I’m with you on this. That preception of reputation doesn’t seem to exist out there in any print or recorded media I’ve seen or heard and I feel like I track this stuff like a crazy person.
What were your takes on Kai and Vernon when they were out there?
Never a doubt
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And that’s why I don’t want a point guard who can’t shoot free throws.
Case and point.
Great win man
This will pay off in playoffs
We are deeeeep
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That reversal on Cody was bs
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Hey bud, I also say this with love: the troupe of “don’t question the coach, he knows better, and player x just hasn’t earned minutes”.
Sorry, but that’s a lazy take. “Hasn’t earned minutes”. 1) are you at practices or something? 2) guys need to actually see the floor to prove they can earn more minutes. Bouknight literally played 8 minutes for the first month and a half
I really like coach JB, but I do not like some of his approach to player management-especially the young guys.
I’m not saying I hate coach JB and I’m not saying that I think Bouknight is a superstar. I have no idea about Bouknight because we haven’t seen him. This is the first night he got REAL run, and he looked pretty good to me…
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It was a great start to the young guys earning more trust and minutes
If anyone has Cody Martin in the fantasy league, he just put up a 9 cat GEM
I’m not saying don’t question the coach. Question the coach when it makes sense to do so. But right now we’re the deepest we’ve ever been at the wing position and we have guys like Cody Martin who are doing a little bit of everything and have clearly earned their time.
For years, we heard the same thing about Monk. If he just got more time, he’d prove to be an elite player. Instead, what he proved was he had elite potential but would have games where he was great and games where he didn’t do much. There were games where he took over and games where he actively hurt the team with his decision making.
Games aren’t the only time that coaches see how a player is running with the team, making defensive rotations, making sound offensive decisions, etc. In Bouknight’s case, not only does he have to prove that, but he has to prove he can do it better than guys like Oubre, Martin, and Ish Smith who are are our bench when our guys are healthy. That’s a lot to ask a rookie coming into the league after a pandemic. Not to mention, coach’s primary objective right now is to build a system where guys start to make plays unconsciously with one another, giving us a chance to be competitive with teams with better talent. Bringing players in who aren’t ready for that harm the flow and synergy that JB is trying to build with the rest of the team. Of course, none of us are at practice. But I think it’s more reasonable to assume that JB is making his rotations based on a combination of team dynamic and game specific needs than some kind of pouty desire to stick to a young player like he’s some petty, hack youth coach.
The reason I trust JB to do the right thing until he proves otherwise is that his entire job is to make the team successful while the rest of us who judge him are a bunch of knuckleheads that like to talk about basketball in our free time. That’s not to say he doesn’t have short comings or make mistakes. But I have no reason to believe that he wouldn’t play a guy who makes the team better. He’s shown he can develop young players, as we’ve gotten a lot more out of second round picks than most teams have in the last few years.
I mean, it’s the internet. By all means say what you want. I just don’t think there’s any validity to some scenario where JB doesn’t like the young player and won’t play him. And it’s a downer to see a guy be successful and then have that story turn into negative judgment of a coach who has us in the playoff hunt.
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We’re a .500 team that’s flirting with the playoffs. We’re not going to the ECF this season. Play the young guys.
Dnbman, I’ll read your well thought out post tomorrow and respond when I have time. I appreciate your response.
Also the crowd was great tonight, as someone who wasnt alive to see the 90s crowd it’s great to see a the Hornets with a loud passionate crowd no matter who we play
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Well said dnbman. Sports is the ultimate meritocracy. A coach has zero incentive to not play a guy who could help him win because he’s got as much skin in the game as anyone. We may disagree with the rationale sometimes, but we can trust that most every coach is going to play the guys he truly believes gives the team the best chance to win.
We all know Bouk has talent and I’m glad he got an opportunity to show it tonight. But for those who think he should be playing, who sits? Terry, no. Lamelo, absolutely not. Cody, not with how well he’s been playing. Oubre, nope. There’s just not a spot in the rotation right now. But it’s a long season and there will be other nights like tonight when we need him.
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I can see along the same lines as you with JB. Remember who he came up in the NBA under. Pop is notorious for doing similar things, but Borrego seems even more stubborn at times.
Bouknight, our 11th pick, should have been given minutes to start the year, maybe 8-10 a night to see what he has and help him get comfortable. Terry was out and he could have played. There were a few times where it felt like he was in the doghouse, and I have heard some interesting things about when he was first sent to the swarm. Supposedly he sulked and pouted, and they felt he didn’t take the assignment seriously, but then he picked it up and turned it around and now it seems he is coming out if his shell a bit.
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It’s got to be frustrating “not being ready” bc you aren’t getting minutes to get ready. Monk was wasted bc of this and I don’t want the same thing to happen to Bouknight.
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Hell of a win tonight that we deserved and desperately needed. I fell in love with Bouknight for our pick early in the draft process after finding that we’d pick 11. I couldn’t be more impressed or excited about his performance tonight. That being said, I don’t question coach one bit for his lack of PT up til now. As stated by others we’ve been playing winning basketball and the wings ahead of Bouk have not given any reason to question their time on the court. I’m just loving how deep this team is for a change.
But how about we pause on all this talk about throwing Bouk in a trade for a big, especially Turner.
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Behind Rozier, Oubre, and Cody, not see reason to be crying over rookie not get big minutes. Bouk Talent there if not shown results, no matter minutes in Vegas or Greensboro. Next man upped and gave team quality minutes last night and reason will look forward to see a good future for us.
If playing behind Bacon and Martins, worry we wasted another #11 pick on another uber talented drug using self described idiot.
JB hasn’t had a tremendous amount of talented depth previously, what all other times JB not play players “just cause” referred to above?
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There’s no reason why Bouknight can’t get 8-10 minutes. We’re not an ecf team. We can afford to make minutes for him.
And plus….all those guys you mentioned have been either injured or sick at different points in time. It’s not like everyone has been healthy in front of him
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iF JB made Ball earn his playing time .;Last year. Bouknight isn’t no better. He’s the same with Kai, Thor. Under JB you have to learn the system . The longer it takes the longer you sit no matter who you are. Thats the reason Pop stayed on top so long.
If Lamelo had not played a meaningful minutes in his first 20 NBA games, pretty sure we would have all been calling for JB to be fired.
More expectations this year and a deeper roster makes it much more difficult to find minutes for Bouk, but again, how can he earn minutes on the bench?
I can see earning them in the G league maybe.
But we have had many injuries throughout this year and he should have gotten a look before now.
I am pretty positive that Bouknight and Kai Jones were the last 2 first round picks to score in a game this season.
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