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

[Trader_Joe]

Some of the passes from D-will to Lopez were in crazy traffic, not all the pgs in the league have the ability to do that consistently... but yeah, I also think D will should be taking at least 13-15FG per game. I dont know what happened to Williams jumpshot.

according to him confidence....

but it might go a bit further. he used to be able to cross up anyone and get to the rim. he used to have guys play off him to where he could get those wide open. he used to get out in transition more and get more pull up threes. now some of those defenders are up closer, no one really fears him going by them. maybe those threes arent as open.

either way, he needs to shoot more. we cant have him taking 5-10 shots. we need him to be a threat

You want a guy shooting 38% taking more shots?!

Lopez
JJ
Young
Bogs/Jack
D.Will

Should be the order of shots.... Unless D.Will miraculously turns it on (starting in low volume without forcing). Right now he is a positive on to our offense simply by passing and keeping TOs down.

[jeff1624]

But I guess Prok, Paradise and I are being too harsh.

Well, that executive lost all credibility the moment he said that Jack is a better PG.

I took that as hyperbole. That being said, can you refute the rest of his assessment?

No, you can't.

Him being bad the "last few years" is a stretch. In the 12-13 seas he averaged 19 and 8. He was easily a top 5 PG the second half of the season. Last season he became the 3rd option on most nights, had injury problems and his usage rate and shots per game were a career low (excluding rookie year) and still had respectable per 36 min averages (16 and 7 with above average efficiency). He was average at best, mediocre at worst last season. This season has been the truly 'bad' year because he's lost the ability to shoot from everywhere inside the three point line.

And as bad as he's been, I really can't name 20 PG's that are clear cut ahead of him.


Curry, Paul, Westbrook, Lillard, Wall, Irving, Lowry, Dragic, Parker, Conley, Lawson and Teague are the only ones head and shoulders better than him. Guys like Holiday, Knight, Rubio and Walker are at his level. None of those guys are clearly better so I wouldn't say it's fair to list them as such. He's middle of the pack, but the executive has him as a smush level player and that's laughable. I mean even if it is hyperbole the dude had the audacity to even argue Jack over Deron. I question his basketball intelligence after that.

Look, his contract is a travesty. He is VASTLY overpaid. I thought for sure that this would be a bounce back season because he was finally healthy and he started the season as such but he fell off a cliff. I've lost hope of him ever being an all star again and no matter what he does he'll never live up to the contract. Everyone and their mother are justified in disliking the guy for not living up to it. And while I share most of those feelings, I still think he does enough positive things on the court that I'll never outright hate the guy. He isn't a one trick pony ala Joe Johnson (who is absolutely useless when he isn't scoring) nor does his game come in the way of his teammates ala Rondo (who is absolutely useless if he isn't pounding the ball for 15 seconds every possession.) I also can't hate the guy because he made us relevant. Because after we traded for him Dwight Howard, the best center in the league at the time, desperately wanted to come here. That has never happened to this franchise. Had we had a competent GM in place we probably land one of Howard, Harden or Anthony Davis. But we ended up with Wallace and Joe (which is why bash him endlessly when he sucks).

[jeff1624]

Some of the passes from D-will to Lopez were in crazy traffic, not all the pgs in the league have the ability to do that consistently... but yeah, I also think D will should be taking at least 13-15FG per game. I dont know what happened to Williams jumpshot.

according to him confidence....

but it might go a bit further. he used to be able to cross up anyone and get to the rim. he used to have guys play off him to where he could get those wide open. he used to get out in transition more and get more pull up threes. now some of those defenders are up closer, no one really fears him going by them. maybe those threes arent as open.

either way, he needs to shoot more. we cant have him taking 5-10 shots. we need him to be a threat

You want a guy shooting 38% taking more shots?!

Lopez
JJ
Young
Bogs/Jack
D.Will

Should be the order of shots.... Unless D.Will miraculously turns it on (starting in low volume without forcing). Right now he is a positive on to our offense simply by passing and keeping TOs down.

The only way he'll snap out of this season long funk is by takng more shots. It's not like the offense has been great with Joe, Jack and Bogs taking more shots than him. Besides, Deron goes to the line more than anybody not named Plumlee despite his low FGA's. We can't have him taking 6 shots a game. We need his scoring.

[Trader_Joe]

according to him confidence....

but it might go a bit further. he used to be able to cross up anyone and get to the rim. he used to have guys play off him to where he could get those wide open. he used to get out in transition more and get more pull up threes. now some of those defenders are up closer, no one really fears him going by them. maybe those threes arent as open.

either way, he needs to shoot more. we cant have him taking 5-10 shots. we need him to be a threat

You want a guy shooting 38% taking more shots?!

Lopez
JJ
Young
Bogs/Jack
D.Will

Should be the order of shots.... Unless D.Will miraculously turns it on (starting in low volume without forcing). Right now he is a positive on to our offense simply by passing and keeping TOs down.

The only way he'll snap out of this season long funk is by takng more shots. It's not like the offense has been great with Joe, Jack and Bogs taking more shots than him. Besides, Deron goes to the line more than anybody not named Plumlee despite his low FGA's. We can't have him taking 6 shots a game. We need his scoring.

No...we don't.
We need Lopez's offense and either one of JJ or D.Will to be good or some of our role payers like Jack, AA or Bogs steps up. D.Will's been awful in our wins and losses. So has Jack. But the offense runs better with a real PG running it...not shooting us out of it. Just like Jack with the 3, D Will is having a bad year and isn't going to recover ...we're 70 games in.

If this were 30-40 games ago, I might have agreed. But we need to make the PO and ride what's been working recently IMO. If D.Will shoots more AND makes his shots that will help immensely but if he shoots as he has 70 games in then he will hurt us in that regard. Just let him facilitate, esp. with Lopez.

[jeff1624]

You want a guy shooting 38% taking more shots?!

Lopez
JJ
Young
Bogs/Jack
D.Will

Should be the order of shots.... Unless D.Will miraculously turns it on (starting in low volume without forcing). Right now he is a positive on to our offense simply by passing and keeping TOs down.

The only way he'll snap out of this season long funk is by takng more shots. It's not like the offense has been great with Joe, Jack and Bogs taking more shots than him. Besides, Deron goes to the line more than anybody not named Plumlee despite his low FGA's. We can't have him taking 6 shots a game. We need his scoring.

No...we don't.
We need Lopez's offense and either one of JJ or D.Will to be good or some of our role payers like Jack, AA or Bogs steps up. D.Will's been awful in our wins and losses. So has Jack. But the offense runs better with a real PG running it...not shooting us out of it. Just like Jack with the 3, D Will is having a bad year and isn't going to recover ...we're 70 games in.

If this were 30-40 games ago, I might have agreed. But we need to make the PO and ride what's been working recently IMO. If D.Will shoots more AND makes his shots that will help immensely but if he shoots as he has 70 games in then he will hurt us in that regard. Just let him facilitate, esp. with Lopez.

But we do need his scoring. This team is the 7th worst team offensively and that's with Deron taking fewer shots/Jack and Bogs taking more than they should. Deron has been throughout his career an efficient player. This season has been his worst by far (excluding rookie season). It's an aberration (at least from midrange). He's not rondo who you know can't shoot. I'd rather him take those midrange jumpers and three pointers than defer to a lesser player.

[Prokorov]

Some of the passes from D-will to Lopez were in crazy traffic, not all the pgs in the league have the ability to do that consistently... but yeah, I also think D will should be taking at least 13-15FG per game. I dont know what happened to Williams jumpshot.

according to him confidence....

but it might go a bit further. he used to be able to cross up anyone and get to the rim. he used to have guys play off him to where he could get those wide open. he used to get out in transition more and get more pull up threes. now some of those defenders are up closer, no one really fears him going by them. maybe those threes arent as open.

either way, he needs to shoot more. we cant have him taking 5-10 shots. we need him to be a threat

You want a guy shooting 38% taking more shots?!

Lopez
JJ
Young
Bogs/Jack
D.Will

Should be the order of shots.... Unless D.Will miraculously turns it on (starting in low volume without forcing). Right now he is a positive on to our offense simply by passing and keeping TOs down.

yes i want him to take more shots. him shooting 38% kind of has to do with him only taking jumpers or only taking shots lat ein the clock. if he is more aggressive looking for his shot those percentages likely go up.

Bogs and young arent guys i want to go to for offense. especially bogs who i find particularly unreliable.

sure Lopez/JJ if they take the bulk im ok with that, but dwill needs to be right there, especially lately with Joe doing his disappearing act

[Prokorov]

You want a guy shooting 38% taking more shots?!

Lopez
JJ
Young
Bogs/Jack
D.Will

Should be the order of shots.... Unless D.Will miraculously turns it on (starting in low volume without forcing). Right now he is a positive on to our offense simply by passing and keeping TOs down.

The only way he'll snap out of this season long funk is by takng more shots. It's not like the offense has been great with Joe, Jack and Bogs taking more shots than him. Besides, Deron goes to the line more than anybody not named Plumlee despite his low FGA's. We can't have him taking 6 shots a game. We need his scoring.

No...we don't.
We need Lopez's offense and either one of JJ or D.Will to be good or some of our role payers like Jack, AA or Bogs steps up. D.Will's been awful in our wins and losses. So has Jack. But the offense runs better with a real PG running it...not shooting us out of it. Just like Jack with the 3, D Will is having a bad year and isn't going to recover ...we're 70 games in.

If this were 30-40 games ago, I might have agreed. But we need to make the PO and ride what's been working recently IMO. If D.Will shoots more AND makes his shots that will help immensely but if he shoots as he has 70 games in then he will hurt us in that regard. Just let him facilitate, esp. with Lopez.

were not making the playoffs id dwill doesnt turn it around and look to score more. we need to go like 8-4 or 9-3 the rest of the way. Lopez has been great but even if he keeps it up he isnt gonna score 34 points a game and even his 31 vs the celtics didnt prevent us from getting blown out.

Lopez cant be the only guy. Dwill needs to score more. and all those pretty assist number will go back to 6 or 7 a game once lopez isnt red hot and dwill doesnt get the gimmie ones where he just gives it to brook.

Lopez has been great, but he isnt good enough to carry us to 8-4 vs. good competition

[MGrand15]

I'd be fine with DWill taking the back seat if Joe was his normal self. He's clearly not right now. I haven't really seen an encouraging stretch for him in weeks. If Deron is a little bit more aggressive, adds a couple post plays to the mix and Brook starts getting more respect from defenses - it'll let Joe focus more on spotting up. He's been pretty bad at that lately but we gotta just hope that he goes on an upswing for this final stretch.

[Zachbretton]

I just think it's powerfully clear that Joe either wants to be gone or just doesn't care.

I hope we ship him out this offseason. He just hasn't been himself this year. Either he's injuries, getting old, or doesn't care... Either way he's just pulling us down


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums

[Prokorov]

I just think it's powerfully clear that Joe either wants to be gone or just doesn't care.

I hope we ship him out this offseason. He just hasn't been himself this year. Either he's injuries, getting old, or doesn't care... Either way he's just pulling us down


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums

the end is near for him in a nets uniform. at worst he expires after next season. at best we move him for expirings.

the only reason im not on the "get him out of here" train is because king could really hurt us with what he takes back on 24M. if joe expires, no damage is done

[Trader_Joe]

The only way he'll snap out of this season long funk is by takng more shots. It's not like the offense has been great with Joe, Jack and Bogs taking more shots than him. Besides, Deron goes to the line more than anybody not named Plumlee despite his low FGA's. We can't have him taking 6 shots a game. We need his scoring.

No...we don't.
We need Lopez's offense and either one of JJ or D.Will to be good or some of our role payers like Jack, AA or Bogs steps up. D.Will's been awful in our wins and losses. So has Jack. But the offense runs better with a real PG running it...not shooting us out of it. Just like Jack with the 3, D Will is having a bad year and isn't going to recover ...we're 70 games in.

If this were 30-40 games ago, I might have agreed. But we need to make the PO and ride what's been working recently IMO. If D.Will shoots more AND makes his shots that will help immensely but if he shoots as he has 70 games in then he will hurt us in that regard. Just let him facilitate, esp. with Lopez.

were not making the playoffs id dwill doesnt turn it around and look to score more. we need to go like 8-4 or 9-3 the rest of the way. Lopez has been great but even if he keeps it up he isnt gonna score 34 points a game and even his 31 vs the celtics didnt prevent us from getting blown out.

Lopez cant be the only guy. Dwill needs to score more. and all those pretty assist number will go back to 6 or 7 a game once lopez isnt red hot and dwill doesnt get the gimmie ones where he just gives it to brook.

Lopez has been great, but he isnt good enough to carry us to 8-4 vs. good competition

What are the odds a player who has shot 38% for 70 games suddenly turns into a positive scoring threat though? At least Thad and Bogs have stepped it up post ASG. Ride Lopez and let the rest pick up the scraps...unless they are shooting horribly all year. Same reason I don't want Jack shooting threes...he's shooting horribly and well below his career average but I don't think he should continue shooting them under the assumption he suddenly comes on this late in the year.

[Prokorov]

What are the odds a player who has shot 38% for 70 games suddenly turns into a positive scoring threat though? At least Thad and Bogs have stepped it up post ASG. Ride Lopez and let the rest pick up the scraps...unless they are shooting horribly all year. Same reason I don't want Jack shooting threes...he's shooting horribly and well below his career average but I don't think he should continue shooting them under the assumption he suddenly comes on this late in the year.

Derons FG% is down for the lone reason that he isnt looking to score. the type of shots he is taking are late shot clock and on jumpers. he needs to be aggressive and try to score. he does that the FG% and efficiecny will sky rocket.

Riding lopez isnt going to cut it. As we saw vs boston he can drop 30+ and we still get blown out if others cant contribute offensively.

Bogs is a super inconsistent role guy who has been terrible away from barclays and thad isnt a guy you look to get you points and whose efficiecny and numbers plummet with more playing time.

We need deron to step up and score. we need joe to step up and score. Joe came through tonite. we need deron to do the same.

Deron needs to take 14-18 shots a night. otherwise he shouldnt even be on the floor.

[Trader_Joe]

What are the odds a player who has shot 38% for 70 games suddenly turns into a positive scoring threat though? At least Thad and Bogs have stepped it up post ASG. Ride Lopez and let the rest pick up the scraps...unless they are shooting horribly all year. Same reason I don't want Jack shooting threes...he's shooting horribly and well below his career average but I don't think he should continue shooting them under the assumption he suddenly comes on this late in the year.

Derons FG% is down for the lone reason that he isnt looking to score. the type of shots he is taking are late shot clock and on jumpers. he needs to be aggressive and try to score. he does that the FG% and efficiecny will sky rocket.

Riding lopez isnt going to cut it. As we saw vs boston he can drop 30+ and we still get blown out if others cant contribute offensively.

Bogs is a super inconsistent role guy who has been terrible away from barclays and thad isnt a guy you look to get you points and whose efficiecny and numbers plummet with more playing time.

We need deron to step up and score. we need joe to step up and score. Joe came through tonite. we need deron to do the same.

Deron needs to take 14-18 shots a night. otherwise he shouldnt even be on the floor.

So we can't beat good teams unless D.Will shoots a lot?
Last night says otherwise. Ride the hot hands...Lopez and Bogs right now...hopefully JJ the rest of the way.

[Prokorov]

So we can't beat good teams unless D.Will shoots a lot?
Last night says otherwise. Ride the hot hands...Lopez and Bogs right now...hopefully JJ the rest of the way.

jarret jack played the role dwill should have. we got scoring from that PG spot and won. If jack gives it to us and not dwill im fine with that, but i dont think tis realistic to get that consistently from jack.

we have "rode the hot hand" all season and that has gotten us to a 31-40 record. the problem is we arent good enough to have a hot hand consistently. JJ playing well the final 12 would be big. not sure that can be counted on either.

Williams was forced to sit due to how inefective he was. im not sure thats something that translates to success over the next 11 games. Jack/Joe cant be counted on for that.

if we dont get scoring from jack/dwill we can easily lose to the lakers tommorow... nevermind the likes of atlanta and portland

[Trader_Joe]

So we can't beat good teams unless D.Will shoots a lot?
Last night says otherwise. Ride the hot hands...Lopez and Bogs right now...hopefully JJ the rest of the way.

jarret jack played the role dwill should have. we got scoring from that PG spot and won. If jack gives it to us and not dwill im fine with that, but i dont think tis realistic to get that consistently from jack.

we have "rode the hot hand" all season and that has gotten us to a 31-40 record. the problem is we arent good enough to have a hot hand consistently. JJ playing well the final 12 would be big. not sure that can be counted on either.

Williams was forced to sit due to how inefective he was. im not sure thats something that translates to success over the next 11 games. Jack/Joe cant be counted on for that.

if we dont get scoring from jack/dwill we can easily lose to the lakers tommorow... nevermind the likes of atlanta and portland

I'll take it from Jack over D.Will.
But again I just don't think a guy who is shooting so poorly all year and doesn't have the ability to get to the rim and finish should be taking 15 shots a game. Lopez, JJ, Bogs, Jack, AA, Young all need shots ..let D.Will take his 5 a game while concentrating on running the offense, keeping turnovers down and defense. Early or late in the shot clock he hasn't hit his shots all year and its not changing now...nor should we try to make that change when we are finally playing well enough to win. He's already ruined our team, let's not let him ruin this final stretch. We'll see what he can do from the field next year.

BTW...who's even had a hot hand to ride this season other than Lopez as of late? JJ early on had some stretches but that's all I remember.

[Prokorov]

But again I just don't think a guy who is shooting so poorly all year and doesn't have the ability to get to the rim and finish should be taking 15 shots a game.

You either disagree with or are not seeing my point. you keep harping onthe 38%, im of the opinion that goes up with more volume/aggression not the other way around. take a look at williams TS/FG% on games were he shoots 15+ times vs 1-14 times.

Lopez, JJ, Bogs, Jack, AA, Young all need shots ..let D.Will take his 5 a game while concentrating on running the offense, keeping turnovers down and defense.

Lopez is going to get his shots regardless. Young and AA have shown consistently that their effectiveness goes down with more time and shots. Young drastically down. Bogs is awful on the road, and inconsistent at home. He isnt a guy i want shooter more either. None of those guys are more effiecienct on 15+ FGA per game then deron has been.

Early or late in the shot clock he hasn't hit his shots all year and its not changing now...nor should we try to make that change when we are finally playing well enough to win. He's already ruined our team, let's not let him ruin this final stretch. We'll see what he can do from the field next year.

we arent really playing all that great. we are 7-7 this month, and other then cleveland havent beat a team over .500. and in games where someone hasnt stepped up besides lopez, we looked bad. lopez dropped 31 vs boston and they embarassed us in a blowout. and when lopez has just been ok, we have gotten smacked too. winning 4-5 is nice, but prior to that we had dropped 5-6. lopez isnt dropping 30 every night, we need deron and joe to step up and we need deron to score.

if deron doesnt score, we arent making the playoffs.

BTW...who's even had a hot hand to ride this season other than Lopez as of late? JJ early on had some stretches but that's all I remember.

thats my point. we cant ride hot hands because we dont have good players. we need someone other then brook to step up and score. specifically williams. Anderson/bogs/thad arent going to carry us anywhere and brook alone wont do it

[Trader_Joe]

But again I just don't think a guy who is shooting so poorly all year and doesn't have the ability to get to the rim and finish should be taking 15 shots a game.

You either disagree with or are not seeing my point. you keep harping onthe 38%, im of the opinion that goes up with more volume/aggression not the other way around. take a look at williams TS/FG% on games were he shoots 15+ times vs 1-14 times.

Lopez, JJ, Bogs, Jack, AA, Young all need shots ..let D.Will take his 5 a game while concentrating on running the offense, keeping turnovers down and defense.

Lopez is going to get his shots regardless. Young and AA have shown consistently that their effectiveness goes down with more time and shots. Young drastically down. Bogs is awful on the road, and inconsistent at home. He isnt a guy i want shooter more either. None of those guys are more effiecienct on 15+ FGA per game then deron has been.

Early or late in the shot clock he hasn't hit his shots all year and its not changing now...nor should we try to make that change when we are finally playing well enough to win. He's already ruined our team, let's not let him ruin this final stretch. We'll see what he can do from the field next year.

we arent really playing all that great. we are 7-7 this month, and other then cleveland havent beat a team over .500. and in games where someone hasnt stepped up besides lopez, we looked bad. lopez dropped 31 vs boston and they embarassed us in a blowout. and when lopez has just been ok, we have gotten smacked too. winning 4-5 is nice, but prior to that we had dropped 5-6. lopez isnt dropping 30 every night, we need deron and joe to step up and we need deron to score.

if deron doesnt score, we arent making the playoffs.

BTW...who's even had a hot hand to ride this season other than Lopez as of late? JJ early on had some stretches but that's all I remember.

thats my point. we cant ride hot hands because we dont have good players. we need someone other then brook to step up and score. specifically williams. Anderson/bogs/thad arent going to carry us anywhere and brook alone wont do it

I have no idea our record in games when D Will takes 15+ shots...is it any good?
And what about his % split between a large volume and low volume?

We finally have a consistent starting five and offensive system....I really really don't think changing things and letting a horrible shooter is going to help us, especially because I don't think he's going to shoot much more efficiently...especially relative to others (who I'm not saying need to be first options rather the role players that need to take the shots they are given....D.will is also a role player for us who I don't mind taking wide open looks are attaxk when given the opportunity, but no I don't want him being overly aggressive and forcing things.)

[Prokorov]

thats my point. we cant ride hot hands because we dont have good players. we need someone other then brook to step up and score. specifically williams. Anderson/bogs/thad arent going to carry us anywhere and brook alone wont do it

I have no idea our record in games when D Will takes 15+ shots...is it any good?
And what about his % split between a large volume and low volume?[/quote]

I dont know about win loss wise. but he shoots 45.3% FG when he takes 15+ shots. not sure on TS/PER id have to find those.

We finally have a consistent starting five and offensive system....I really really don't think changing things and letting a horrible shooter is going to help us, especially because I don't think he's going to shoot much more efficiently...especially relative to others (who I'm not saying need to be first options rather the role players that need to take the shots they are given....D.will is also a role player for us who I don't mind taking wide open looks are attaxk when given the opportunity, but no I don't want him being overly aggressive and forcing things.)

i would really debate that we have a consistent starting 5 and offensive system. this starting 5 is 7-8 in 15 games. better but not exactly consistent or good. and our record vs. good teams in that span is awful with some bad losses/blowouts to mediocure teams (boston, new orleans).

dwill is a decent player when he is aggressive. he is a really bad player when he isnt. he also isnt a bad shooter, but taking only bad shots is hurting his percentages(i.e. only longer jumpers, often as a last resort). he needs to be more aggessive, get more shots closer to the rim. get more in earler offense.

he doesnt need to be thef irst option, but if he is taking less then 10 shots he is drastically hurting the teams chances to win and isnt worth having on the floor... which also hurts cause it leads to overplaying jack which is never good for longterm results.

we won 4-5. when bogs shots stop falling and joe doesnt drop a double double that will go back to losing 4 of 5.

[enetric]

**** yes! huge effing win! this team finally coming through in an enormous game. take the tiebreaker over them too.

Lopez was a beast. the 31 or whatever he had tonite was so much more impactful. this was a dominant performance. props to blo he won this for us.

joe judas needs to be woken up. dwill needs to still turn it up a nothch.

I figured I would pop in to see what you have been saying about Lopez since the trade deadline.

Glad to see you giving him credit. I assume you agree with me now that in fact our best shot to squeak into the playoffs is with Lopez not Lance Stepenson?

We still may still fall short but my lord Brook is so vastly better for the short term than Stephenson.

i think we'd still have a better shot with lance. because i think we need the help at SG and we could play a style more likely to get us in. brook had 31 against the celtics and we got blown out. the hornets blew us out the prior game. and if lopez isnt scoring 30, then we really look awful. i think a move for lance(or ay SG, kevin martin, whomever) would have made us better

but thats all moot since it didnt happen. Lopez has played well. we need him to stay aggressive and not go back to those 17/5 type performances. and we need one of joe or deron to actually play at least average. or else it doesnt matter what brook does.

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.

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.

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.

[enetric]

Just my opinion, but I will never give hollins credit for brooks offensive game. It was always there and now that he is (finally) injury free for a longer stretch he's starting to show what we knew he was capable of. Wasn't Hollins meant to be all about defense? So far lopez and plumlee have been worse on D than other seasons.

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.