The Tokyo Apache played two games this past weekend against the Akita Northern Happinets (my vote for best team name in the league). Tyler continued his strong play in both contests, going for 18 and 6 in 24 minutes of play on Saturday night and 11 and 3 in 12 minutes on Sunday. He continues to score at an impressive rate, and his high FG % shows he is taking quality shots.

The area that still concerns me is his fouls. He is currently averaging 8 fouls per 40 minutes, or 9.6 fouls per 48 minutes. This is astronomical! To put it into context, if he was in the NBA this year he would be #2 in the league in this statistical category. I want to know where he is picking up all of these fouls. Alas, the bj-league is near impossible to find anywhere on the internet to watch.

Next up is Niigata on Dec. 11 & 12. These should be an interesting match-up for Tyler as Niigata's front line includes solid players and good size in Julius Ashby, Zachary Andrews, and Issa Konare.

We are 6 games in to Tyler’s second year of professional basketball. While I think everyone agrees that last year’s experience in Israel was a disaster, the jury is still out on how this year will turn out for Tyler. As I discussed in an earlier post, I see reason for optimism and because of that I will start off talking about the good developments of the first three weekends of action. Unfortunately my observations have been limited to game reports and box scores as I can not find a place to watch bj-league games this season yet.

The Good

Week 3 – He exploded in the two games against the Saitama Broncos this past weekend including a 27/11 output in the second match. Probably of greater note was the fact he was able to stay on the court for 26 minutes. It is reported that five of his field goals were dunks. At least we know he is playing aggressively.

The Bad (there is a little more of this than the ‘good’)

Foul Trouble – In five of the six games he has committed four fouls. Like all young players, the key to his development is experience/playing time. By getting in to foul trouble he is limiting his own ability to develop, let alone give NBA scouts time to analyze his game.

Free Throws – Only Shaq can get away with shooting 11/23 on free throws. How fundamentally sound is a player who shoots below 50% on free throws?

Turnovers - On the same line as free throws, one has to question the fundamentals of a player who is averaging 2.9 turnovers per game while on playing an average of 16 minutes per game. Is lack of high quality game experience the issue, or is he lacking court vision and game understanding?

Competition – Tyler’s explosion against Saitama came against the weakest frontline he has faced so far. Not coincidentally, Saitama signed a center the day after his big game. We will not know if this is an aberration or a sign of true development until he can repeat the performance a few more times.

Overall, I still think the four other imports on the Apache and coach Bob Hill are going to make this a good environment for Tyler. Is it as good a place to develop as a DI school? We have to wait and see.