Ed Davis: Good in Games, Coasts in Practice?

[Built Ford Tough]

At least according to the completely unreliable Doug Smith:

 

What do we know about him? Well, the consensus I’m getting from a bunch of people is that he’s skilled defensively, raw offensively and has a tendency to coast in practice a bit but show stuff in games.

 

That’s probably a dangerous situation for a young guy who needs to learn good practice habits because that’s where you hone skills but as one guy told me walking out of the gym yesterday:

 

“He’s going to surprise some people in games.”

 

I got a sense from a couple of people that they’d like to see him surprise some people in practice, too, but he did spend a fair amount of time working individually with Alex English after practice Monday and if he can glean anything from that Hall of Famer, it’s a good thing.

 

But I warn you: This is a 21-year-old kid who’s played a handful summer league games and two D League games since last February and to expect much out of him is to set yourself up for disappointment.

 

http://thestar.blogs.com/raptors/2010/12/d-league-lessons-and-where-to-chow-down.html

 

I obviously can't comment on his practice habits considering I don't see them, but it seems like a lot of the time whenever a Raptor player is really laid back and has a calm demeanor, he gets labeled as somebody who "coasts" in practice. I remember this was said about Camby and, more recently, Carlos Delfino but as far as I know, nobody ever really complained about Delfino's effort in practice.

 

Hard to really comment on anything, though. With that said, even if he is a slacker in practice, I'd rather have a guy who brings it in games than a guy who looks like a god in practice and stinks it up in games like a Joey Graham and Rafeal Araujo (I think I remember reading how he was pretty good in practices).

[headliner]

What I’ve seen from Davis shows me that he has a lot of potential. Davis needs a lot of work but that’s most young players when they first start in the league. Whether or not he slacks in practice only those who watch the practice and those who are involved in the practice can tell us so but if its true I’m pretty sure that will change soon enough.