watching espn this morning its sounding like the memphis coach is getting the hard push and he's listening. i can see him going from the big fish small pond going to try to be the big fish big pond.... but state's a pretty big pond, and he'd be crazy to ever leave there....
I'm really impressed with his FT shooting lately. That's great. I'd rather have all of our bigs spread the rebounding load than Dice having 20 board games. How nice it is to see AJ get good minutes and play good.
They always say that you want to be playing your best basketball when the playoffs roll around. That may be true for us this year. We just went through a really tough stretch where bench players had to carry the load. The confidence than they have in eachother and that the coach must have in them now (Will Bynum for example) combined with the bonding-through-adverity could prove powerful. On top of all that, we have the AI dynamic with him in a new role. If this new formula happens to work, then we could be better than we think. Need momentum and need our players to come together for a cinderella story. I don't see any reason why we can't pull off an upset over any team in the league if we are playing up to our potential. Sure, they'll be drastically out-coached, but... well... maybe that is one reason.
According to lee, we have the best roster in the NBA. I normally might dismiss these comments but he watches the games one frame at a time.
We do have a very good team. It's being managed by a rookie with no coaching experience at any level prior to this who has been flip flopping all year long on his vision. Stuckey- was playing like the best player on the team for a while Rip- multiple all-star, Final 4 champ, NBA finals champ, best mid-range jump shooter in the game, best at moving without the ball in the game, former 3point % champion. Tay- college success, NBA champ, Olympic gold medalist, defensive stand-out, versitile offensive game with 3-point range Dyess- one of best jump shooting bigs in game, hungry, rebounding machine, former Olympian Sheed- most talented post player in the game... when he wants to be. Huge 3-point threat. Defensive master. NBA champ. AI- no explanation needed. Maxiell/Brown/Amir- awesome bench big man package. Energy, defense, rebounding, toughness, all willing to dive on the floor at any time. Bynum- ankle breaker with crazy hops and seems to be fearless because of all his experience outside of NBA. Afflalo- efficient scorer and future Bruce Bowen. Has Kobe-like intensity in his love for the game and desire to get better. Herrmann- great hair. So, I agree that we are as deep and talented as a it gets. We even have the proverbial superstar. Give this roster to Popovich and he'd do just fine.
A little late, but I just watched some of the game via DVR. Good coaching at the end by Curry leaving Amir and Bynum in. Even though Stuckey was playing well he left Bynum in and didn't mess with what was working. I agree partly with the roster thing. I don't in particular think we have the best roster and I didn't even think our bench was top 15 (But with AI coming off it, it changes). With AI coming off the bench you could argue we have a top 5 bench. Come playoff time it will be exciting to watch, but I'm not going into it with high expectations. It will be interesting to see how Curry and the staff coach a 7 game series and how hungry AI is coming off the bench. No more CB, lets see how this "new" team plays. It's going to be a good guage of where we are at for next season that's for sure.
As always with this team, it's not how they go into games, it's how they react in the game. If they are going to be mentally tough, they can go toe to toe with anyone. If they take a hit, and start blaming the coach, and infighting, getting techs and hanging their heads, it's over. The last 3 years, these guys eliminated themselves. They did NOT leave it all on the court. Let's see what happens this year.
