Thorpe on Skinner

[fordronken]

http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/chatESPN?event_id=16939

Noah (Santa Monica, CA): How would Brian Skinner do in Phoenix if they can't get PJ Brown?

David Thorpe: (12:02 PM ET ) Good defensively, poorly offensively.

 

[fordronken]

Not too poignant, huh? If that's the case, he may not ever get minutes.

 

[DevonCardsFan]

I think Skinner would fit in with the Suns, he can run the break well and can finish. I mean whats gonna happen when Amare gets in Foul trouble who is gonna get minutes I do not get it??

 

[dodie53]

with steve nash,
a poor offensive player can contribute a bit.

 

[azirish]

Skinner has absolutely no range on his shot, but then against neither did Hunter.

In 2004-05, Hunter took a total of 23 shoots not under the basket and hit only 17% of them. He was good at the basket, hitting 66.3% of his under the basket shots.

Skinner was only slightly better outside the inner circle, at 33% but hit just 53.3% in the circle. He hit 58.1% in circle in 2005-06 and 56.9% in the circle in 2004-05. This may be a function of the offense because Gadzuric shot only 50.5% on the inner circle.

In 2003-04, Hunter shot only 52.9% from the field but that increased to 61.4% with the Suns. Of course, Hunter shot only 47.9% from the line, which limited his effectiveness.

Skinner is only seomwhat better at the line, with a free throw average of 58.2%. Relatively speaking, Hunter was a better shot blocker at 1.34 in 13.8 minutes in 2004-05 compared to Skinner's 0.96 in 22.7 minutes; but Skinner averaged 5.7 rpg in 22.7 minutes (0.251 per minutes) while Hunter averaged 3.0 rpg in 13.8 minutes (0.217 per minutes).

Bottom line? I'd say Skinner could replace what Hunter offered but not what KT offered. IMHO, he'd be a lot more useful than Marks, but I can understand why PJ is still their first choice.