The Official "We Owe Dereck Lively An Apology" Thread

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Originally Posted by CDu

The "hedge and recover."

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Thanks, CDU!

"Hedge and recover" is a perfect name. Is Southgate0809 accurate in his observation? Hope so. How many times have we seen our permanent switches end up with unfavorable matchups down low.

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Originally Posted by kAzE

Coach Scheyer had been saying maybe as far back as 3 weeks ago that this was coming. I'm surprised at how he absolutely dominated UNC, but I can't say that I am shocked that Lively is now showing why he was considered an elite prospect. I absolutely expected him to start playing well and regain his starting spot.

He was playing pretty good defense even through his tough stretches this season, but he needed to learn to defend without fouling. Every young center goes through this same pattern of growth. Some have the lightbulb flip on earlier than others.

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I agree with the highlighted, but here's a scary thought, how badly would the heels have beaten us if Lively had his usual foul trouble and only played 15 minutes.

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Originally Posted by flyingdutchdevil

I am no longer on the "Young > Lively" bandwagon. Lively's defense and opportunistic offense is so critical for this team.

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I have to confess (Confess! Confess!) that I was on the Young > Lively bandwagon until now. I did not think Lively could show that great an improvement on rebounding, and that was a significant advantage Young used to have on him. Also, Lively has become a second hand offensive threat, and I didn't see that coming. In the UNC game, Proctor got into the lane multiple times, knowing that no big would dare leave lob threat Lively to stop him. Proctor seemed to be able to get a mid-lane floater whenever he wanted. And Roach used the same weakness to get the critical layup with under a minute left.

The one time they did leave Lively to stop Roach, he just bounced it high off the glass for a put back dunk, which counted as a missed shot, but was really a righteous assist.

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Originally Posted by dlmzzz

I have to confess (Confess! Confess!) that I was on the Young > Lively bandwagon until now. I did not think Lively could show that great an improvement on rebounding, and that was a significant advantage Young used to have on him. Also, Lively has become a second hand offensive threat, and I didn't see that coming. In the UNC game, Proctor got into the lane multiple times, knowing that no big would dare leave lob threat Lively to stop him. Proctor seemed to be able to get a mid-lane floater whenever he wanted. And Roach used the same weakness to get the critical layup with under a minute left.

The one time they did leave Lively to stop Roach, he just bounced it high off the glass for a put back dunk, which counted as a missed shot, but was really a righteous assist.

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Driving into the lane. I noticed that too and your explanation of Lively's influence perfectly explains why we were able to do it. Love it. Thanks!

Lively was the only one really keyed in tonight too, even with the stumble.

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Originally Posted by weezie

Lively was the only one really keyed in tonight too, even with the stumble.

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Eh, he and Young both played well. Grandison too. Everyone else? Not so much.

I'm glad the announcers actually showed the freeze frame of our guys missing Dereck Lively wide the F open in the paint with nobody even looking in his direction. It's been like that many times this season. Not sure why we almost never look for the roller on screens. Proctor does when he's playing well, but he was just awful tonight.