Game 59: Detroit Pistons (19-39) @ Portland Trail Blazers (25-32) - 9:00 PM ET

[Invictus88]

What is it exactly Casey is doing to develop Sekou???

Zero, nothing! Same confidence boost he gave Kennard. One mistake and Kennard was pulled. But 2nd round Brown has had 2 years of full support. Yet, other teams were only interested in 2 players.. Rose and Kennard. No team(s) lined up for Svi, Brown. But many on this forum think getting rid of Kennard is the future. Put Kennard on a good team and he is a key contributor, put Brown on a good team and he sits the bench.

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This just isn't true.

Kennard has had ample opportunity to play games. Unfortunately for a while he simply wasn't assertive enough on offense and it was as if he wasn't there. It's hard to justify putting someone on the court who is reluctant to use what would be the best way he could help the team. Absent that and he is just a minor liability on defense.

There's always going to be a need for defensive stops against the opposing team's best players. That's Brown's offering to the Pistons and the reason there will always be minutes for that.

I think for the most part the Brown vs Kennard minutes discussion is irrelevant at this point. If/when Kennard comes back he is going to get plenty of minutes if he's healthy. That pattern was already established prior to him getting injured.

As for Sekou, I don't know what people really want.

The guy plays 20-30 minutes per game in Grand Rapids to learn fundamentals. Questions arise here as to why he doesn't get minutes in the NBA. So they bring him up. He plays 26.5 mpg in January but starts to trail off towards the end; most likely because he isn't used to the grueling schedule. So he gets a slight reduction in February (23 mpg) and now I hear that Casey can't develop players and even some calls saying they brought him up to early.

Just as a reference point, Giannis averaged 6.8 ppg his first year in the league on 24 mpg.
Sekou is averaging 6.8 ppg in his first year in the league; playing around 24 mpg for the last two months.

Giannis got his first start a month and change after he first started appearing in NBA games when he was almost 19.
Sekou got his first start a month and change after he first started appearing in NBA games when he was just past 19.

I'm not going to pretend that Sekou is going to turn into the next Giannis. But if he doesn't it won't be because he wasn't given similar opportunities and produced some similar results.

[7r5ur]

24 minutes is plenty of time for as how bad Sekou has been playing. Letting players make mistakes doesn’t always result in learning from them...it can also instill bad habits.

I agree the minutes are fine, but I'd like to see him more involved. They basically make him a corner 3-point shooter only, as Casey does with every young wing we've had. It took until year 3 (and a bunch of injuries to our scorers) for Kennard, who is an advanced offensive player, to ever really get things running his way, and we saw how much he improved.

Obviously, Sekou is far more raw than Luke, but letting him go out there and make mistakes by getting involved is what tanking is all about. Not just having him fill a space on the floor.

[Invictus88]

24 minutes is plenty of time for as how bad Sekou has been playing. Letting players make mistakes doesn’t always result in learning from them...it can also instill bad habits.

I agree the minutes are fine, but I'd like to see him more involved. They basically make him a corner 3-point shooter only, as Casey does with every young wing we've had. It took until year 3 (and a bunch of injuries to our scorers) for Kennard, who is an advanced offensive player, to ever really get things running his way, and we saw how much he improved.

Obviously, Sekou is far more raw than Luke, but letting him go out there and make mistakes by getting involved is what tanking is all about. Not just having him fill a space on the floor.

Kennard improved because he finally stopped passing up open shots and got better at driving to the basket. It wasn't due to lack of opportunity early on.

I'll freely admit not seeing the last few of the Pistons' games (I now live on the west coast and can't always make a 4pm start).
But I would be shocked if Sekou wasn't getting at least some touches.

His usage rate could be better though. It's at 16.8 right now; with the average being at 20. But we just let go of 51% of our usage total in the last 5 games (Kieff and Jackson). So there's only DRose left hogging the ball ar > 30% Sekou is going to get touches by literal process of elimination.

[7r5ur]

24 minutes is plenty of time for as how bad Sekou has been playing. Letting players make mistakes doesn’t always result in learning from them...it can also instill bad habits.

I agree the minutes are fine, but I'd like to see him more involved. They basically make him a corner 3-point shooter only, as Casey does with every young wing we've had. It took until year 3 (and a bunch of injuries to our scorers) for Kennard, who is an advanced offensive player, to ever really get things running his way, and we saw how much he improved.

Obviously, Sekou is far more raw than Luke, but letting him go out there and make mistakes by getting involved is what tanking is all about. Not just having him fill a space on the floor.

Kennard improved because he finally stopped passing up open shots and got better at driving to the basket. It wasn't due to lack of opportunity early on.

Yeah, I just don't buy that. While he did get more confident and was willing to shoot more freely, most of that came as a result of the fact that he was finally getting the ball in his hands earlier in the play far more often. Not just standing around, praying that whoever was dominating the ball would pass it to him so he could maybe get a look at a shot late in the clock. Just look at his assist numbers. They tell the story just as much as the points, if not more.

If all of our scorers weren't hurt to start the season, you can be damn sure Casey would have never let that happen. (maybe it would have been good for Luke's knees )

As coaches like Casey often like to do, they're afraid a young player is going to make a mistake, so they just try to "hide" them on the floor by giving them no responsibility at all instead of just letting them play to their strengths.

[whitehops]

The minutes sekou gets now are strictly so he can get accustomed to the speed, the communication, etc. His real improvement will come in the off season when he can work on his shooting, dribbling, etc.

I think you guys are misremembering what happened with kennard. When he was a rookie he really struggled to get separation. Coming off screens, in the pick and roll, off the dribble, etc. That’s one of the reasons he was so timid. Since then he’s worked on his game and now has step backs, pull ups, a quicker set up for his shot, etc. All those things allow him to handle the ball more and actually make plays, instead of taking a few dribbles and passing it off.

[Billl]

Sekou definitely needs an off season or two to tighten things up. It's fine to say "get him more involved", but he's currently a turnover machine when he puts he ball on the floor in the half court. His dribble is high, he drives into traffic, he tosses up really weak stuff from 8 ft, and he's getting blocked a lot on drives. The best thing for him is if they just have him play to his strengths at this point. We desperately need a pg that can run the break though - and not just a 1 man break. If he was getting a couple looks in transition in addition to those 3's and the occasional dive, things would open up for him a bit.

[Invictus88]

I agree the minutes are fine, but I'd like to see him more involved. They basically make him a corner 3-point shooter only, as Casey does with every young wing we've had. It took until year 3 (and a bunch of injuries to our scorers) for Kennard, who is an advanced offensive player, to ever really get things running his way, and we saw how much he improved.

Obviously, Sekou is far more raw than Luke, but letting him go out there and make mistakes by getting involved is what tanking is all about. Not just having him fill a space on the floor.

Kennard improved because he finally stopped passing up open shots and got better at driving to the basket. It wasn't due to lack of opportunity early on.

Yeah, I just don't buy that. While he did get more confident and was willing to shoot more freely, most of that came as a result of the fact that he was finally getting the ball in his hands earlier in the play far more often. Not just standing around, praying that whoever was dominating the ball would pass it to him so he could maybe get a look at a shot late in the clock. Just look at his assist numbers. They tell the story just as much as the points, if not more.

If all of our scorers weren't hurt to start the season, you can be damn sure Casey would have never let that happen. (maybe it would have been good for Luke's knees )

As coaches like Casey often like to do, they're afraid a young player is going to make a mistake, so they just try to "hide" them on the floor by giving them no responsibility at all instead of just letting them play to their strengths.

We'll have to agree to disagree here. I can't even count the number of times I watched him early on pass up unguarded three point looks; only to get it right back and pass up *another* shot. That was the reason his assist numbers were up.

I remember foolishly yelling at the TV "just shoot it!" ; like I was in the crowd at that first game in the movie Hoosiers.