Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. - Winston Churchill
President of the "Nolan Smith Should Have His Jersey in The Rafters" Club
Yeah, this Bulls fan will second that on Thibs. Agree completely on the culture change, and also think he's a perfect fit for RJ as a head coach. Thibs clearly appreciates RJ's commitment to defense and overall work ethic, and has given him a long rope to develop (averaging 34 mpg). My words not his, but I suspect Thibs sees a lot of Jimmy Butler in RJ, and thinks he can develop into a similar, high-level 2-way playmaker.
Yup. This is the power of coaches like Thibs and SVG; they can maximize the potential of a player in a facet of the game they didn't know existed.
RJ never ran around the court rotating on defense or closing down players at Duke nor his first year in the NBA. This year? He's a completely different player on defense.
Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. - Winston Churchill
President of the "Nolan Smith Should Have His Jersey in The Rafters" Club
Agree on Thibs, but SVG? He's a middling coach.
Pelicans ahead of Nets 29-26 at the end of the first quarter. (TNT)
Zion has 10 points (4-5 FG, 2-2 FT). Brandon adds 4. Kyrie has 6 for Brooklyn. Kevin Durant and James Harden are not playing tonight.
New Zions look pretty sweet. Loved the commercial with his little bro, too.
“Coach said no 3s.” - Zion on The Block
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
I know his Magic teams were good when he had Dwight, Jameer, Hedo, Rafer, Rashard and so on. I've only been following the NBA more closely the last few years though and the Pistons were not good under SVG's watch and outside of a historically amazing Zion, the Pels are worse this year than last. As their record indicates. And their fourth quarter meltdowns are too consistent to chalk it up to bad luck or bad players, especially since they didn't have them last year.
Zach Lowe has David Thorpe on "The Lowe Post" to talk about the Most Improved Player race and a few of our guys get discussed including Grayson, RJ and Zion
https://www.espn.com/radio/play/_/id/31296741
Also, I wasn't able to get to the Knicks v Hornets game until the start of the 4th quarter. I was hoping to see Big Vern but he didn't see the floor in the last stanza. So, I went to the box score and saw, essentially, a 3 Trillion. He started, played 3 minutes, registered no stats, and had a minus 8. It looks like the Hornets went down 8 in the first few minutes, Borrego brought PJ Washington in for Vern, Washington led all scorers with 26 and that was that for the big guy.
Luke Kennard stepped up for a Clippers squad missing Paul George and Kawhi Leonard and got 28 points to help LA beat the Grindhouse Devils.
Grayson, Tyus and Justise didn't make much of an impact, but Jaren Jackson Jr. saw the court for the first this season which might mean less PT for our guys. We'll see.
https://www.espn.com/nba/recap?gameId=401307688
https://twitter.com/i/status/1385093180060684296
Kennard is a polished interview.Saw him chatting with Grayson Allen and Tyus Jones after game.
25, 12 and 4 on 8-16 for RJ today, helping the Knicks win their ninth straight. He's getting better and better, and he works his butt off on D too.
Mason is having himself a game so far. 16 points, 18 rebounds, and five assists with a few minutes left in the fourth quarter.
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
The Pelicans are finished after losing to the Spurs tonight. That was their last stand, and they lost by two points. I think they are something like five games out and I don’t see that they have enough time to make up that gap. Sad, because Zion had 33 points and something like 14 rebounds again tonight. But all for not. This is going to go down as a wasted season in terms of the numbers that Zion has put up with the team not making the playoffs.