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Giles shouldn't have come back period. His stock was already high enough that if he didn't come back he would have still gone in the top 5-10. I dunno on him. I did say either best available young big or BPA but I don't know that I really want to risk a pick on a guy that has had two knee injuries.

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I got a feeling that this is more than just being "late" here too.

I would agree, but he's looked so bad I think that contract would be hard to dump. If he didn't get off to such an icy start from three, you can sell him as a 3 point shooting wing that is a good passer but right now you can only sell him as a good passer.

I think most of us have said that we want to draft the best available good big man or the BPA.

I do still have it in the back of my mind that Hardaway Jr might be on a hot streak but this is the best stretch he's been on in his career period, showing that his subtle changes seem to be working. There are some dips through it, but its never really been bad. Since the start of the new year: 16.6/3.4/2.5 on 47.3% FG/40.3% 3PT/79.3% FT. Third leading scorer...and hasn't started every game. Streak or real? Some of it might be streak, but he's gotten better at attacking the rim, has cut down on some of the stupid shots, and while not good, plays hard on defense and hustles.

I think the actual plan was to get Howard, then trade Millsap for future assets.

He at least knows his limitations, but he's not a good defender unless he's completely right and I don't think he is. Skip Bazeless doesn't.

I promised to post Millsap, Schröder, and Hardaway Jr's shot attempts average since the start of the year, and now here it is: Millsap: 14.3 shots Schröder: 15.1 shots Hardaway Jr: 12.7 shots That's not bad. It could be closer to even between Millsap and Schröder but this distribution is fine, these are your best 3 offensive players. Here's what's not fine: Bazemore: 10.1 shots

I'll bite. That series in which it's in the heads of the Wizards "We should've won easily and would've with Wall" is still fairly fresh on their minds. And now that they've grown up mentally, they'll be extra fueled for a potential series against the Hawks, in a good way, not the bad kind of way (for them). It would likely get as ugly as that first round Toronto series that year, if not even doubly worse than that.

If they have the one seed locked down, the odds are very high that their stars will sit.

I mean right now, he kind of has to share the first option with Millsap and Hardaway Jr has to be the second option (and he comes off the bench, good lord have mercy). Not today but tomorrow, I'll post the three players shot attempts since January.

The duo was going to be broken up, it just was a year early. There was no way that Atlanta was going to pay both PGs even if Bazemore was not here.

About as good as Paul and Dennis can play. Bare win. Think about that. Sad, but my prediction looks like it's true. And it's not like there haven't been passing, Thabo and Kent aren't good on offense.

When you look at Kent Bazemore and Thabo Sefolosha being 3-10, it's easy to see how it's hard to get assists. To top it off, it's against a terrible team. Bazemore and Thabo literally aren't good offensively and it wouldn't matter who they played with.

It's honestly amazing to see how comically overrated Dwight Howard gets. This is who Howard is now. A 14/12 guy at the most that should only be looked to offensively when he doesn't have to make more than one move.

I feel like this has been discussed already before and is a dead horse. 1. How many times do we have to tell you that Howard is 5th option caliber on offense? He wouldn't be doing that much better if he was looked to as a go to option and passed to more. 2. Combine that with Bazemore and Sefolosha being 5th option caliber, and this is what we have. 3. In Bud's system, it's hard to average more than 7 assists. 4. In the modern NBA, the art of the pass first PG is dying. The double double candidate at PG is slowly going away and is only seen in the top 5 PGs.

Haven't posted yet since the other night (only gotten around to it now) but now that we have a new piece of the puzzle that Dennis mouthed off to Bud, I sadly have to agree with the benching. I still don't get why Kent has the freedom that he has despite the fact he's sucked for a lot of the season though. Is it because he's the **consummate professional**? If so, that's not a good message to send. He can be the consummate professional on the bench when he sucks. OT, but while there is risk of it being somewhat of a career year, I'm more inclined to buy in some on Hardaway Jr. You can't tell everything from highlight videos, but he seems like he's legitimately changed a few things from New York, and to top that off, his second season seems like sophomore slump instead of who he is. He's improved in his ability to use screens to score or make a play, taking bigs off the dribble, and at least tries on defense. He's not good but he tries.

It was already pretty clear that Dwight and Dennis didn't have chemistry. Dennis usually played PNR with Paul. And there have been flashes of it looking good but it hasn't been consistent. Not surprising with a young player. Say goodbye to Dwight and Dennis ever gaining chemistry...

I think Dwight deserved the benching even moreso. His pass was stupid and I said so even before Curry hit that three. You just can't give excellent offenses more chances.

Yeah against the better teams, especially in the playoffs, you're not going to win through the system, you're going to win through your talent winning against their talent. Bud needs to have a sit down with himself. This is the NBA, not the NFL. This is not the New England Patriots. A system can help you win a title but not without your talent helping beat the other team.

Against top teams, it can't be the system. It has to be your best talent winning against their talent. And Dennis did that in the first half, just like Tim did it vs Cleveland. This is not high school, one mistake shouldn't lead to the bench.

I suppose this bears repeating. The reason Dennis was benched is petty, and it was started with Dwight airmailing an outlet pass. He argued with him, and then Curry hits a three. He's benched. If you're unhappy with that, fine, take him out, yell at him, put him back in. One of your only realistic chances was for Dennis to continue to work. Ruined a good game.

If there is a shot I predict this is similar to that January Spurs game in which Bazemore sees the bench for the majority of the game.

There's a time in which you need to stop looking at the itty bitty things and look at the reality, if you can't be an effective dribble driver at point guard at backup, you need to be a good 3 point shooter and/or an excellent passer. Is Delaney....any of these? Calderon isn't good in a vacuum but he's an excellent passer and when he gets the time he can still shoot well.

I think Bembry's mid range jumper is fine. He just has no hope on his 3 in what I've seen, unless you're going to bench him for a season for the purpose of trying to rebuild it in the background. He needs to forget the 3 outside of rare occasion and work on the mid range. I think he's Boris Diaw as a guard maybe.