat shot once the season got underway. This last year, his form looked better, but the results were mixed. Alando is a guy who knows what he needs to do to improve and will work hard at it. I think the results will come if he works with a good shot doctor.
Alando is still at his best operating in the paint. That will obviously be harder in the NBA than in college, but he has all kinds of dipsy-do moves that he uses against bigger players. This year Brian Butch broke his elbow late in the year, and that allowed teams to pack the paint more than ever, since Butch was a guy who could stretch the defense. Teams were triple-teaming Tucker down the stretch, so take that into consideration when you look at his stats this past year.
Wisconsin runs a half court system, so Alando didn't get many fast-break opportunities, but he was very effective when he did get the chance to run. I would expect to see him really shine in your system, and I think people will see a very different player than what they saw watching Wisconsin play the last couple of years. Alando is an adaptable, coachable player who will do what the team asks him to do.
As a soph. Alando had to redshirt because he broke his foot. When the team was at the first round NCAA game, one of the boosters went up to his room that was on the same floor as the team and he saw Alando sitting on a chair by the elevator. He asked Alando "what are you doing?" and Alando said he was making sure that nobody went out and no girls were coming in. Here he was at age 19 playing enforcer over older guys like Devin Harris. He was also the guy who would make his teammate get up at 6:00 AM in the summer to go to the gym.
