demps and monty huge mistake

[rames2great]

The pelicans havent made any huge mistakes but this one

Not playing AUSTIN RIVERS huge minutes early in his career.the pick for me was an homerun pick after the cornerstone pick of davis. Austin could have been the next tony parker/westbrook pick that small market teams need to be competitive. Now his confidence is low and i feel his goal is to just get playing time and not dominate opponents or games.

Now where stuck in that not good enough to be elite and good enough to not suck.

We need an homerun player it wont come in draft so mr. Demps the clock is ticking or we risk losing anthony davis

[MeSoHornets504]

He got 23 minutes a game his Rookie year. That's a pretty significant amount for a Rookie, especially considering he suffered some pretty nagging ankle injuries his rookie year.

[kinglio21093]

Rivers' confidence is never low, which is something I like about him. I've seen progressions in his game for sure, but I'm still not convinced we can depend on him to make a significant impact with us. As far as I'm concerned, he's nothing more than a solid back up PG. Would love to be proved wrong, but that's all I see from the kid.

[Mido-Peja]

my friend, I know you love Rivers, like many people here apparently. The fact is, Rivers should have stayed at college at least one more year. He is not a top 10 pick but the draft was weak that year. He was a boy among men. His game needed and still needs a lot of improvement. It is a crime to put his name with RW and TP in the same sentence. Unfortunately, he is making $3M which is way to much for what he offers. I bet Demps tried to trade but other teams wouldn't take him with that contract. I mean even the Wolves or Bower wouldn't take him.

[RekesNotWeak]

Rivers' confidence is never low, which is something I like about him. I've seen progressions in his game for sure, but I'm still not convinced we can depend on him to make a significant impact with us. As far as I'm concerned, he's nothing more than a solid back up PG. Would love to be proved wrong, but that's all I see from the kid.

His confidence was extremely lacking his rookie year IMO. He wouldn't shoot and would just give up the ball as soon as he got it. If that first shot wouldn't go down, it seemed to me that he would do his best to not shoot again. That was his biggest weakness his rookie year IMO.

Like the OP, I think Monty didn't give him enough opportunities offensively. He played Brian Roberts way more than Rivers, but who should blame him the way both were playing at the time. Monty wanted to win games and Roberts gave him the better chance at the time. I thought his confidence finally started to come out in the later parts of last season. Once he started having decent games and making shots, he finally started having fun on the court again. I don't think he ever had fun playing his rookie season besides maybe once or twice.

Now I don't think they ruined him. Doubt more playing time would of mattered cause he was just so awful his rookie year and his confidence was shot. He was trying to hard and not letting the game come to him. Instead of just shooting the ball, it's like he was thinking WAY too much. This is his make or break year with the Pelicans and I think he will make it big time!

[Pantazis76]

he started the first 29 games of his career or something didn't he .. because vasquez was injured..

[RekeHavoc]

The pelicans havent made any huge mistakes but this one

Not playing AUSTIN RIVERS huge minutes early in his career.the pick for me was an homerun pick after the cornerstone pick of davis. Austin could have been the next tony parker/westbrook pick that small market teams need to be competitive. Now his confidence is low and i feel his goal is to just get playing time and not dominate opponents or games.

Now where stuck in that not good enough to be elite and good enough to not suck.

We need an homerun player it wont come in draft so mr. Demps the clock is ticking or we risk losing anthony davis

No offense but this is a really bad post. Just so much that is not true at all.

[billfromfinance]

We need an homerun player it wont come in draft so mr. Demps the clock is ticking or we risk losing anthony davis

is this a troll post after MM's latest article?

[Perth_Hornet]

Panic/troll thread.

And not a very good one at that.

[rames2great]

Ok whats not true
Was rivers high risk high reward pick
Did rivers get 10 PICK mins considering state of team
His confidence didnt roller coaster
Should he have got more or of a chance
And besides davis who had more more room to grow than rivers

[Vinny6420]

my friend, I know you love Rivers, like many people here apparently. The fact is, Rivers should have stayed at college at least one more year. He is not a top 10 pick but the draft was weak that year. He was a boy among men. His game needed and still needs a lot of improvement. It is a crime to put his name with RW and TP in the same sentence. Unfortunately, he is making $3M which is way to much for what he offers. I bet Demps tried to trade but other teams wouldn't take him with that contract. I mean even the Wolves or Bower wouldn't take him.

{edited-attack}

Rivers contract is favorable to teams... cheap with team options...

[rames2great]

Panic/troll thread.

And not a very good one at that.

My intent wasnt a troll thread but how do we improve or team to win a championship. Big name free agents probably wont sign with us. We need that boom or bust player(george,Leonard, westbrook) and rivers imo was what i thought that pick represented. Now i feel where that 6 7 8 seed that gets bounced in the second or first round
I am a fan that doesnt want to be the next timberwolves,hawks,nuggets franchise because stars like davis rarely stay in situations like that

[rames2great]

my friend, I know you love Rivers, like many people here apparently. The fact is, Rivers should have stayed at college at least one more year. He is not a top 10 pick but the draft was weak that year. He was a boy among men. His game needed and still needs a lot of improvement. It is a crime to put his name with RW and TP in the same sentence. Unfortunately, he is making $3M which is way to much for what he offers. I bet Demps tried to trade but other teams wouldn't take him with that contract. I mean even the Wolves or Bower wouldn't take him.

I only used the examples of westbrook and parker as a way to say this is what small market teams must find in draft to compete at the highest level
We have to take chances on guys and give them the opportunity to reach there potential if the state of the team allows it
Who thought wb, tp,leanord,george,lillard would be this good those or the guys we need to find

[rames2great]

No offense but this is a really bad post. Just so much that is not true at all.

Plz explain whats not true
There's star confidence
Role player confidence
Situational player confidence
Bench player confidence
Rivers had star confidence when we drafted him now i think his level situational we should of played him more even during his rough times instead of playing guys who are now longer with team and were not apart of furture plans
Now we have a team of young vets who have peaked in ability. Maybe we sneak out a dallas maverick type run or where the next atlanta hawks a team that tried to win now without the team to now
We drafted a homerun pick and never lets the guy swing the bat consistently

[All Metro]

Plz explain whats not true
There's star confidence
Role player confidence
Situational player confidence
Bench player confidence
Rivers had star confidence when we drafted him now i think his level situational we should of played him more even during his rough times instead of playing guys who are now longer with team and were not apart of furture plans
Now we have a team of young vets who have peaked in ability. Maybe we sneak out a dallas maverick type run or where the next atlanta hawks a team that tried to win now without the team to now
We drafted a homerun pick and never lets the guy swing the bat consistently

i really dislike the way this post is structured.looks like a recipe.

[RaisingTheBar]

Rivers got more than enough playing time his rookie year. Yes everyone will agree he should have stayed in college but o well that's in the past let it go and deal with the issue we have now. I'm hoping as the primary backup to Holiday, Rivers will continue to get better in all areas of his game. 1 thing is for sure, he definitely got a fair opportunity his rookie year. Russ Smith will come no where close to 23 minutes per game this season.

[GeauxSaints53]

I've always thought Rivers got too much PT to start after Gordon went down but that wasn't Monty's fault or anything. And no, we don't need a homerun player. Our core just needs to develop together.

Ok whats not true
Was rivers high risk high reward pickNo, he wasn't. High risk, high reward means boom or bust. Rivers is turning into a solid rotation player.
Did rivers get 10 PICK mins considering state of teamNo. He got more than that.
His confidence didnt roller coasterIrrelevant
Should he have got more or of a chance Jesus, it's not like we're hanging him by his ankles right now. He's getting pretty good minutes off the bench.
And besides davis who had more more room to grow than riversCompared to who? We haven't had any other ******* draft picks in like 3 years....

[PELICANSFAN]

Plz explain whats not true
There's star confidence
Role player confidence
Situational player confidence
Bench player confidence
Rivers had star confidence when we drafted him now i think his level situational we should of played him more even during his rough times instead of playing guys who are now longer with team and were not apart of furture plans
Now we have a team of young vets who have peaked in ability. Maybe we sneak out a dallas maverick type run or where the next atlanta hawks a team that tried to win now without the team to now
We drafted a homerun pick and never lets the guy swing the bat consistently

He played 23 minutes a game with 26 starts his rookie year. Not many guys picked 10th get more opportunity than that. He was not even average with that playing time. He had one of the worst rookie years ever. If Monty played him more than that with the way he was playing, I do not see how that would have helped his confidence.

[RhythmNathan]

Plz explain whats not true
There's star confidence
Role player confidence
Situational player confidence
Bench player confidence

The 2K commandments..

[ItIsRynosTime]

is this a troll post after MM's latest article?

Panic/troll thread.
And not a very good one at that.

Guys, guys, please learn the definition of a troll. There has been nothing close to trolling in this thread. The closest posts to trolling are these.

[nola007]

Hahahaha, this is hilarious! It's amazing how many men on here have a crush on Rivers!!!!


You know what I'm saying I mean... But it's...it's easy ... to, to talk about... It's easy to sum it up when you're just talking about Austin Rivers. And we in here talking about Austin Rivers. I mean, listen, we're talking about Austin Rivers, not a real player, we talking about Austin Rivers. Not a real player. Not a real player, but we're talking about Austin Rivers, man. I mean, how silly is that? ... And we talking about Austin Rivers. I know I supposed to like him like everyone on this form. I know I'm supposed to lead by example... I know that... And i'm not.. I'm not shoving it aside, you know, like it don't mean anything. I know it's important, I do. I honestly do... But we're talking about Austin Rivers man. What are we talking about? Austin Rivers? We're talking about Austin Rivers, man. We're talking about Austin Rivers. We're talking about Austin Rivers. We ain't talking about a real player. We're talking about Austin Rivers, man.

The pelicans havent made any huge mistakes but this one

Not playing AUSTIN RIVERS huge minutes early in his career.the pick for me was an homerun pick after the cornerstone pick of davis. Austin could have been the next tony parker/westbrook pick that small market teams need to be competitive. Now his confidence is low and i feel his goal is to just get playing time and not dominate opponents or games.

Now where stuck in that not good enough to be elite and good enough to not suck.

We need an homerun player it wont come in draft so mr. Demps the clock is ticking or we risk losing anthony davis

[nola007]

If Austin Rivers is the home run player I hope we are playing t ball and the fence is at 50 feet!!!!!!!!

The pelicans havent made any huge mistakes but this one

Not playing AUSTIN RIVERS huge minutes early in his career.the pick for me was an homerun pick after the cornerstone pick of davis. Austin could have been the next tony parker/westbrook pick that small market teams need to be competitive. Now his confidence is low and i feel his goal is to just get playing time and not dominate opponents or games.

Now where stuck in that not good enough to be elite and good enough to not suck.

We need an homerun player it wont come in draft so mr. Demps the clock is ticking or we risk losing anthony davis

[ItIsRynosTime]

The mistake seems to be assuming Austin Rivers was a home run pick. Austin Rivers has not shown any signs of being an All Star, and he was probably drafted too high. Some players are high draft picks and are busts like Nikoloz Tskitishvili, Darko Milicic, Adam Morrison, Michael Olowokandi, Greg Oden, and Kwame Brown because they do no meet the expectation of their high draft position. Other players drafted in the late 2nd round or undrafted are not busts because they were not expected to put up big numbers and be a star. So a player like Jeremy Lin could never be a bust no matter how bad he plays because he went undrafted. Jeremy Lin is an overachiever and has outperformed his expectations.

Dell made a small mistake drafting Austin Rivers at this point but Austin Rivers isn't a bust because he was the 10th pick and he is contributing. If Rivers was the 4th pick he would be a bust at this point. Austin Rivers is still young and still has time to meet his expectations.

[Mr. West]

Rivers came into the league as a project pick, Gordon went down and he was forced to play wayyy too many minutes due to our lack of depth. He was awful as a product. Last year, especially at the end of it, Rivers was looking like a player that could help us win. Hopefully he carries that over into this upcoming year, because he's our only real guard depth.

The idea that he needed MORE minutes his rookie year is silly.

[billfromfinance]

Austin was well hyped pre-draft. drafting him was not a mistake. it wasn't like we were the only team seeing value in him. history shows picks 8-14 are normally average at best. The only bust are peoples expectations. we got Anthony Davis that year, but that isn't good enough, we need to get two homerun players in one draft? dell has made plenty of moves people have not seen coming, I don't think davis could turn around and criticize him for not bringing in talent (with resources available) to play with him in his massive two seasons here.

Now i feel where that 6 7 8 seed that gets bounced in the second or first round

considering the history of this franchise, what part of this sentence is a failure? to be 6-8 seed in such an extremely strong conference is a good effort. I don't think anyone expects us to win the big one this year. and it is way too early to know what will take place in the coming years.