quote:
What I don't understand is that the players we keep naming that we missed on -- Brunson, Maxey, etc. - all got immediate playing time to find out what they actually have with them.. Meanwhile we put training wheels on every draft pick we make except for Herb, who coincidentally is in the running for DPOY and making big strides this year..

Why do you think that is?

When you can play, it’s obvious from the get go. It doesn’t matter if you are playing on a lottery bound team or a contender, if you can ball as a rookie you will play. It’s as simple as that.

Maxey isn’t better than Kira b/c he was given more of a chance. He’s better b/c he’s better.
I said it after a few games that it wasn’t a good sign that Kira wasn’t playing, or that he was always playing off ball. The signs were obvious that he wasn’t impressing anyone on the staff.
NAW got plenty of playing time early on, despite struggling at times he kept getting playing time. He played in the first 15 games of the season. Kira didn’t play in our first 4 games of the season, and was one of the last rookies in the league to make his debut, and the only reason he played a game in the first 10 games is b/c we lost a game by 30 in that 5th game where he got in.

It was obvious the coaches saw something in NAW that they didn’t see in Kira. I know Hawkins didn’t play as much down the stretch, but I think it’s obvious they see something in him as well. I know all of us do.

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Posted by shel311

McKinney, Texas

Member since Aug 2004

111202 posts

Posted on 5/2/24 at 10:01 am to TeddyPadillac

quote:
When you can play, it’s obvious from the get go. It doesn’t matter if you are playing on a lottery bound team or a contender, if you can ball as a rookie you will play. It’s as simple as that.

Hawkins played 9 games this season where he got 30 minutes or more:

21 points per game
5.5 rebounds per game
3 assists per game
1.4 steals per game
1.8 turnovers per game
44.9% FG%
38.4% 3pt%

Not saying he needed 30+ a game, but it sure seemed like he played better when he was in the rotation with solidified minutes.

quote:
I know Hawkins didn’t play as much down the stretch, but I think it’s obvious they see something in him as well.

But why can't we have guys we see something in in our rotation? Other teams do it, and they deal with the bumps and bruises along the way. Like it was said, other than Herb, we just don't do it.

Hawkins showed he belonged when we gave him a chance, and we just took him out of the rotation entirely.

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Posted by jmcwhrter

Member since Nov 2012

6600 posts

Posted on 5/2/24 at 11:41 am to TeddyPadillac

quote:
When you can play, it’s obvious from the get go. It doesn’t matter if you are playing on a lottery bound team or a contender, if you can ball as a rookie you will play. It’s as simple as that.

Yeah that's my point.. Kira obviously sucked, but Hawkins was filling up the box score to start this year, until teams understandably adjusted to him... but rather than give him some slack to work thru it (or *gasp* adjust our offense to get him into better positions), we bury him on the bench.

Trey was easily the best rookie in the Summer League -- on both ends of the floor.. he gets into the regular season and teams find his weaknesses and exploit them. Rather than see if he has the game to figure it out, we send him to the G-league. He comes back with a 3pt shot but still gets lost on defense pretty often

This post was edited on 5/2/24 at 11:43 am

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