Ryan and Michael worry about Anthony Davis’s production and the fact he’s been the fourth best big man on this team for a few games now. They also talk Hawks and Raptors, covering some trade targets from the former team and talking trash about Rudy Gay on the second. Okay, I’m doing that. Then Ryan tries for some redemption in the All-Star Pick-em Draft after getting absolutely crushed in the Classic Hornets team Draft. We talk Rondo, Westbrook, Michael is forced to build the most hated team ever, and finally we get to the Detroit and Portland games. Michael again targets various players for trade/free agency. Good stuff as always!
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21 responses to “In the NO Podcast Episode 119: Unproductive Davis and Seeking Redemption”
I was coming here expressly to ask when one of your writers was finally going to suck it up and compare Davis’ plusses and minuses. I think his season has been a disappointment by any rational measure. That doesn’t have to be a long term reality, buy that odd what we have right now.
His effort level is seemingly…low. I would not have ever thought that to be the case. Makes me wonder if there isn’t some sort of bad vibe in that locker room. We have a chasm between guys with effort (greivus, Lopez….rivers) and guys with ability (Davis, Gordon, aminu). It isn’t cut and dried, aminu has been playing much better lately, but still.
As a note…I like Monty (always nice on the 700 Club) but he needs to ditch rolling on the players in the press. It was funny, but it starting to worry me.
I’ve looked at him just about each week, mostly pointing out the problems.
The word “unacceptable” made its way into the light this week.
No comprehensive piece from me, however.
700 club?
Yeah, I miss some of the articles, obviously…not too many but some. I have seen it circled, but it seemed ready for a feature. I will look for those.
Speaking of unacceptable, I didn’t see the game, but his box score is absolutely unfathomable tonight. Especially in a game where Lopes goes for 23 and 10. One point? Only 17 minutes?
Something is wrong.
Oh, and yeah, Monty is on the 700 Club regularly.
Let me just add, I meant ‘suck it up’ not so much as implying a dereliction of duty, more just be willing to risk potential bad juju from dogging the franchises best hope for the next decade. Questioning that seriously requires a reappraisal of all we thought we knew.
I can’t remember a Hornets win or even a close game when Davis was on the floor during crunch time in the fourth quarter. It must be discouraging to be on a crappy team sitting on the bench watching Jason Smith when the game is on the line. I can’t understand for the life of me why Monty does this. If Davis doesn’t develop into the star everyone thinks he will be then the Hornets/Pelicans will never be an elite team and Monty will lose his job. I just don’t understand why Davis is not playing during the 4th quarter of tight games.
We have a better chance of winning games with Anderson on the court… Davis remains a 19 year old rookie not finished growing and perhaps slightly spent… 82 games plus team interested in the playoffs will push in the 4th quarter to win… We aren’t playing to lose games.. Were EG 100% Rivers minutes might be less..
Anthony Davis is going to have peaks and troughs, like any other rookie. If there’s a negative trend to end this season, I’ll start to worry, but I think he’ll turn it around. I do think Monty should be more responsive to his playing time when he’s playing well, which hasn’t been recent. But if he’s disrupting and getting to the rim, let him play extended minutes so he builds his confidence.
He has been hanging around waiting on a 15 foot jumper that he is missing… We don’t run many through the rookie… In rotation Anderson is getting the minutes… Look at the chemistry with the older players.. Vasquez, Anderson, Smith, EG, Aminu are all learning each other… WE all know Rivers will come in more prepared next season…
If you listen to previous podcast ( and the most recent one i did with the guys) I break dwon what i see as the recent slippage in certain areas of Anthony Davis and his performance…i explain the(+) and the (-) of his game….this is the part of the season where a rookie confronts a new set of ‘mental requirements’..dealing with fatigue,strength factor and experienced players figuring out your game…”the wall” can be a factor…plus being a #1 Pick makes you a favorite target of the ” show me what ya got ” opponent……he will adapt……
Couldn’t have said it better.
Thanks for the knowledge-drop Gerry V.
my pleasure
I totally agree with you… Some of us forget he is “just tall, that’s all”… but a 19 year old.. Plus all this is new but its the real thing… Davis dominated all through school and one year of college.. Plus 6.10 or 11 and 220 is pretty thin… Imagine him in the paint with Kendrick Perkins…
We should be more concerned with how the team is playing.. Dais and Rivers are rookies…
I hope Davis and Rivers get in the gym this summer w/ Lebron and just learn, learn, learn. Davis has a boatload of big men to learn from. Rivers has some guards to learn under. Lebron could get’em in that weightroom and beast it.
I want to see Davis bulk up 15-20 lbs of muscle and go learn from “The Dream”.
I don’t want him learning how to leave his current team to play with other superstars from LeBron.
Rivers needs his swagger back. Then he can start to progress. Being a rookie, he’s gotten down on himself.
I’m not the most superstitious of people, but maybe he can get the #0 back from Aminu. He won’t need it after this season of wishy-washiness.
Hey gerry V i took your advise and focused on just 3 players during the game against the raptors. And i have to say that evaluating players individually makes the team look completly different. One guy i did pay attention to was Vasquez and although his stats are good he just cant stay infront of guys on the D, and on top of that it didn’t look like he was communicating on D but on the offense he reminded me of CP3 yelling at everyone. His troubles of staying infront contribute to the bigs not being ab;e to run the floor after a rebound the team collapsed evry time Vasquez man got buy and the team came up court running another half court O. And AD looks like he is just tired. Remember he is 19, traveling, has alot of money, doesn’t know when to sleep or stay up yet, and he was playing 30 min plus. Think about all the times you stayed up at 19-20 and went to work the next day!!!!
When a team is struggling like the Hornest you would be amazed at how much you learn about players by just locking in to a particular player or two or three….you get a better look at what they can do and can’t di…fans tend to just follow and watch the ball…..practice watching the game and see how much you can ‘see”,,try and absorb the entire half court ” stretch your eyes”….next take several possessions and just follow ONE player…..then another one…etc…..you’ll discover tons.
Some of you apparently didn’t see the game at Detroit… I noticed we are learning how to close games out… We are winning the ones we are supposed to and losing to teams that just take the game away from us… as in when we play the Spurs.. or one of the many experienced teams we have lost to… playing like a group of guys just learning his team mates and having to play a game against professionals…
This is going to work out well considering tonight Mr. Lopez actually worked the paint… Now their rookie is injured… Drummond who was doing well but we played pretty good… And I agree Davis looks spent…
I think/hope Davis will come around. Seeing him play in person at the NBA level, however, I’m surprised at how average his height appears and how thin he is, comparatively speaking. David and Anderson look to be almost exactly the same height. Before this season began, some had suggested Davis might become an NBA center. But – assuming Davis is finished growing – I don’t see how that’s ever going to be possible. Davis has to find his game, and fortunately, with this throw-away season, he still has time to do that. It would be nice to see him develop as many predicted into a Kevin Garnett-style player. But that will require a lot more mental toughness and tenacity than we’ve seen him exhibit so far. Bottom line is the jury’s still out, but we Hornets fans are hungry for a winner and we’ll all be rooting for him.
Great observations. And with Davis becoming a “center”, again it all depends on when you consider a center. You mention Kevin Garnett, and the Celtics play their best basketball with him at the 5. Is Chris Bosh a traditional center, in the mold of the guys we saw in the 90’s? Of course not, but he is a 5 in this new league. The Thunder’s best lineups have Durant at the 4 and Ibaka at the 5, etc. etc.
Height wise, AD is the same height Dwight Howard was coming into the league. Dwight filled out and is unquestionably a center. Will AD?
I think that, more likely than not, in this new NBA that by the time he is 22, AD will be playing the center position. Whatever that means nowadays.
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