In honor of Pete's glorious thread, and in celebration of bruceketball, I have made a small amendment...we'll see if it sticks.
Peggy Po's
Rodney was the star of the show. He had the neon green kicks, had a thunder dunk in the first quarter, had a nice two trips down the court where he hit a Rip Hamilton curl at the ft line then hit a 3 off a screen next trip. Seemed like he let others do their thing for the most part and stayed out of it. When his team started getting their ass kicked he threw a cheap shot off the ball knocking down Angel and started retreating into the backcourt to get the ball because Shane was turning it over and he could not get a touch.
Big Surprises from Omari and DJamer! I came away impressed by Omari's outside shot and DJamer's positively Gip-like slop duty on the blocks. Omari had some confidence. Threw down a very serious dunkshot, hit a couple treys and mixed in a baseline J. That was good to see. I'm not sure he's going to be called on to create his own shot much, and I have yet to see him really take someone off the dribble to the rack, so I am doubtful he is capable of it. That said we could really use someone to be the man in the corner besides Rodney who is also able to finish at the rim. Meanwhile DJamer was really fun to watch. He does not look like a serious physical presence next to Gip, but he was in the game making nice putbacks all game.
Tay looked like he will do more than dance. He seems like he is clearly going to get more minutes this year despite Orris looking fine in the game and Angel being Angel. I think he takes minutes from William Spradling, but WE ARE STILL POSITIVELY REINFORCING SO LET'S NOT TALK ABOUT IT YET!
FIBA RULES! 24 SECOND CLOCK! JUMPS BEFORE EACH QUARTER! GOALTENDING!
Great crowd. It was very impressive for a Saturday in the dog days of summer. That is a great omen for #teamclams and I.
Angel was there.
Michael Orris did not do anything terrible and may in fact play some minutes.
"OMARI! RUN!" - oscar
Constructive Cathy's
Leadership is something that is often overrated by observers, but there are a lot of times because it is misappropriated in a "she's got a nice personality" kind of way for marginal athletes or "energy" guys. That said, the reality is teams that compete for championships need leaders. When you look at the roster Rod makes the most sense, but does not seem to fully embrace the role as far as this outside observer can see. Today Rod seemed confident of his role and was not out there killing himself like he had something to prove. Not much has changed in that respect. I imagine if it were Pullen at this thing he would've absolutely killed himself to dominate the game and would've been visibly upset to lose a quarter. For what its worth, that has never been and does not appear it will ever be be Rod's mentality. That is ok, but someone has to be the ridiculously competitive a-hole that everyone on the team dislikes at one point or another. I'm guessing that kind of emotional, alpha male leadership will not be coming from the top any longer.
Now Will, I really liked your effort. That block out there could've easily been a charge. That's a 50-50 thing and we just caught the wrong side of it. Now if you'll notice Michael really got the ball moving out there, I want you to shadow him in this next drill and tell me what you see. Smile Will...Gosh, great smile kid. *butt slap* Many jokes have been made at Will's expense, but we sure could use a guy that has the skillset he seemed to have at one point in the past. Instead we got two airballs and very little ball handling. It was not pretty.
Jordan Hernandez! Have I told you that I was really impressed with your sticktoitiveness out there? Well I just said it again! Now, let's put in a little more work on your free throws and 18 footers, talk to Brad he'll guide you along. JO particularly got absolutely worked by DJamer on both ends. It was bad. He did knock down a Diarra-esque WTF jumper from 19 ft. No thunderdunks, no blocks to speak of.
Look at you Gip! Down to 42 Husky cut! Gip probably shouldn't be slagged off this much but I'm still amazed that he has lost a significant amount of weight with no discernible improvement in his mobility, stamina or quickness. We'll see what happens when the bullets fly in Brasil.
Diaz I love your name and your loopy jogging style! Now when Brad Korn is spinning tales about skilled face up 7 footers, he's speaking in hypotheticals, not directly referencing you. Now have I mentioned that I am excited to try out my Spanish with you and Jordan on this vacation? Maybe we can schedule another FIU game or bring his brother back as a GTA to practice against or something?
