Wouldn’t his response be, “It was rich!” These veteran players by the time they get out of their rookie deals realize that this is a business. Passing up tens of millions of dollars is almost always a bad business decision. That is why they hire agents/advisors to prevent their emotions from making bad business decisions.
Yes, the exciting thing for me is that he's learning (rapidly) how to get his shot off in the midrange and near the rim against NBA length and athleticism.
I had a similar thought about the C's in general. As it becomes more physical inside, having all 8 guys who can shoot becomes a real advantage.
Yes, which depends on having good shooters. We've also seen that in these playoffs, with mixed results. If the team has good shooters, or gets hot, it works. If not, it gets ugly fast.
Yes. I keep seeing over and over again hard closeouts, guy drives the closeout, and then gets MET at the rim. They are letting everything go there. This killed Phoenix, in particular.
The whole "PP can't play in the playoffs" thing is looking fairly wrong at this point. The new rules help, he got better, and I don't see how is contract isn't really really good value going forward.
Two huge shots for him - the one to take it from 9 to12 in the middle of the 4th quarter in Game 3 and the one that finally gave them a 10 point lead at the end of the third last night. Very nice to see.
Have to give some credit to Joe and the other guys on the team for the latter one. Huge, huge shot and Joe called #11.
This is especially true if, as people have commented in other threads (and is borne out by what we're seeing on the court), Cleveland's primary offensive approach is "shoot a shit-ton of threes and don't let Boston do that back." PP is REALLY good at sticking with his guy and harassing shooters.
In fairness he got smoked in game 1, as an huge liability and you didn’t post. Great game 2 though. Let’s hope he can keep it going.
While he's definitely improved, he has much more freedom to play his game and attack this season instead of standing in a corner, never touching the ball. Yes, he will be hunted on D depending on the matchup and have bad games, but his confidence with the ball to make plays and take shots makes him an X factor now if he gets hot
I need to re-watch, but PP usually looks great when everyone else is locked in. When they're not, it just doesn't work.
I mean, we're one game removed from him being decent in game 2. Dallas has also been an ok matchup for him in the past.
I read this as the average distance on those 6 post season attempts is 38 feet. The regular season attempts might be a lot closer?
These were in non-playoff games that can be game planned and have a much greater sense of urgency. I hated this matchup for him and said as much in the week leading up to it but he hasn’t killed us. Joe had him eat a couple minutes when on the floor with Doncic in the first half and despite his alligator arms and massive size disadvantage we were fortunate that Luka just missed easy uncontested jumpers in the lane. That’s not something you really want to count on though.
They had the play where they took advantage of Luka being locked in on taking that matchup one on one where White helped from behind to strip Luka. I think Pritchard did the same thing in game 2.
Yes, Joe got them in and out of that matchup quickly. My point is that this isn’t a sustainable matchup just as posting up Gafford against Tatum isn’t. Both coaches handled these perfectly in showing the other a look then quickly getting out of it as it’s not something they are going to win at long term.
I realize it’s not at all easy, but it seems like he often shoots a little too early/ further than he has to, imo. Maybe if you wait until the last second it’s always contested and he’d rather shoot the uncontested 39 foot shot than the contested 35 foot shot, IDK.
Nice to see Pritchard make more than one or two shots in a Finals game.
France beat US in the next round 20-18 (time ran out). The game is below for everyone who is avoiding work. New Zealand ended up beating Argentina in the Finals. I took a quick look around the rosters and as far as I can tell, other than the US, I didn't see any other future NBA players. Definitely did not look at all of the teams. Standings | 2015 FIBA 3x3 U18 World Championships
I certainly didn't mean that as a "Let's put Pritchard on Luka full-time" -- I just meant that when he's been on the floor in those limited minutes, Luka has been virtually unable to get a bucket. I suspect it's a combo of Pritchard's approach and Luka trying to bully him with a mismatch. But it's been surprisingly effective.
I think a good portion of it is that Luka has been expecting help on it really hasn't come.
He got one or two stops on him but any kind of regular use of him on Doncic will be ugly. I like him pressuring LD in the backcourt though. Irving roasted PP repeatedly last game. His shooting has been awful. I'd staple him to the bench and give Hauser more minutes.
