“On the other hand, Bullethead Hayes should be a C- at best. His 3’s have been a little off lately”

47% over the last ten games, including last night’s dud.

“For the past month or more he has been working his ass off on the boards and has been routinely getting double-doubles with more boards than points”

He has one double-double in the last eight games.

On the other hand, Bullethead Hayes should be a C- at best. His 3’s have been a little off lately and his defense hasn’t been much to brag about, but his shot selection has been pretty much awful. If he gets half a step open then you can pretty much count on him heaving it up.

I would have to give Flip Saunders a lovely A+ so far. The only doubt I have in my mine is if he maybe could play Herrmann more. Flip has been great so far but I have this constant fear that he will get embarrassingly outcoached at some point in the playoffs.

Coaches are tough to grade, because I do think playoff chess games are half the battle.

I think we need Dyess’ scoring in the playoffs. His shot is very difficult to defend, and he is a great go-to during our inevitable slumps.

I think he plays pretty well when he’s in the game with starters/regular rotation but when he was on the floor at the end of the game, often with afflalo, amir, and samb, he took a complete “me first” attitude which honestly I think hindered the early season development of Amir considerably.

I don’t ever remember him getting touches that weren’t a direct result of Amir’s hustle on defense/offensive glass.

re: Hayes– I’d say he’s a C at best. Consistency and shooting are real issues for him. I’ve got an article coming tomorrow that will explore this more…

re: Stuckey– I agree with your points on his outside shot, etc. I think he might deserve an incomplete over a C+. Our expectations for Rodney were shattered with his left wrist. You yourself had mentioned that “yeah, Stuckey isn’t happening this season”. In spite of all that, he did close out the pre-All Star break with 11 ppg over the last seven games. In an incomplete first half, he has begun to show significant hope.

He shot 56% in the playoffs two years ago.

1. Tay’s shot is often off because he’s tired from his big defensive assignments.

2. Tay has to be offensively aggressive to wear out whoever is defending him, even if he’s shooting poorly.

then it makes sense to use his offense early. He’d be fresh enough to make his shots and he’d get the jump on wearing out his defender. if he’s going to take ten shots a night then he should take them early, before his defensive assignment has the time to wear him down.

i guess the problem with that is that he’d be more tired during the rest of the game and cookie jarvis still hasn’t shown too much reliability. though i think he is improving a great deal as a defender.

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though, of course, it would be better if he did, i’m not sure stuckey really needs a reliable mid-range jumper right now. defenders will pack the lane sure, but that will leave other shooters open.

however, i don’t think we should really blame dyess for having offensive problems. the last couple of years his fg% during the second half of the season has been remarkable, but more importantly, it disappeared once the playoffs started.

as much as i’d like to see dyess hitting those shots. i’m glad we’re not relying on offense from a player who can’t hit a shot in the playoffs. it’s better that we get used to using him as a ben-wallace-esque non-offensive player who can OCCASIONALLY hit a wide open 15 footer.

Rodney “stick it to them” Stuckey