Free Bruno damnit!

[JayBirdHawk]

He's Freeeeeee!!

[NBASupes]

His energy is huge but his awareness and NBA readiness is awful. Still rather him in spurts over Jones

[Thomas]

We have someone who can actually rebound other than Len's occasional good night I believe.

[Gray Mule]

"He don't know what he's doing.  He gets lost easily out on the floor."  Doesn't matter.  He tries.  In fact, he tries very hard.  Doesn't have enough NBA experience to not commit the foul.  So what.  He knows how to hustle.  He knows how to bring the energy.  He's not afraid to get right in there and grab a rebound.  He is capable of setting a good screen.

So, he messes up a lot.  So what.  He comes in and gives it his best all the time he's on the floor.  If the Hawk coaches continue to send him out there, he's going to learn all that stuff he doesn't know now.

All Bruno fans and almost all Hawks fans are happy that the "free Bruno" plan is working!

GO BRUNO !!

[kg01]

I keep reading this as "Fire Bruno" then I remember it's not that LK cat posting so ....

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

18 hours ago, JayBirdHawk said:

He's Freeeeeee!!

More like he's been released from his cage, but he's still on a leash. He ain't free yet.

[macdaddy]

I haven't been able to watch the game yet but 4/6 with 3 turnovers is just ok.  How'd he look?

[Gray Mule]

6 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

I haven't been able to watch the game yet but 4/6 with 3 turnovers is just ok.  How'd he look?

The entire team looked like a good NBA team...

[macdaddy]

I wonder what the youngest starting lineup in NBA history is?   We had to be real close.

[JayBirdHawk]

5 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

I wonder what the youngest starting lineup in NBA history is?   We had to be real close.

4th youngest ever.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

51 minutes ago, Gray Mule said:

"He don't know what he's doing.  He gets lost easily out on the floor."  Doesn't matter.  He tries.  In fact, he tries very hard.  Doesn't have enough NBA experience to not commit the foul.  So what.  He knows how to hustle.  He knows how to bring the energy.  He's not afraid to get right in there and grab a rebound.  He is capable of setting a good screen.

So, he messes up a lot.  So what.  He comes in and gives it his best all the time he's on the floor.  If the Hawk coaches continue to send him out there, he's going to learn all that stuff he doesn't know now.

All Bruno fans and almost all Hawks fans are happy that the "free Bruno" plan is working!

GO BRUNO !!

His man defense when Gobert got the ball in the post was very good.  Literally caused Gobert to commit 2 turnovers because he didn't bully or go past Bruno.

From nba.com

https://stats.nba.com/player/203497/matchups/?sort=MATCHUP&dir=-1&Season=2019-20&SeasonType=Regular Season

Gobert vs Bruno

• 2:49 matchup minutes
• 12.5 partial possessions for Gobert
• 0 points ( 0 - 1 FG . . . a 3 point attempt )
• 2 turnovers
• Team points on those possessions:   4

[EazyRoc]

I went to the game and well Bruno looked better. He’s communicating better on D. Had a few lazy turnovers like a careless pass after a rebound. He’s not that great of a help defender YET. Sometimes he rotated and was in position. He just needs minutes whether that’s here or the G league.

[JayBirdHawk]

 

Powerful Stuff!

Quote

At 9:46 a.m., his life changed forever. Fernando’s phone rang. 

Natalia David, Fernando’s mother, had died. She was 56 years old. In the months leading up to her death, she started complaining about stomach pain. Stomach inflammation was one of her main symptoms. She and his family would not give Fernando a straight answer as to why she was in and out of the hospital since July. The stomach pain then led to him being told it was diabetes. Two weeks before she died, Fernando was finally told the truth. It was pancreatic cancer.

Fernando, who is the seventh of eight children, is the only member of his family in America. Mostly everyone in his family, other than Fernando, knew Natalia had cancer for at least a month prior to her death. She didn’t want him to know because she felt like she was going to negatively impact his career because of the worry he would feel for his mom. Every time Fernando told her about a bad game, she feared he was focusing too much on her health. So she told everyone to hide her cancer diagnosis from him.

This past Christmas was the second-to-last time Fernando saw his mother alive. 

The final time Fernando got to see his mother on the phone was New Year’s Day, just three days before she died. Her body grew frail, while her mind was still as sharp as ever, but she knew her time left was limited. She told her son how the family needed to stay together and find ways to love each other more than ever before. Her final lesson to him was to forgive. Always forgive. Forgive God that he gave her this disease that was going to eventually take her life, she said. She believed that forgiveness was the only thing they can offer. The more you forgive, the more you can live the way you’re supposed to, she’d tell him.

So he did that when he received the phone call that awoke him on Jan. 4. He then went to work and started preparing for that night’s game against the Indiana Pacers. Fernando is truly his mother’s son because he didn’t tell the coaching staff and his teammates until 30 minutes before the game. His mother didn’t want to affect her son’s career with her cancer diagnosis; he didn’t want to affect the team’s chances of winning that night. But he couldn’t hold the news to himself any longer.

“I didn’t want anyone here to feel sorry for me,” Fernando said. “I didn’t want anyone to be sad, and I didn’t want to ruin anyone else’s day because of what happened to me. I just wanted to play.”

The Hawks won. Fernando started and played 21 minutes that night in one of his best games of the season. He played in one more game before flying home for her funeral.

 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

Quote

As much as Atlanta’s acquisitions of Clint Capela and Dewayne Dedmon in February will help Trae Young, John Collins, and the rest of the Hawks’ core, perhaps no player will be more affected than Bruno Fernando. Rather than progressing into a larger role in his second NBA season, Fernando could see his minutes dwindle as the Hawks chase a playoff spot with a more seasoned and capable center rotation.

 

....but the outlines of a useful rotation player slowly formed over the course of the season as Fernando offered glimpses of the kind of heady, physical player he could become.

He often saw openings and opportunities on the floor, but the game moved too quickly for him to capitalize. He showed a grasp of the finer points of screening, artfully angling his picks or using subtle tricks to help clear space for teammates. Fernando occasionally proved useful pivoting the offense from one action to the next with dribble-handoffs, and made a habit of flipping the direction of a screen immediately following an exchang

 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

4 hours ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

 

 

He should be able to take Dedmon's spot.  If he can't, this will be his last season in the NBA.

Also, he should play an equal amount of PF and C, with the Hawks staying big at all times.  The biggest thing he can work on this offseason ( if he has access to a basketball court or hoop ), is to work on his jumper.

[sturt]

On 2/28/2020 at 12:19 PM, JayBirdHawk said:

 

Powerful Stuff!

 

So this explains what was going on when Bruno was missing games but no one wanted to say why, right?

Thought it might be something like this, but dunno why it was hush-hush. Guess Bruno must have specifically asked for it to be that way.

Tough, especially so young and especially so far from home.

Might have affected his concentration to some degree both during her illness and following her passing--so, effectively, most of his rookie season.

 

[benhillboy]

On 2/28/2020 at 1:19 PM, JayBirdHawk said:

 

Powerful Stuff!

 

I knew there had to be something to how his season played out.  The way he handled his mother’s death and how it related to the team tells you all you need to know about his makeup.  Can’t have enough tough, low-maintenance guys.

[sturt]

15 hours ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

He should be able to take Dedmon's spot.  If he can't, this will be his last season in the NBA.

Also, he should play an equal amount of PF and C, with the Hawks staying big at all times.  The biggest thing he can work on this offseason ( if he has access to a basketball court or hoop ), is to work on his jumper.

Don't want to go too far out on the limb, but there was a significant difference between first-year Terp Bruno and the second year. And geezLouise, his shooting form is so smooth and coordinated, particularly for a big guy like him.

Now that it's come out about his mom's tragic death, I read into that that he had to be really fighting an emotional fight beyond what most rookies do. So, I'm really bullish on what next season will be for him.

He could look so uncomfortable at times, his footwork seeming to be off and he'd commit an offensive foul, and then next time down the floor you might see him dribble, make a spin move, and score... or, you might see him fumble away a perfect pass, and the next time wrestle a bad pass away from the other guy and rise up for a dunk. I still think he's going to be special. Has the right attitude, has some of the best measurables of any C in last year's draft, and consistent with that, is just a good athlete overall.

[benhillboy]

I look at the 12.7 minutes per and just cringe.  I have no hopes of him extending his range but if he cleans up the FT shooting and fouling he should put up an efficient 20 minutes consistently based on his ruggedness, close range efficiency,  low turnovers, and passing chops that are gonna catch a lot of people by surprise once we get better movement. A .055 WS/48 is actually great considering his off court tragedy and poorly defined role.

Edited April 12, 2020 by benhillboy

[sturt]

1 hour ago, benhillboy said:

I have no hopes of him extending his range

Then I balance you out b/c I have high hopes he can/will.  

The scouting reports this time last year were similarly bullish, at least the ones I saw, and mostly based on his form, less on his small sample size % as a terrapin. Looking back, I don't know why anyone thought John Collins couldn't prove to be very good outside the arc, because the same thing could be seen with his shot in college.

Here's a fluffy homer piece by a Maryland blogger, but she makes some good points, imo....

https://www.testudotimes.com/maryland-terps-basketball/2019/4/23/18511564/bruno-fernando-nba-draft-scouting-report-shooting-passing-athleticism