? Are you finally admitting that Stotts is no better than a college coach? Little was considered a sure fire lottery pick. In fact, we had other plans with our pick until he dropped to us.
Props to Little for being patient and for putting in hours and reps to improve his game. It’s paying off. Love players who are so dedicated.
Little was considered a surefire lottery pick by everyone except the people in charge of deciding who was ACTUALLY a lottery pick. Little is a project. The project is currently paying off. Kudos to Little and the coaching staff.
Name another player to win Jordan Classic and McDonald's MVP? I'll wait. The other "project" was LeBron James. Players drop for all sorts of reasons. He was lottery talent and it shows.
If I remember right Little wasn’t even on our draft board because Neil was certain that he’d be gone in the early 20’s where we were picking. He kept sliding further down the draft board and Neil tore up the script and said fuck it we’ll take the guy who has star upside instead of trying to pick who we were zoning in on. I think a couple reasons why he fell so much is because he didn’t do well in the pre-draft workouts, he got out shined by Koby White at UNC and he’s got a tweener type body (which I think is bullshit, if you can play you can play).
He fell so much because of basketball IQ*. Despite lottery talent, GMs knew he was a 2-year project, so each one took a faster-returns player they loved. On the TV draft program, they kept saying, "He's the best one left. The next team will take him." Finally one did, Olshey. Every year there's a player like that, mentioned many times on the show until he's drafted. He was no great find by Olshey; it was the obvious pick. *Do not confuse unchangeable regular IQ with changeable coachable BBIQ, except for Meyers Leonard.
I feel ya buddy. I was pissed when Hood got to come in first. I can’t believe Stotts would do that but of course he is Stotts. He decided to give mins to a player who has been struggling all year and also in no way could keep up with the Pelicans fast pace. He decided to give that guy mins over the player who has been shooting incredibly well lately. I gotta imagine Little would be frustrated.
Oh yes - MVP of high school all-star games is a guarantee of a long and stellar NBA career. Like Josh McRoberts and Chase Budinger. Makes you wonder why he dropped.
I said in another post, but I think the reason Hood is playing before Nas is ball handling. Hood is someone who can run the offense and take that pressure off Dame, With CJ out we need another ball handler. Nas really needs to work on this part of his game.
I alluded to the same thing. IMO the decision on which one to play is not so clear-cut as some are suggesting. They bring different skill sets to the table. Yes, Hood's shooting has been inconsistent off the bench, but that is pretty much true of all bench players. I can also see the logic of Terry wanting to have the extra ball-handler in there with Simons. However, once CJ gets back and is playing with the 2nd unit then I can see the logic of having Nas in there with Simons and Melo.
Well, some of us think Hood has been very consistent off the bench - consistently bad. That's why people keep throwing up stats. I like Rodney, I really do, and I do think he should be given the benefit of the doubt. However, after playing all of these games, the doubt is gone. I'm still hoping he can be a rotation player, but he's still coming off an injury. When he and his game have recovered, play him. He's not ready now. The "ball handling" argument would be plausible if he wasn't playing so poorly. Until then, it's just a mediocre guess as to why he's playing.
I don’t think Hood has been bad, he’s just a victim of not getting enough touches. He’s only attempted more than 10 shots twice this season, and produced both times. He’s most frequently been used in a lineup that also features Melo, Trent, and Simons. Hard to see where the opportunity would come from, short of cutting Melos playing time, which seems more like a fantasy than reality. Hood is a scorer, if he’s not getting opportunities to score, he’s not of much use. He would probably be a good trade piece considering the size and length of his contract, but I’m also fairly certain he can veto any trade. Maybe I’m wrong. Either way, if he can help land us a four, we should consider it.
Except we went through the exact same thing last season. Same people complaining. Last year it was WTF is Stotts doing playing Mario instead of Wenyen, this year it is Hood instead of Nas. What is the one common denominator is the one who can handle the rock is the one who is playing. I would say it is not a guess, but based on past experiences
So if you are saying he has played consistently bad, then did you not watch the game @ Philly @WA. @ Chi. home against NY? Because to say he played badly or was not ready in those games makes no logical sense.
