Why was Dennis out last night??

[macdaddy]

16 hours ago, bumpyphish1 said:

So, we're bashing Bud now?  I swear.  Fan message boards.  The only place you can find people on your level but the other half are flippin' idiots.

I wouldn't say i'm bashing him.   Hell I think he's a great coach.   But if I'm going to give him most of the credit for our successes (which I do) then I damn sure will hold him accountable when we are sucking.   We're playing really inconsistent ball and if we don't improve we are going to get bounced early in the playoffs.   So far the offseason acquisitions are a collective dud.  

[Guest]

16 hours ago, bumpyphish1 said:

So, we're bashing Bud now?  I swear.  Fan message boards.  The only place you can find people on your level but the other half are flippin' idiots.

It's not like folks are calling for his firing.  The THJr thing and the Dennis thing are weird.  To recognize that makes one an idiot?

[macdaddy]

The whole Bud quote makes a lot more sense than just getting the first sentence

Quote

“No. He keeps competing in practice, doing what he’s doing,” the coach said. “Part of it is Shelvin’s been busting his butt, working hard. I think to give guys opportunities and to develop all 15 guys is important. Dennis will get his opportunities.”

I'm down with that and won't at all point out the elephant in the D-league.

[Guest]

Budenholzer went on to also say that there was no off the court incident involving Schröder that led to the rotation change.

[Guest]

I'm speculating that Mack is getting trade to Utah.  They need a PG.  Quinn is familiar with him. and Utah  just released Paul's  little bother Elijah so they have an open roster spot available.

[AHF]

2 hours ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Budenholzer went on to also say that there was no off the court incident involving Schröder that led to the rotation change.

I have lots of trouble believing that in light of him sticking with Dennis when Dennis was sucking and then pulling the plug after 1 bad game while Dennis was in the middle of a great run.  Curious is right.

[sturt]

I'm speculating that Bud wanted to

(a) see how well the rotation would function without Dennis, given that there is no doubt some calls coming in from multiple teams inquiring about his availability (largely due to the rash of injuries), and/or...

(b) see how well the rotation would function with Patterson as the 3rd PG, and/or...

(c) honestly give Mack some minutes because he truly hasn't seen much of the floor until recently, and we've routinely lost at least one PG to an injury at some point in recent seasons, and/or...

(d) showcase Mack and see if he might perform well enough to draw some trade interest, and/or...

(e) give Dennis some time off to observe and learn.

All of the above make sense to me.

As for Bud's remark about what it isn't about... I don't want to seem naive, but I do think there are times when a coach is conscious of the rumor mill, or the potential for a rumor to get some steam, and he just wants to head it off as best he can in defense of his player.

I know Belichick did that last season in New England with a situation where people were mumbling about their wideout from Marshall, Aaron Dobson, that he wasn't playing because he was supposedly in the coaches' doghouse. Turned out that we only learned after the season that Dobson lost a close relative and a close friend within a short period of time, and that, added to an injury he'd suffered in training camp that he never quite got over, explained his lack of PT. If they didn't like him, they've certainly had every opportunity to cut him by now. So, it's an example of a doghouse story being all supposition.

 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, JayBirdHawk said:

I'm speculating that Mack is getting trade to Utah.  They need a PG.  Quinn is familiar with him. and Utah  just released Paul's  little bother Elijah so they have an open roster spot available.

For who? Great fit for Mack. But there's still something that makes me feel good about 3 good point guards. But depending on what Utah gave back, I probably would do it.

[kurupt]

Zitat

(a) see how well the rotation would function without Dennis, given that there is no doubt some calls coming in from multiple teams inquiring about his availability (largely due to the rash of injuries), and/or...

(b) see how well the rotation would function with Patterson as the 3rd PG, and/or...

(c) honestly give Mack some minutes because he truly hasn't seen much of the floor until recently, and we've routinely lost at least one PG to an injury at some point in recent seasons, and/or...

(d) showcase Mack and see if he might perform well enough to draw some trade interest, and/or...

(e) give Dennis some time off to observe and learn.

a) you can see how the team does when Dennis is not on the floor anyway. You don't have to keep him there for the whole game. Doesn't make any sense at all.

b) see a). You can test different line-ups without handing out DNPs.

c) see a) and b). You can easily do that. And I would agree with the poster who said "this isn't the little leagues". If Mack helps you win, you play him. If not, you don't.

d) see a) and b) and c).

e) Then they could simply say so. But I think this is highly doubtful. He will learn a lot more if he plays than sitting on the bench. We are not talking 1st year rookie here, we are talking about the 6th man of a playoff team in his 3rd season.

 

This whole thing doesn't make any sense to me. They have to have a reason so why arent' they talking about it?

Dennis is still a young player. He needs to learn and the more he plays the better. He also wants to see a bigger role as time goes on (on this team or another). His contract is up in the near future. He (and the whole bench) also was a major reason for the good run the Hawks had.

I think it is a huge mistake sitting him, if he didn't do anything wrong (which is now kinda confirmed).

If you want to/have to find minutes for Mack (for whatever reason), you could just have other players (including Schröder) play 3-4 minutes less and easily have 12-15 minutes for Mack without completely sitting your best young talent. The more you think about it, the less sense this whole thing makes...

Edited January 5, 2016 by kurupt

[Guest]

ATLANTA — The Atlanta Hawks' mini-drama at point guard took an odd turn on Tuesday night.

For the past week, backup guard Dennis Schröder's play, or lack thereof, has fallen under the microscope. The 22-year-old German product played 12 forgettable minutes against the Indiana Pacers on Dec. 28 before coach Mike Budenholzer elected to not play him in the team's two subsequent outings against the Rockets and Knicks. Third-stringer Shelvin Mack received the bulk of Schröder's minutes over that stretch. Player and roster development were referenced as reasons, but it was a curious twist for the franchise's top backcourt reserve to suddenly disappear from action.

In Tuesday night's 107-101 loss to the Knicks, however, Budenholzer went with the other end of the spectrum.

Not only did Schröder play in a game for the first time in 2016, but he received more minutes than any other Hawks point guard and closed out the final five minutes of a competitive game as starter Jeff Teague watched from the sideline. 

"I just thought (Schröder) was bringing a little bit of an edge, a little bit of an energy," Budenholzer said following the team's third loss in four games. "I thought the group was playing well with him out there. It's just kind of a gut feel, so we went with it. ... Jeff played OK, but I just thought that with Dennis, like I said, we had a little bit better energy, a little bit better defense."

The third-year floor general has slightly improved his averages (10.5 points, 4.3 assists) and efficiency as the season inches toward the halfway mark, but it has not been the breakout season some expected from one of the league's most electric reserves. Though his shooting was still spotty, including a crucial missed free throw down the stretch, his performance against the Knicks on Tuesday was a decent rebound from his previous outing: Schröder scored seven points, dished out eight assists and grabbed four rebounds in 25 minutes.

"Coach said just to be aggressive and when everybody collapses just try to find the open teammate and create open shots. I think I did it, and we still fell short. We've got to do a better job of playing for 48 minutes," Schröder said. "I just tried to be the best teammate and just try to compete every time I get out there, try to help my team win. Tried to bring the energy."

Not everything went Schröder's way, though.

Budenholzer credited his young guard's defensive effort on multiple occasions, but New York's game-winning basket came on Schröder's self-admitted defensive gaffe. With 22 seconds remaining and clinging onto a two-point lead, Knicks guard Jose Calderon squeezed a pass into centerRobin Lopez down low, stutter-stepped, then darted behind Schröder down the lane for a game-clinching layup just out of Al Horford's reach.

"It was a tough play for me. I tried to chase him over the block, but then he back-doored me," Schröder said. "Al almost had it, but yeah that was my fault. That can't happen."Schröder's gain was Teague's loss, as the 2015 All-Star point guard posted an uncharacteristic box score.

Teague was the Hawks' second-leading scorer, but finished with four turnovers and zero assists. It was just the second time under Budenholzer's guidance that Teague has played an entire game without assisting on a basket — and the first came in a January 2014 game against San Antonio in which he exited early after spraining his ankle.

Teague's assist-less game aside, for Schröder to go from consecutive DNPs to the team's closing point guard in an important game is ... peculiar. This is the point in the season when lineup oddities morph into storylines, and it's likely that Schröder's rest/benching/development eventually becomes a narrative blip on the 82-game radar. Still, quite the turn of events.

Schröder returned to being a major part of operations in Atlanta as if he never left. Whether he's back in his prominent reserve role for good remains to be seen.

http://www.foxsports.com/south/story/hawks-point-guard-oddities-continue-as-dennis-Schröder-returns-in-loss-to-knicks-010616

[benhillboy]

He always does it by his actions, but I'm surprised Bud actually threw Jeff's defense under the bus verbally.  The fact that he's having arguably the worst season of his career one year after his and the franchise's best clearly shows he and Bud can't coexist over the long haul.  

I've never bought into the "showcase for trade" notion with Mack.  His minutes just seem like punishment for the lead 2 guards who are nutting up.