MJ & The Draft.

[WaydownSouth]

I see that the 76ers are interested in trading away the 2nd pick in the draft, the stinger is along with the 2nd, you'll also need to find room for Elton Brand's contract.

Is this something the Cats should be looking at? Brand's contract is huge and he's not a 20/10 player anymore, but is it worth taking it on to draft Turner. Brand would sort of the fix the hole at PF.

Brand has coming $15,959,100 in 2010/11, $17,059,728 in 11/12 and $18,160,355 in 12/13. MJ would be paying some tax as well.

Would Diaw, Henderson and Diop for Brand and the 2nd (Turner) work?

[DY_nasty]

Spurs weren't desperate to make the playoffs, they've been run properly for over a decade, have a strong fan base and championship success. We'll never know if we could have made the playoffs with Stack and Crash playing less minutes, only that we did what we did and it accomplished our goal. I think 2 decades of history are pretty relevant when considering the limited opportunities that Brown gave to the rookies. It is very unlikely that either is a future star. I think time in the d-league would have been good for both of them, but there are reports that Hendo didn't want to go.

The Spurs were unlikely to make the playoffs at allthis year. They stumbled out the gates hard and if Memphis hadn't collapsed completely they'd have gone fishing a lot sooner. Pop made it a point to play George Hill even though he and the rest of the organization considered dropping him after his horrible summer league performance. Instead, he coached him up. He didn't mentally castrate him for not conforming to his coaching style, he didn't bury him under d-leaguers, he put him on the court and let him learn. Now, the organization has a replacement for Tony Parker waiting to take over for him at any moment. The same story can be told for dozens of young players in the NBA.

We were never good enough to enter some crazy 'win now' mode. In the next two or three years, we might get to the 2nd round once. After that, we're back to square one - with a vacancy at head coach too.

Only Larry Brown can consistently gamble on the short term the way he does because he's never around a single franchise long enough to feel the full effect of the ramifications for not investing in a future.

[Walt Cronkite]

The Spurs were unlikely to make the playoffs at allthis year. They stumbled out the gates hard and if Memphis hadn't collapsed completely they'd have gone fishing a lot sooner. Pop made it a point to play George Hill even though he and the rest of the organization considered dropping him after his horrible summer league performance. Instead, he coached him up. He didn't mentally castrate him for not conforming to his coaching style, he didn't bury him under d-leaguers, he put him on the court and let him learn. Now, the organization has a replacement for Tony Parker waiting to take over for him at any moment. The same story can be told for dozens of young players in the NBA.

We were never good enough to enter some crazy 'win now' mode. In the next two or three years, we might get to the 2nd round once. After that, we're back to square one - with a vacancy at head coach too.

Only Larry Brown can consistently gamble on the short term the way he does because he's never around a single franchise long enough to feel the full effect of the ramifications for not investing in a future.

Right. The Spurs WEREN'T desperate to make the playoffs. We were. The Spurs have a strong fanbase and have had championships success. We don't have any of that. I'm all for entertaining ideas to blow up the squad and think that now is the perfect opportunity, but we had to become a credible franchise before that was a viable option.

[therebirth]

Walt

Dudley was on Bill Simmons podcast when he said that about LB. The DJ comment was on twitter.

[Walt Cronkite]

Which podcast, what minute marker?

I have a hard time believing that a wise guy like J Duds would burn bridges with a hof coach known for moving around and a city in one fell swoop.

[Walt Cronkite]

Tell that to Dudley. He is on record as saying that the only reason he is playing better is because LB is not his coach. He said he is not taken out of the game with the first mistake he makes and will be happy for DJ when he leaves Charlotte.

This what he said on the record. Keep in mind that this is 30 minutes into the interview where he spent a lot of time talking about how much Steve Nash changed the way he approached the game from a conditioning standpoint (he's lost 15 pounds this season because of Nash's influence) and because of how great he's said Amare has been since the trade deadline passed.

It's about coaching and putting yourself in the right system. I would not be the same player I am right now. I think I've hit over 100 3s and whatever I've done in Charlotte. Is it because I'm better? I'm not better now. What it is is the system I'm in. I'm with a point guard that's better, I'm in with a power forward who's better, but now the situation that I'm in now is that I'm open more, I know my role, I'm not coming out if I make one mistake. I'm with a coach that lets us play and I respond to that. And now people say, dang Jared, you got a lot better--and yea I improved my jump shot a little bit, but I was this player in Charlotte, yaknowwhati'msayin? I was this same player, it's just certain systems, certain people shine.

That's a lot different than "the only reason he is playing better is because LB is not his coach".

http://espn.go.com/espnradio/player?rd= ... =ESPNRADIO
29min mark if you want to hear it yourself.

[Jaruff]

With regards to our two rookies from this year, they haven't earned their time yet. DJ earned his rookie minutes with solid play. Why play Henderson when you have experience in Flip/Larry? Why play Derrick Brown when Stephen Graham showed that he can ball a bit? Same reason Ajinca was in the D this year; they aren't as good as the people that are above them on the Depth Chart. Unless we can draft a player that is going to make an impact immediately, there's no reason to take a player this year. We have enough prospects to develop and the D-League is full of guys for roster fillers.

[Walt Cronkite]

Totally agree. NASCAR fan or not, Jaruff knows his stuff.

[Jaruff]

"Diaw, Henderson and Diop for Brand and the 2nd (Turner)" does work according to the ESPN Trade Machine.

That trade would be nice as long as it is done on draft night and the Wizards select Evan Turner. John Wall would be great for this team. It fills a legitimate need (if Felton walks or is traded). Turner rides the bench for a year or two because of Stephen Jackson. If the trade has to be done before draft night, you select a big guy (Monroe or Cousins) or you draft Evans and flip him for a star player as we did with Brandan Wright a few years ago. Turner doesn't help this team because we have good players at his position. He's too valuable to draft and keep on the bench when there will be teams willing to give an arm and a leg to get him.

[DY_nasty]

Wait, Stephen Graham did what? lol... on his very best day, he actually looks like a semi-decent role player.

And Larry Hughes was abandoned and all but done as an NBA player before Larry came in to save him.

Flip was at least established as a solid (if streaky) scorer off the bench, but other than that I just see LB going out of his way to not have a rookie on the floor. DJ's situation was entirely different because we simply didn't have any other pgs on the roster. Not only that, but the team was wrecked by injuries and trades throughout the season.

With Henderson and Brown we haven't even seen them play enough to be able to judge them at all as NBA players, nor has anyone else in the league for that matter. Its impossible to say with certainty that Larry Hughes is better than Gerald Henderson or vice versa. It is completely fair to say that Larry Hughes was trash for for the last 4 years of his career, injured, and without a doubt on his last go-round in the NBA. There's no reason that such a guy should be on the floor when the team just invested a lottery pick on a player of the same position, especially not if this journeyman was a late season pickup... Its pretty hard to argue that.

Larry Brown's coaching over the last 20 years definitely shows tendencies and whatnot, but in the very clear situation that took place this season, its hard to say that he made the right call. Jackson broke down. The bench was weak. And there was a simple way to prevent both of those things from happening. Not only that, but our rookies don't even have anything to build on. "Get stronger? Shoot better? Uh... okay."

Larry Brown gets a bye for a lot because of his immediate successes throughout basketball, but the fact that he's never been in one place long enough to really catch the full consequences of his actions is also something that should be noted.

Edit: And for the record, John Wall in a LB system would make me jump off a bridge. FELTON IS FAST LB! Encourage him to use his athleticism instead of having him walk it up the floor, going to the left, doing a weak half-spin thingy, and passing to Diaw... I just want to jump in a bathtub with a toaster just thinking about. UGH

Whatever happened to "We're going to try and run more this year"?

[therebirth]

Well Larry is not the sole reason but he puts a lot of the blame on him. LB just does not like playing young players. I remember when Shanon Brown joined the team. He hadn't played for a while then suddenly had this very nice game and mj was so proud. The reporter ask mj what Shanon needed, he answered 'a chance'. Larry apparently didn't like that answer and was in the papers the next day talking about he clearly knows what this team needs. Not long after Brown was traded to LA.

[Walt Cronkite]

With Henderson and Brown we haven't even seen them play enough to be able to judge them at all as NBA players, nor has anyone else in the league for that matter. Its impossible to say with certainty that Larry Hughes is better than Gerald Henderson or vice versa. It is completely fair to say that Larry Hughes was trash for for the last 4 years of his career, injured, and without a doubt on his last go-round in the NBA. There's no reason that such a guy should be on the floor when the team just invested a lottery pick on a player of the same position, especially not if this journeyman was a late season pickup... Its pretty hard to argue that.

We haven't had an opportunity to play them enough. We weren't in a situation for most of the season where we could afford to play them and have them make mistakes on the fly. None of these young players are going to be stars, starters maybe. Do you think playing Henderson and Brown more and Stack less would've made a significant difference this season? I don't. Maybe we stay constant record wise, maybe we lose more. Jackson breaks down anyway because he's got a lot of miles on him, maybe he doesn't because of he plays a few less minutes per game. Maybe we get a better first round matchup, maybe we don't make the playoffs, maybe we win a game, maybe we don't. I really, really don't think increased minutes for Brown or Henderson helps anything, if we wanted to see what they were capable of in lots of minutes, we should've insisted that they go to the dleague.

Larry Brown gets a bye for a lot because of his immediate successes throughout basketball, but the fact that he's never been in one place long enough to really catch the full consequences of his actions is also something that should be noted.

4 years in San Antonio? 4 years in Indiana? 7 years in Philly?

Whatever happened to "We're going to try and run more this year"?

Every Bobcat coach has said that every year before the season has begins.

[Walt Cronkite]

Well Larry is not the sole reason but he puts a lot of the blame on him. LB just does not like playing young players.

Where in that quote that you made me track down does he put a lot of blame on Larry Brown?

Your second sentence is entirely untrue. Please read my post. There are very few examples of young players that didn't get playing time that deserved it on a Larry Brown team.

[DY_nasty]

I wasn't around to see much of San An or Indy in those years, but Philly was in shambles. They made a few good runs after he left, but the writing was on the wall with that team as soon as they lost the Lakers. Some of that was on Billy King, some of it on Larry.

[fatlever]

im not going to shed any tears when LB leaves. i was never a fan of his prior to him coming to charlotte, because his teams were never fun to watch as an outside fan. i am glad he came here and helped us gain some credibility around the league. i love what he has done with our defense. however, i love good offense more than anything in basketball and LBs offense is painful to watch. its too bad they dont have offensive and defensive coordinators in basketball. LB would have been a fantastic defensive coordinator, maybe the best ever. but it would be nice to have somebody else run his offense and rotations.

[Jaruff]

For anyone that says that LB does not play rookies, remember that he played Robinson, Lee, and Frye in their rookie seasons in NY. Those three have turned out to be decent players, with Lee being an All-Star.

"DJ's situation was entirely different because we simply didn't have any other pgs on the roster."

I knew this argument would come up. After DJ was drafted, the team could have signed a veteran PG to back up Felton but they did not do so. DJ was ready to play immediately.

Hendo, on the other hand, was "so great" that the team signed Flip Murray in September. To add insult to injury, when they trade Flip, they decide that Larry Hughes is a better option than Hendo.

My point being: DJ proved that he was a better option in his rookie year than any free agent PG. Hendo did not.

[DY_nasty]

And after LB got all of his players in for 'his' team what happened? "What happened to DJ?"

The kid can play he's already proved it on the court but now all of a sudden he's trash and goes through a year long slump? Okay...