BMoney,just so we understand each other, I think bayless has alot of talent. I think he's more talented than jack,but he needs to grow his game and n.o. feels like they're in it to win it. They feel and I understand that if paul goes down for 2 weeks, they can go .500 with Jack vs unknown with bayless. Now the simple solution wouldve been to keep collison,but they really felt a starting 3 was more important than a backup,15min per night pg. They basically broke up peja's huge contract into smaller chunks. Anderson and banks have expiring deal at the end of the year and both can bring more cap relief. If I'm not mistaken,this move takes their team under the lux tax. Long term,bayless could be paul's replacement if he wants to leave,but jack provides more for this team right now and for the next 3 yrs.
Wait, why am I a hater? Because I want him to be the 6th man? Interesting.. going with the George Bush "with us or against us" on AB starting now?
Just because you are so wrong.....and continue to argue about it while being completely and utterly wrong ! DD
Interview (paraphrasing): [rquoter] H: game was fun DM: put together complete effort. everyone contributed. H: even better to back up memphis game. DM: mean OKC? yeah, two wins against quality opponents at home. need to beat quality opponents at home, beat lesser teams on the road. H: How's Yao? DM: both he and Brooks are recovering well. Yao might be sometime next week. Brooks in 1-2 weeks. H: Same minutes limit? DM: Yeah, same progam as before. May look at increasing minutes if he comes back strong. H: Defense clearly picked it up in 4th. seems the offense as much as anything yesterday. DM: It was both. had fewer breakdowns than we've had. forced tougher shots, hold our own on boards. Boards have been biggest problem on defense. Offense we get into our shots. Miller has been a big lift there, Jordan Hill has helped out with offensive rebounding. One thing that helps us is it may not take 50 wins to make playoffs this year. IF we can get to .500, we can get back into playoff race. H: lots of Jordan Hill talk. Overall thoughts on his progression. DM: Pretty much his rookie year since he didn't get much time in NY. Has a lot of defensive breakdowns, that's what limits his playing time generally, but there's been steady improvement. With physical gifts, he might be the most talented player on the team with his size/athelticism. Really need his rebounding and athleticism. If he can give a lift, will be big part of turning season around. H: Shane Battier. DM: Getting his legs forward, he was fading on his shot a bit. He was getting a lot of our bail-out shots. AB is a our best guy to get off a quick shot late, that's not Battier's game. Yesterday, ball moved to right spots late in the clock, didn't have to take as many of those contested bail-out shots. H:Seemed like Rockets elevanted their intensity level to that of the competion. DM: That's fair. What set us apart last season is no matter the injuries we competed very hard. We got away from that this year. Last couple home games especially, we competed all the way the through. Many other games, we've had key let downs. Have to avoid that. Have to compete regardless of who's injured. H: Are you in town? DM: In Kansas City for Kansas game tonight. H: How much college basketball do you watch. DM: Heavily. My job to follow it very closely. H: Who should we be following? DM: Can't talk about it. C: Hill is better than I thought he was. Coach needs to give Hill/Lee more minutes. Hill gives defensive presence and also post up on offensive end and create space. DM: Hill's got a lot of talent. Adelman's doing a great job with him in terms of developing him. I don't believe in just throwing a guy out there. Make him earn his minutes, learn what's keep him from playing more. Rick's been working with him great this last year, and Hill has been responding. If he keeps minimizes his defensive mistakes and keeps playing great on the boards and running the floor his minutes will grow. H: Is Hill getting the importance of the game? DM: Absolutely. He's been making progress. You get a young player who's as talented as him, its not just being talented its putting the work in. There's nothing limiting Jordan Hill, he's got the size/athleticism to be a great player. He's got to decide whether he has the desire to be great. We know he'll be a good player, once he does that consistently will he have it in him to take another step and take it to a hgher level. H: Comfortable with pace? We've taken a number of steps back defensively. DM: Half-court defenses are way to strong, need to get easy scores in transition. Popovich recognized that transition is important. They're pushing to get easy opportunities, like we're trying to do. H: Hill' defensive court awareness. How much is that is needing more team, how much is study sessions and wanting to be a student of the game. DM: We really need him to be a weakside shot-blocker. Right now he's been a half-step late at times (gives example in Dallas game). Vets aren't perfect either, but Jordan's been making a few more mistakes. Obviously he's a big part of how we can turn this around. So we're letting him play through mistakes, but at same time can't hand him anything. Can't say if its just more time, more video work, we're just doing all of it. Spent a lot of time going through his breakdowns, working with coaches, obviously he's learning on the floor as well. Between those 3 and his work ethic, hopefully he keeps improving. H: Concerned about fitting in Yao? In upcoming schedule, there's 4 back-to-back games. How are you approaching that? DM: We're just worried about winning each night. Coaching staff is focused on just winning game to game. He'll be on the same program in terms of back-to-backs, taking into account matchups and what gives him more practice time. Our defense has overall struggled -- bottom 10. Without him, we had to push our best rebounders at the 5 and weaker rebounders at the 4. Yao will be a big help in shoring up the rebounding and defense in the middle. H: I like Memphis not as title contender, but as a team that's a great example of building through the draft. DM: Yes, solid team. Hollins has done a great job as coach, brings great tough mindset. Figuring out which young players will step up, juggled lineups a lot recently. Gasol has been really strong down low. Conley is coming into his own, and Rudy Gay. Those three guys are the key. Big game for us tomorrow. [/rquoter]
at the very end of the interview he said that Yao Ming picked the date of the 7th and that it surprised the Medical Staff (I think that translates to ... its not going to be the 7th)
WOW, that sounds a lot like another situation we had here about the same time last year. I wouldn't be suprised if he didn't come back till mid December along with Brooks.
Darn you Durv. How did I miss this? You mean I just went back, listened, and recapped for nothing? Haha, but in all seriousness, thanks Durv for the recap. Good work.
http://kilt.cbslocal.com/2010/12/09/daryl-morey-with-marc-and-john-12910/#more-27438 I'm leaving the transcript to someone else this time. Around 10:50 mark, Morey agreed with a caller that he prefers a balanced backcourt -- one offense, one defense. Then he said he's not the coach, and its Adelman's decision. Makes it sound like he'd support using Lowry and Martin together, and using Brooks and Lee more together off the bench. Interesting.
Who isn't? ...but Morey doesn't know how to coach basketball. But if you wanted more balance I would start Brooks and Lee.... Brooks is average on D, and great on O, and Lee is good on D and pretty good on O. That is better than: Lowry who is pretty good on D, and ok on O (up from bad lately) and Kmart who is atrocious on D and great on O..... DD
Great on O, average on D describes a big-time all-star, close to superstar talent. Doesn't describe Aaron Brooks. Good on O, bad on D is closer to the mark.
OK, I will give you Good on O, but he is not bad on D, he is about average.....Brooks has been on very good defensive teams, the fallacy that he sucks on D is just that. DD
Lots of bad defenders have been on very good defensive teams. Remember that when Brooks was promoted to starter, he was playing next to Artest, Battier, and Yao for the most part. I won't go so far as to say he's as poor a defender as Kevin Martin, but to say he's "average" is way too generous.
The way opposing PG's burn Brooks is a testament to his defensive prowess. I would not say he is "bad" on D, because he does try, so I'd go so far as to say he is "below average" on D, due to his height that most players can shoot over.
Anyone that is going to sit and pan Kmart as a terrible defender has to be willing to say Brooks is equally bad if not worse.
