The engine that made the Utah Flash go, Kevin Kruger did a great job setting the tone for his team with his poise and unselfishness, something that rubs off on all his teammates and really makes them look like a cohesive unitwhich is somewhat of a rarity here in the D-League at times.
Kruger stands out especially well for his basketball IQ and court vision, making creative passes and really doing a nice job controlling the tempo for the Flash. He runs their half-court offense, moves the ball around the perimeter fluidly, and gets the ball into the post nicely when the situation calls for it. Hes not the quickest or more explosive player youll find here, and that is somewhat reflected in his zero free throw attempts. He struggles at times when his half-court offense breaks down and hes forced to go out and make plays on his own with the shot-clock running down, but he regardless did a nice job here finding creative solutions and ensuring that his offense ran fluidly. It will be interesting to see how he looks against a better defense.
Defensively, Kruger doesnt have great lateral quickness, but hes smart and puts a good effort in, which brought some pretty solid results on this end of the floor. He got in the passing lanes nicely as a result of his effort here.
In terms of scoring, Kruger seemed more concerned with running his offense and getting everyone around him involved first and foremost, possibly passing up on some situations where he could have been aggressive and put the ball in the basket himself. His 3-point shot wasnt falling for him at a great rate here, but he clearly has nice looking (albeit flat-footed) mechanics, and this is probably a better weapon that he was able to show today.
All in all, Kruger looks like one of the better point guards the D-League has to offer, but its hard to say that his NBA potential is very high. He should be able to make a solid career overseas in mid to high level Europe.
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