Austin Rivers hitting his stride

[WhoDatPelican]

http://espn.go.com/blog/los-angeles/...e-for-clippers

“I haven’t been used to playing this free,” Austin said. “I haven’t been this free since I was playing at Duke or in high school, and people know what I did there. It’s one of those things, when I got here, it felt nice. I’m back and just playing basketball.”

“Whenever anybody plays their old team, there’s obviously something there,” Austin said. “I parted ways in a positive way. This is just a better situation. I felt like there, I wasn’t able to play like me. I felt I could be better, and here I can play free. I’m in a good position to be in now.”

[SaintPelican225]

Lol....wow, this dude had all the opportunities succeed here and failed miserably. He claims he left on good terms, but offered this back hand slap....

[Perth_Hornet]

Time to put your money where your big mouth is mate.

[MichaelMcNamara]

All his stats are the same or down across the board since going to LA. Yeah, he might have more freedom in LA, but that might not be a good thing.

Its like that kid in Little League who can't hit a thing and one coach tells him never to swing, with the hopes he might walk once in a while and actually help the team. Now, Doc is telling him to swing away, and we all know what the results will be.

[pelicanchamp]

This says A LOT about coaching here!!! As I've said before, Monty needs to let Jrue play... He's a control freak!!!

[saintsinNO]

All his stats are the same or down across the board since going to LA. Yeah, he might have more freedom in LA, but that might not be a good thing.

Its like that kid in Little League who can't hit a thing and one coach tells him never to swing, with the hopes he might walk once in a while and actually help the team. Now, Doc is telling him to swing away, and we all know what the results will be.

I'm by no means an AR fan, but that's not entirely accurate and the article does have some merit. He hasn't been there that long and, over the last 5 games, he's shooting 50% and 43% from 3pt. He's averaging 6, 2.5, 2.5; that's not bad for a backup PG.

[MichaelMcNamara]

All players want more freedom - just like all of us do in our jobs. But you have to earn it. Monty has said that Tyreke has earned that from him. Monty gave Austin countless chances and he never earned it. I wish him the best, but if he thinks the only thing holding him back from becoming a great player is a coach letting him go, he is delusional IMO

[saintsinNO]

All players want more freedom - just like all of us do in our jobs. But you have to earn it. Monty has said that Tyreke has earned that from him. Monty gave Austin countless chances and he never earned it. I wish him the best, but if he thinks the only thing holding him back from becoming a great player is a coach letting him go, he is delusional IMO

Great player? No. But a productive player? ....maybe. Monty got lucky with AD who was as close to 'can't miss' as they come. Other than that, he hasn't developed any young talent whatsoever. I hope AR does become productive so it will be another thing people who defend Monty will have to answer for.

[MichaelMcNamara]

This brings me to a question I have wanted to ask people forever - Do people think that AD would have been this great this quick for all 30 teams? Would he have been this if Charlotte or Sacto gets the #1 pick?

Our staff gets zero credit for AD it seems like, so I think I know the answer, but does everyone feel this way? Would he have been this good or better no matter where he was drafted?

[Imnos 2]

He reminds me of Xavier Henry. He felt he had more freedom in LA when he went to the Lakers. And he had a good first half of the season with them. But the Henry we saw for two seasons was the same Henry that showed up in LAL eventually. Both of them, Henry and Rivers, have all the talent to be good serviceable players in the NBA. But they think more of their games than they should. Austin will play longer, I believe. But he wont be what he thinks he is.

[Asteptooslow]

I hope him and Jimmer can battle it out.

[MichaelMcNamara]

He reminds me of Xavier Henry. He felt he had more freedom in LA when he went to the Lakers. And he had a good first half of the season with them. But the Henry we saw for two seasons was the same Henry that showed up in LAL eventually. Both of them, Henry and Rivers, have all the talent to be good serviceable players in the NBA. But they think more of their games than they should. Austin will play longer, I believe. But he wont be what he thinks he is.

Exactly - if a guy can play and help a team out, no coach would want to hold him back. Monty wants to win as bad as anybody. He gave Austin freedom. He let him play point, he let him play 2. He started him, he gave him minutes. Guy just couldn't produce consistently

[AD23nEG10]

he has one decent game & he's hitting his stride? HA

[luigi modelo]

The Xavier comparison is an apt one.

[Abitabove]

neither athletic nor bright...glad this kid is gone.

[UNO Gracias]

I hope him and Jimmer can battle it out.

Prison rules, I got Jimmer. NBA rules, possibly AR.

MM, going into the draft how much of a can't miss was AD? Sure people say "this guy is a can't miss player" all the time, but in AD's case people were comparing him to Lebron in terms of ability to come in an turn a franchise around. You had people like Larry Brown saying he (AD) was going to net a team 50 wins his first year (which he didn't actually do, but the sentiment was he was a big time game changer). The kid coming in was very similar to Lebron in that he dominated against his competition, and had many amazing pieces that were better than well established NBA vets. They are going to be great no matter what.

It would be fair to say you should give Monty as much credit in AD's development as Paul Silas and Mike Brown got in Lebron's development.

[new city champ]

I have this longstanding question in my mind about just how controlling/conservative Williams is as a coach. I know after this summer he indicated he was going to loosen things up a little based on his experience coaching team USA. I worry sometimes that Williams thinking is very "old school," very much in that way of thinking that things have to be done a certain way, all minutes have to be earned and you get a quick hook if you don't earn them or make mistakes. Basically, his coaching philosophy is that of a journeyman player who had to scrap for every minute he got on the floor and because that was his experience in the league, he values that quality in his players maybe a little too much. I could see how a guy with that mindset could make it point to sit on a prep or college star like Rivers or Jimmer who got so much acclaim early in their lives without "earning" it in the association. And I could see how that mindset could have some downside...

[RaisingTheBar]

Austin Rivers hitting his stride

[Eman5805]

This brings me to a question I have wanted to ask people forever - Do people think that AD would have been this great this quick for all 30 teams? Would he have been this if Charlotte or Sacto gets the #1 pick?

Our staff gets zero credit for AD it seems like, so I think I know the answer, but does everyone feel this way? Would he have been this good or better no matter where he was drafted?

It's the brutal truth that all of our success is in spite of our coach, all of our failures are because of him.

Tavares had a rep for being a player development guy. But you'll have guys going back and trying to retroactively shoot even that down because it suits their particular anti-Tavares tip they might be on.

I'm much the same with Les Miles, but at least I can admit that Miles has his team's full support. They play hard for him and he's willing to bank on their talent to get us out of the tough jams he often puts us in.

[504ByrdGang]

My problem is simple with Monty he's one of the worse defensive coaches in the NBA

[Bongzilla]

This brings me to a question I have wanted to ask people forever - Do people think that AD would have been this great this quick for all 30 teams? Would he have been this if Charlotte or Sacto gets the #1 pick?

Our staff gets zero credit for AD it seems like, so I think I know the answer, but does everyone feel this way? Would he have been this good or better no matter where he was drafted?

With out question. The talent is there. The work ethic and desire to be great are his. Not the coaching staff. He has not been taught anything revolutionary. Let's face it, our basketball brass knows as much OR LESS then the other NBA team, not more.

I see zero reason to even suggest that AD is this good because of our coaching staff, which frankly, has typically held players back versus having them flourish.

[Sovereign]

Monty got lucky with AD who was as close to 'can't miss' as they come. Other than that, he hasn't developed any young talent whatsoever..

Hurray for blatant falsehoods

[WhoDatPelican]

Isnt Montel credited for developing Lamarcus Aldridge? He turned out prettaaaayyy prettaaaaaay prettaaay good.

[N.O.Bronco]

Isnt Montel credited for developing Lamarcus Aldridge? He turned out prettaaaayyy prettaaaaaay prettaaay good.

Aldridge certainly gives a lot of credit but the thing about Monty and talent development now is that he is a head coach.

It comes with a lot more responsibilites and a lot of different responsibilities then he had as a assisstant in Portland.

To me Monty's role in development becomes limited based on time and other responsibilities. So while he still plays a role and can give attention to guys like Davis, how much time realistically can he spend on everyone else?

Where he can have the best impact is putting together a system that maximizes the talent he has and putting together a staff that contains assisstants like Monty was who can nurture and develop some of these younger, secondary players that Monty can't spend enormous amounts of time on.

And I'm not gonna lie, I think he and his staff haven't exactly shined in terms of developing secondary talent outside of Davis. Most players that are here or have come here didn't move the needle in terms of their development and often have bad years. Demps seems to find a couple unheralded gems that fit positions of absolute need and they find success but is that really development? Or is that a product of right place, right time?

When I look at development I look at our feature players or expected feature players and see that a lot of them haven't really progressed much. Where is our Draymond Green? Patrick Beverly? jimmy Butler? Chandler Parsons? Kawhi Leonard? guys who we developed and molded into franchise players? I look at the guys we brought in in Jrue, Evans, Anderson, Asik and Rivers and wonder why have none of these guys taken a leap yet? Yeah you can point to one or two things like Evans shot and Jrues decrease in turnovers but have they really taken the next step as players here? Why not?

[SaintPelican225]

With out question. The talent is there. The work ethic and desire to be great are his. Not the coaching staff. He has not been taught anything revolutionary. Let's face it, our basketball brass knows as much OR LESS then the other NBA team, not more.

I see zero reason to even suggest that AD is this good because of our coaching staff, which frankly, has typically held players back versus having them flourish.

You base this on what ?