If that game don't make you want to shout...you lost your shouter. Grimes-to-Obi oop highlight of the year to date. Good stuff, forces Thibs to confront all the things he clearly doesn't want to do...but has to
Good stuff, Dawg.
Grimes is a
feral dawg on D, and once he gets into his offensive comfort zone, could be the second coming of John Starks. The way he got after the Hawks was really something, and translated to our entire team's defense.
Funny we haven't gotten one of BoD's in-depth breakdowns of Burks, explaining how skanky his play is.
The Burks/Quickley dynamic was very interesting. In terms of getting us into an offensive flow, and not giving up too much on D.
Alan Hahn is petitioning for IQ to get his graduation papers as our starting PG.
Don't really see that happenning quite yet, but he has earned his team's trust. And and while his shooting was not in the Twilight Zone, he hit some key shots, he had 7 assists, some quite lovely, and his defensive tenacity was stellar.
IQ, Grimes, Sims, RJ, Randle, Obi and Burks all got after it on D. Fournier still a work in progress [was a -10] but he clearly has the stones to withstand the glaring search light of the NY fans and media, and he was effective both on long range shots and creating.
The key difference I noted in the absence of Kemba, was a lot less ISO ball, with cats stadng around in their spots, and more offensive movement.
And better D. The energy of our hybrid second unit, with Puppies on Parade, was really worthy of a SHOUT, as the usually cynical Dawg has duly noted. It was contagious.
Which brings us to the current climate of dumping on Julius, including last night, where while his individual game offensively was a struggle, he faciliated a lot more easy baskets for his team mates than his 4 assists would suggest, contributing to better motion and ball movement, a force on the boards, and really solid, tenacious...SMART defense. On O, I really liked that hard nosed drive to the hoop in the final seconds of the third.
In the feeding frenzy to demonize JR, has anyone notices how consciously he has been trying to evolve his game, individually, and how it translates to making him less ball dominant, less obsessed with Thibs take the three mindset, and making his mates better. We have taken notice of a solid offensive performance from Fournier and an inspired one by Burks, but while RJ was shajy from the FT line last night, he was a solid 6-11 from the field, with 7 boards and a team leading +18.
In short, Julius does NOT NEED to tally 35-10 to impact the team. He is CLEARLY struggling to find his stroke and rhythm offensively, but I watched the game twice last night, and he was manning up.
I don't agree with Facil's suggestion to cut Selden. Pointless. Clearly he does a lot in practice that we do not see.
But the conundrum of Kemba and Rose is more challenging...Thibs is not going to want to lose them...and one must wonder how much of the starting unit's static offense, and lack of motion and ball movement is on Kemba. Let alone our defensive vulnerability with Kemba. Or how much is on Thibs.
Again, we have much work to do, and it is challenging to find coherence and rhythm...and MINUTES for everyone.
But talk about a good problem to have.
Our PUPPIES were inspiring and made the most of their minutes. Sims clearly earned a significant piece of Thibs' trust with a +14 in 21 minutes, including six boards a steal and two blocks. And as someone pointed out, energy, Energy, ENERGY, as he seemed involved in every scrum, just battling. Clearly he can push Mitchell, Nerlens and Taj.
Obi 13-2-2 [+7, hit all of his free throws]
IQ a +9 with 7 dimes and 3 boards, and he just eviscerated Sweet Lou and Trae Bien in the 4th quarter with RELENTLESS D.
And Grimes was scary good on D, an impactful +8 in 15 minutes.
Okay, the moment has passed. Enjoy it.
Be interesting to see how we respond to a Barclays Center crowd, and an angry Nyets team coming off of a tough loss to Phoenix.
Be more interesting to see how Thibs deploys his new options or if he stubbornly, reflexively just goes back to his veteran heavy mix and dependence on JR as progenitor of the offense.
THIBS SAID HE WANTED ENERGY AND INTENSITY.
Well, be careful what you wish for. Jericho, Obi, IQ and Grimes gave it to him in triplicate, and Burks gave us food for thought vis a vis our starting five, and how our on court deployment might change vis a vis the intensity Thibs claims to long for.
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