DontForgetDerekHarper
Starter
what cracks me up about you idiots ont his site, is the fact that Mike D who sticks with his philosophy gives burn and has given burn to a multitude of players who are not offensive gurus on the court.
whether it be kurt thomas who did play significant minutes in pho for him
or boris diaw who was a terrible offensive player when he came into the league, and mike D turned him into an all around special player for pho when amare went down
or jared jefferies who is the worst offensive player I have ever seen, who started for us due to his defensive skills
or rony turiaf, who has no legitimate post moves what so ever, but has played in just about every game he has suited up for because his defensive presence
we started timofey mozgof in hopes he can provide shot blocking and size in the paint
we drafted tony douglas because he was the defensive player of the year in the ACC.
Mike D pushed for the pick up of raja bell as a defensive stopper to match up with kobe in the playoffs
I remember mike D giving steven hunter alot of burn off the bench avg 1.5 blks per game, as a horrible offensive player, but a valid back up for amare because he played defensive.
same as bo outlaw, who they picked up that year for defensive, but bo was injured a majority of his time there, so that never panned out.
The point is, mike has consistently played non offensive minded, defensive gifted players through out his career as a coach in the NBA.
so please stop with this crap about he only plays offensive players, because its untrue.
When shaq went to the suns, that team was stacked, and mike played shaq well into his system, revamping shaqs statistical output, only to fall to the spurs in the playoffs, because shaq couldnt make his foul shots ( literally thats why they lost, I remember being at hooters watching the game in atlantic city, and couldnt believe how many he missed down the stretch, and Mike D's face was like ? )
Mike D plays defensive players, and gets the best out of them offensively.
our only issue is we just dont have enough players on our team to take us to the level we want, defensive or not defensive, we need more playable bodies, if randolph wasnt a head case, looking over to the bench after each miss, he would be playing, and if azabukie wasnt in street clothes same thing.
the fact is, we are still in "rebuilding" mode, although we are progressing, I myself didnt predict we would be locked into the 6th seed, and no one else did either.
if I remember our predictions were literally, 7-8 seed, 40-42 wins.
a few weeks ago when we hit that long hard stretch, every one was like
"we will be 10 games below 500 by february"
well , we beat the spurs by 13, beat the thunder, the bulls, dismanted the suns and blazers, lost a hard fought battle to the jazz, and like alot of teams coming back from a rough west coast trip, we had a let down game against the kings.
either way.
we are in good, if not better shape than expected
and I am still excited about the direction we are going .
whether it be kurt thomas who did play significant minutes in pho for him
or boris diaw who was a terrible offensive player when he came into the league, and mike D turned him into an all around special player for pho when amare went down
or jared jefferies who is the worst offensive player I have ever seen, who started for us due to his defensive skills
or rony turiaf, who has no legitimate post moves what so ever, but has played in just about every game he has suited up for because his defensive presence
we started timofey mozgof in hopes he can provide shot blocking and size in the paint
we drafted tony douglas because he was the defensive player of the year in the ACC.
Mike D pushed for the pick up of raja bell as a defensive stopper to match up with kobe in the playoffs
I remember mike D giving steven hunter alot of burn off the bench avg 1.5 blks per game, as a horrible offensive player, but a valid back up for amare because he played defensive.
same as bo outlaw, who they picked up that year for defensive, but bo was injured a majority of his time there, so that never panned out.
The point is, mike has consistently played non offensive minded, defensive gifted players through out his career as a coach in the NBA.
so please stop with this crap about he only plays offensive players, because its untrue.
When shaq went to the suns, that team was stacked, and mike played shaq well into his system, revamping shaqs statistical output, only to fall to the spurs in the playoffs, because shaq couldnt make his foul shots ( literally thats why they lost, I remember being at hooters watching the game in atlantic city, and couldnt believe how many he missed down the stretch, and Mike D's face was like ? )
Mike D plays defensive players, and gets the best out of them offensively.
our only issue is we just dont have enough players on our team to take us to the level we want, defensive or not defensive, we need more playable bodies, if randolph wasnt a head case, looking over to the bench after each miss, he would be playing, and if azabukie wasnt in street clothes same thing.
the fact is, we are still in "rebuilding" mode, although we are progressing, I myself didnt predict we would be locked into the 6th seed, and no one else did either.
if I remember our predictions were literally, 7-8 seed, 40-42 wins.
a few weeks ago when we hit that long hard stretch, every one was like
"we will be 10 games below 500 by february"
well , we beat the spurs by 13, beat the thunder, the bulls, dismanted the suns and blazers, lost a hard fought battle to the jazz, and like alot of teams coming back from a rough west coast trip, we had a let down game against the kings.
either way.
we are in good, if not better shape than expected
and I am still excited about the direction we are going .