Nets/Hornets PG: Brook Godpez leads us to the win

[Zachbretton]

Hollins is clearly responsible for Brook's improved rebounding, aggressiveness and toughness. I know everyone loves to hate on Hollins but he was on Brook's ass from day 1 to play at this level. Brook is always going to be a below average PnR defender and average rim protector but he's vastly improved. I believe he gives up 44% at the rim which is average.

Yeah, Hollins has been called everything short of Satan incarnate on here and yet look, lopez is responding to coaching with all star level play

I call bull on this. He screwed with him all year to the detriment of the team. In the 11th hour he is simply letting the best player back on the court and sticking with him. Had he done that all year rather than publicly calling him out, benching him him in favor of lesser players we might have an extra 10 wins right now.

He still could have coached him up. He didnt need to crush the guy to do it. Hollins did a terrible job this year. TERRIBLE.

someone will come in with a wordier answer, I'm too tired to write something long at the moment. But simply put, no, no he did not. Did he make mistakes, yes. Does he have a love for JJack, yes. But put in his position, few other coaches would've faired any better. We get CRAZY amounts of open looks for our offense and almost ALL year long we couldn't make them. We RARELY had a 5 man rotation that could play both ends and our main guys were up and down every game. He did was any SMART coach would do and bench those who aren't performing for those who are.

As I said, someone else can give you a better response, I'm just not in the mood for tunnel vision based stupidity.

[MrDollarBills]

Hollins is clearly responsible for Brook's improved rebounding, aggressiveness and toughness. I know everyone loves to hate on Hollins but he was on Brook's ass from day 1 to play at this level. Brook is always going to be a below average PnR defender and average rim protector but he's vastly improved. I believe he gives up 44% at the rim which is average.

Yeah, Hollins has been called everything short of Satan incarnate on here and yet look, lopez is responding to coaching with all star level play

I call bull on this. He screwed with him all year to the detriment of the team. In the 11th hour he is simply letting the best player back on the court and sticking with him. Had he done that all year rather than publicly calling him out, benching him him in favor of lesser players we might have an extra 10 wins right now.

He still could have coached him up. He didnt need to crush the guy to do it. Hollins did a terrible job this year. TERRIBLE.

10 extra wins? You must have missed the nights prior to the deadline where Lopez looked like **** and played soft as hell. You're either being revisionist or you have an agenda.

Lopez was atrocious for the better part of the season, there is a reason why Hollins lit into him and most of Hollins' criticisms of Brook were the same things that fans have said about Brook for YEARS. Now, all of a sudden Lopez begins playing the way we've all felt that he can play since his rookie year...clearly, he is responding to coaching and is doing what is being asked of him. To deny Hollins credit for that is ridiculous.

[Prokorov]

I am fine with respecting your thoery of our biggest need issues. What I am not fine is with the assertion that basically anyone is better than Brook Lopez. Because that is what you are saying when you compare Stephenson with the NBA's player of the week in the EC. Stephenson is getting DNP's because his coach actually said...I cant find any unit in the entire team he plays well with. It really doesnt get lower than that.

And, Lopez destroys Plumlee. Destroys him. And sure he didnt play well for much of the year...but I say again, a lot has to be put on the coach. All his nonsense screwing around with this guy hurt the player and the team.

I dont think 'anyone is better then lopez' in that i think anyone can step in and replace his production. I think that we can run a system that doesnt require that production from the center spot that produces a better product on the floor. Plumlee isnt as good as lopez, but if he can give you 14/9 as a 5th option just cleaning up while we get our 20ppg from the wing instead of center i think that we could be a better team. similar to last season where we didnt rely on bigs to score for us.

I'm willing to admit that lance might not be the awnser. i was willing to admit that then as im a big lance fan and that could lead to bias. but i do think bringing in an athletic SG to amssively upgrade a major weakness, and going to plumlee at center would make us a better team.

i'm also willing to admit i was off on lopez. making him the #1 option has us right there for the playoffs and i wasnt sure that was the case. although i think most would be suprised he is playing THIS well. i think some thought he could go back to 18-20 ppg on elite efifciency, i dont think many saw a 24/10 player coming who attacks the rim and fights for rebounds... especially after he has been a jump shooter all year. i post this in the other thread but nov-feb he took 30% of his shots from 16-20 feet. in march he took 7% from 16-20 feet. he had the same amount fo dunks in march as he did the rest of the season combined.

I think you are off on your point regarding hollins. i think hollins has to be given a TON of credit for what brook is doing now. brook isnt settling, he is playing clsoe to the rim, he is rebounding and he isnt playing soft. i dont think that happens without hollins riding him all year. brook was way to likely to have a few great games then go back to settling. no coach has been tough on brook like hollins and brook has never played this well. i dont think it is a coincidence

Lopez is going to disappoint you again. Not saying you should love him. He is soft. He will have those 17 5 or even 12 5 games. But yeah, he is the best player on this sad team. He has been for 3 years. But he is a #2 or #3 type guy. Its not his fault Derron the guy who should be a #1 guy plays like a #6 most of the time.

The thing with lopez is i think he needs to be your #1 option to be effective. and i think as your #1 option he isnt good enough to make you a contender. good enough to be a playoff team sure, he is showing that now. but as #2 or #3 option i dont think he is nearly as effective. and vs teams that move the ball i think he hurts you defensively which is why i think you max out with him as like a 3-6 seed and a pretender unless you have like a lebron or durant with him where it doesnt matter. but like the atlanta game, he couldnt defend the pick and roll and they forced him to get his offense 1 on 1 and forced him into long hook shots and the like.

in otherwords as a #1 option he can be an all-star, post great numbers, but he wont make you a contender because the best teams can exploit him.

As for the need you would like to fill..I would say with a 2nd round pick or vet minimum type pick up we should be able to get a guy at least as useful as Stephenson. If not, I am thinking my 91 year old Grandmother who passed away 2 years ago can be as good as Lance so no worries.

i think you are too hung up on stephenson. my view of lance here is obviously a different player then you have in mind.... so maybe use like kevin martin as the baseline or someone you think is a good player. a 20 ppg wing who can shoot threes and get up and down the floor. you arent getting those in the second round without stepping in crap.

All this is moot though. we stuck with brook and he is giving us a great shot to get to the playoffs. if we do that, mission acomplished and thats all i wanted anyway. moving forward we are gonna clean house in all likelyhood anyhow and this team will look very different in 2 years

[Prokorov]

Yeah, Hollins has been called everything short of Satan incarnate on here and yet look, lopez is responding to coaching with all star level play

I call bull on this. He screwed with him all year to the detriment of the team. In the 11th hour he is simply letting the best player back on the court and sticking with him. Had he done that all year rather than publicly calling him out, benching him him in favor of lesser players we might have an extra 10 wins right now.

He still could have coached him up. He didnt need to crush the guy to do it. Hollins did a terrible job this year. TERRIBLE.

10 extra wins? You must have missed the nights prior to the deadline where Lopez looked like **** and played soft as hell. You're either being revisionist or you have an agenda.

Lopez was atrocious for the better part of the season, there is a reason why Hollins lit into him and most of Hollins' criticisms of Brook were the same things that fans have said about Brook for YEARS. Now, all of a sudden Lopez begins playing the way we've all felt that he can play since his rookie year...clearly, he is responding to coaching and is doing what is being asked of him. To deny Hollins credit for that is ridiculous.

yeah, no way we get 10 more wins.... and any extra wins we got we'd probably lose on the back end because no way lopez turns into the guy he is now(i.e. a guy who doesnt settle for long 2's and who doesnt fight for rebounds) without the process and hollins holding him accountable

[kerry kittles]

There is no way we'd have 10 more wins with better coaching. We're playing better recently for a number of reasons: Brook is playing better - he's playing closer to the basket, taking better shots, he's better on the glass, Thad was a huge acquisition, Deron has found his shooting stroke that was gone most of the season. Additionally, Hollins is playing the starters big minutes during this recent stretch to compensate for our bench which is terrible.

There is no way Hollins could get away with playing guys this many minutes for most of the season; we didn't have Thad for most of the season, Brook was coming back from surgery, Deron couldn't hit open shoots. Many things that extend beyond coachiing. Yes, Hollins rotations haven't been the best, but there's no way it amounts to 10 wins. With that we'd be in play for 50 wins. This team isn't a 50 win team with better coaching. Far too inconsistent, not talented enough.

[enetric]

Yeah, Hollins has been called everything short of Satan incarnate on here and yet look, lopez is responding to coaching with all star level play

I call bull on this. He screwed with him all year to the detriment of the team. In the 11th hour he is simply letting the best player back on the court and sticking with him. Had he done that all year rather than publicly calling him out, benching him him in favor of lesser players we might have an extra 10 wins right now.

He still could have coached him up. He didnt need to crush the guy to do it. Hollins did a terrible job this year. TERRIBLE.

someone will come in with a wordier answer, I'm too tired to write something long at the moment. But simply put, no, no he did not. Did he make mistakes, yes. Does he have a love for JJack, yes. But put in his position, few other coaches would've faired any better. We get CRAZY amounts of open looks for our offense and almost ALL year long we couldn't make them. We RARELY had a 5 man rotation that could play both ends and our main guys were up and down every game. He did was any SMART coach would do and bench those who aren't performing for those who are.

As I said, someone else can give you a better response, I'm just not in the mood for tunnel vision based stupidity.

I would have replied sooner but I didn't notice you. Don't feel bad. You couldn't have given a better response even if you had a week to think about it because honestly once an uninformed person drinks the koolaid they don't really know what the hell they are talking about. No worries.