Despite the start of the championship with handicap for Givova Scafati, the personal numbers recorded in the first three days of Serie A UnipolSai 2022/23 clearly make it clear how Kruize Pinkins has made (again) route to Italy by setting navigation on the mode “hero”.
From someone with such a first name (given to him by his mother who, wanting something unique, “invented a different way of writing the word Cruise”) perhaps this could have been expected. But it is one thing, you know, to have expectations, but another is to be able to truly transform them into something concrete.
From this point of view, that the 1993 class has taken the right direction this year is demonstrated by the 12 points on average scored in the first three days but, above all, the 4 offensive rebounds captured on average and 58.3% from three points. , two indicators that dispel any doubts about the type of approach taken so far, the improvements made in recent times and the weapons with which the native of Marianna can and will continue to punish the opponent’s defenses.
The offensive rebound, and in general the activity under the boards, has been one of Pinkins’ trademarks since the college years in Chipola and San Francisco, experiences after which, sailing towards the Old Continent, he continued to to show off and collect balls under the boards playing first three years in Germany (with White Wings Hanau and Mitteldeutscher BC) and then three more in Italy between Casale Monferrato and Turin in A2.
Well, in this time span Pinkins, in 191 races disputed, has captured 7.9 rebounds on average per race of which at least 2.2 offensive, a specialty in which, through his mobility and his energy in the painting, he has managed to excel more and more by concluding on two occasions (in 2016-2017 and in 2018-2019) the championship in which he took part as one of the four best offensive rebounders of the tournament.
It is therefore surprising to a certain extent to see him today, after three days, as the leader of Serie A in this statistical sector, a sector in which the Scafati long has everything to confirm itself at the top even at the end of the season when, and this indeed could represent a unexpectedly, he could also record the best percentage in his career in three-point shooting.
The year is undoubtedly still long and several variables can still affect such a changing voice, but in this respect it is undeniable that Pinkins started the championship on the right foot by closing the first three days with an excellent 58.3% (7/12), data (the fourth overall of the tournament) which shows how much the player has acquired confidence in this fundamental by working on it over the years. Aware, in fact, of having to give a perimeter dimension to his game, since his arrival in Europe Pinkins has begun to put together an increasingly credible and reliable shot, succeeding one season after another (with the exception of the last one in which in Limoges the product of the Dons did not enjoy the time allowed in previous years) to add ever better numbers.
The 37% with whom he finished the last two seasons in A2 in Turin is the confirmation that the boy from Florida would be advised not to leave so much space with his feet behind the 6.75m arc, the area of the pitch from where Pinkins, with the his agile levers, it does not take long to move near the iron and receive in post, play with his back to the basket and put himself in the best conditions to catch any ball that comes in his shot.
The arsenal of the US winger as a whole, therefore, is large enough now to stand as the protagonist of Serie A and, reiterating its feeling with Italian parquet, soon drag Scafati towards calmer waters than those in which the season began. 2022/23.
Source: legabasket.it
