It looks like POB responded well in this game on January 28. http://www.nba.com/dleague/games/20070128/...D/boxscore.html He had 14 points, 9 boards, 3 blocks, 2 assists, 2 turnovers and only 3 fouls on 6-11 shooting. I just hope he wasn't guarding Sean Banks. The Jam in general don't seem like that great of a team. He also seemed to do well in this game on January 27th. http://www.nba.com/dleague/games/20070127/...e.html?nav=page He had 12 points, 6 boards, 3 blocks, 3 steals, 1 assist, 2 turnovers and only 3 fouls again on 6-11 shooting. I like how POB is blocking shots. Next he needs to keep his rebounding going.
Maybe POB is coming around. He has had three decent/good games in a row, since Nelson is committed to leaving O'Bryant in the D-League if he doesn't start to excel down there. He scored 18 points, grabbed 14 boards, rejected 4 shots, 2 assists, 2 personal fouls, and three turnovers. http://www.nba.com/dleague/games/20070131/...W/boxscore.html I suppose I am still rooting for this guy. I am eager to see him develop into a AB type of player who is mobile, can handle the ball (at least in the sense that he doesn't panic with the ball in his hands), he is tall so he can block shots, and hopefully he can continue to improve on rebounding to really make a good impact on the team. I want to see him develop that hook shot people are high on, and I want to see him develop that AB up and under move.
Maybe we should call him up. Play him at C, Biedrins at PF. How does that sound? Maybe Biedrins won't get into so much foul trouble this way. C: POB PF: Biedrins SF: Sjax SG: Pietrus PG: Baron C: Foyle / Powell PF: Powell / Harrington / Barnes SF: Harrington / Barnes SG: Azu/Ellis/Cabbages PG: Ellis/Cabbages The rookie probably has no business starting, but it's either him or Foyle or Powell. POB can at least shoot free throws and block a few shots. He had a nice pass to that 10 day contract guy. Maybe we could see some nifty passing again to a cutting Biedrins, Pietrus or back out to Davis or Jackson.
^Hopefully we'll see that lineup once we're out of the playoff hunt. If anything it will be fun to watch the development of Biedrins and POB. The only change I would make to that lineup is putting in Harrington at SF. Apparently he can play decent D against SFs. I had no idea that Harrington's D at PF would be this bad, and that was despite all the warnings from Pacer and Hawk fans. I thought there's no way he can be worse than Murphy and Barnes and whoever has been defending at PF. It's sad to think that Pietrus is the teams best PF, and that Pietrus sucks at every other position (SF and SG)
<div class="quote_poster">Gohn Wrote</div><div class="quote_post"> I had no idea that Harrington's D at PF would be this bad, and that was despite all the warnings from Pacer and Hawk fans. I thought there's no way he can be worse than Murphy and Barnes and whoever has been defending at PF. It's sad to think that Pietrus is the teams best PF, and that Pietrus sucks at every other position (SF and SG)</div> Yeah it was pretty bad. That's why I tend to pick on him the most despite his few games where he had excellent scoring figures. But the last thing we need is more scoring when other guys can do that too and more. Only one guy can shoot the ball at a time, but it takes 5 guys together to create the offense and play the defense. But I guess we don't do that 5 player type offense anyway. It's just one or two guys doing everything it seems while the other guys wait for the ball. You know, I really missed it when we had guys that could score in different ways and in actual halfcourt setting... We weren't even that good, but we had different types of players that could do a few things that the other team couldn't match (like Speedy's quickness and Dampier's offensive rebounding on other people's misses) btw I'm just saying other people's misses because offensive rebounds don't really count if you just collect your own miss three times in a row for 3.0 off rebounds per game. Make the shot!
It sure would be nice to have a big body like POB playing. I dont know if it would be a good match to have Beans at PF and POB at C. They are too similar at this point. Maybe POB can develop the outside game and let Beans stay inside. I doubt with the way beans shoots his FTs that he will ever have a consistent jumper...
I think that Al's defense hasn't been that bad. Hes not outstanding on defense, hell hes probably not even above average but I think hes a noticeable upgrade over Murphy and Ike. He doesn't shy away from contact like Murphy did and he actually boxes out, fights for position in the post, doesn't give any ground. He never bites on pump fakes, knows his limits and that he can't block shots due to his limited hops and being undersized without freakish length to make up for it. He does play good position defense though, hes not a shutdown guy but I don't see guys lighting him up like I did Murphy and Ike. He uses his strength and quickness to his advantage by playing good position defense and hes a smart, experienced defender as we've seen with him pulling the chair out on a few guys and getting a lot of steals with his quick hands on the inside. With Jackson and Harrington we've got the athleticism to play more man to man. Murphy, Dunleavy, and Ike's poor defensive play and lack of athleticism were probably big reasons why we played zone, Jackson is a very solid defender and Harrington holds his own. I'd still like to have a big, athletic, defensive-minded PF/C coming off the bench, maybe Powell can be that guy, but I think we're a better defensive team now than before.
We definately need to play more man to man with our athleticism and with Jackson. He is a decent defender...
Back to POB, tonight he had 23 points, 9 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 ast, 2 stl, 2 TO, 3 PF on 6/15 FG, 11/12 FT in 51 minutes (game went to double OT). Hes been balling ever since Nellie told him that hes probably going to be there for the rest of the season. Box Score
Good for him! I say we keep him down there until we make the playoffs, or if we are down to a real final push because we could use all the help we can get. Heck, if he keeps this up, we might have to bring him back up early to make sure we can even have a playoff push!
11/12 FT -- not bad at all. But in double-over time I'd expect my grandma to get 23 points Once he starts putting up 20/10 every night, then he'll be ready for a call up. Dude should have been getting at least 15/9 from day one. There aren't many guys 6-11 down there, let alone 7 feet. But that's at least encouraging. Maybe he'll get pissed off and start playing with some gusto.
They should also report to the media that POB's cooking sucks, especially his cheesecake. Maybe he'll get pissed off into doing a triple double (Blocks, boards, and points).
O'Bryant is getting more boards, he's blocking shots, getting steals, and even has improved scoring while obviously being a bigger focus now during his second trip down to the D-League while keeping his fouls down. His shot blocking stats seem very impressive. I remember even his last game vs. the Clippers before he was sent down again he had two blocks and a couple of other plays where he probably got screwed by the refs. The Jam do seem like a pretty bad team. They hardly ever win it seems. But if O'Bryant can continue to block shots while improving his rebounding and starts to become a good or decent rebounder I would think he would be called up. The scoring is nice, but I think the rebounding was a slightly bigger concern. But it is good to see POB get his offensive groove going.
But even with POB doing well for dev league, it's all relative to how it can apply in the nba. (John Edwards got 20/10 type stats) Still, I'd welcome any kind of big man help with good hands and ability to do a few nice things for us... We're so weak, we'd probably save a few layups on defense and get a few high % buckets with having a guy in the middle to get fouled and taking shots over smaller players. The guy is pretty mobile with extremely long arms for seven feet tall.
<div class="quote_poster">Warriorfansnc93 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">We definately need to play more man to man with our athleticism and with Jackson. He is a decent defender...</div> I thought Nellie went to man tonight, but for some reason Mo Cheeks abandoned his big men. He shoulda just kept pounding inside with his big men and wear AB down.
Yeah, it is all relative, but anything is better than what we have right now, especially if Beans goes down. All we have is Foyle...
O'Bryant,like a lot of big rooks with some rough edges,needs MINUTES. In rationed fragments of 5-8 min,a guy is hardly doing more than refresh and impress. He's not getting attuned to the team,the refs,not getting any comfort zone or usable learning experiance. He's looking over his shoulder like the new kid in town,insecure,a bit lost,trying to impress ASAP. Give the guy some legit minutes and hwe's soon playing BALL...not like a freshman at his first school dance,but like a guy who has some sense of his abilities,a guy who can focus on playing the game rather than finding his way around. With the Warriors...there's always that pathetic need to win 44% instead of 41% so the investment in the future is borderline. In Nellie's case...he's comfortable that a guy under 6-7 needed some polish to even get to the NBA...but he's extra demanding that a big plays "experianced" while at the same time--he can't get experiance here.
<div class="quote_poster">Warriorfansnc93 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">We definately need to play more man to man with our athleticism and with Jackson. He is a decent defender...</div> Jackson is a guy who CAN play well..but only does it in streaks. In Man D,your failures are relatively obvious,you can't slack or space out and rely on a teammate to bail you out. Jax is a guy I'd use in segments equal to his attention span and level of effort-efficiency.
<div class="quote_poster">REREM Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Jackson is a guy who CAN play well..but only does it in streaks. In Man D,your failures are relatively obvious,you can't slack or space out and rely on a teammate to bail you out. Jax is a guy I'd use in segments equal to his attention span and level of effort-efficiency.</div> Disagree. SJax has looked a little tentative at times, but IMO that's because he's trying to fit in with a new team / doesn't want to look like a ball-hog / is trying to figure out how to impress Nellie / etc. I remember several Warriors vs. Pacers games where SJax just made mince meat of JRich. Not only did he COMPLETELY take Jrich out of his game on the defensive end, he also scored like 25 or 30 points on the other end. SJax really can be a lock down defender for 48 minutes. I know he has yet to really get into his groove, but I'd give it another 5 - 10 games.
Let's get the thread back on track. What do we do? POB is starting to play like we thought he could in the NBDL. He's putting up some impressive numbers since Nelson bashed him. Certainly, NBDL has shown to help raw rookies and project types develop their game down there. So, keeping POB in the NBDL should definitely help him become a better player for the future. I think there will be a trend to use the NBDL more in the near future. OTOH should POB be called up again in order to give Andris Biedrins some down time or do we play Foyle? Even if we go to Foyle, he may not be able to play a lot of minutes if we have to win the game in order to stay in playoff contention. That's called being Foyled. We can also go the trade route before Feb 22nd. Another big man has become available in Dan Gadzurik. Of course, it would be nice if the Milwaukee Bucks would take Foyle in trade, but don't think they want to add a fat contract. Maybe they could be convinced Foyle isn't long term, but really has two years left after this year and then becomes a valuable expiring contract .
