I wouldn't pass on George because of Ingram. I wouldn't let the Pacers fleece us but no one is off limits as far as I am concerned.
My biggest gripe, which I touched on in the gameday thread is that Luke has given up coaching the defensive end of the ball. I'm sure part of that is because these kids are unwilling to defend, but he's given up completely. This "all switch" defense is garbage and doesn't work.
If Luke were treated how he treats his players, this would have been a long stream of remarks critical of him - issued by his boss in public.
I sure am glad I got the domain www.fireLuke.com before anyone else did There are two types of coaches. Ones that are here today, and ones that are not. Eventually, all coaches will appear in both categories.
I really don't put a lot of blame on Luke for much of this. He's a rookie head coach that came from the best regular season team ever, to one of the worst. There aren't even a handful of coaches out there I'd say could get more out of this group of players, not even Phil could have done much with them without prime Kobe.
There's some things that he's just shown he's not great at, but you're right. This was a horrible hand he was dealt. Not just s***ty kids, but turmoil among his superiors. This must be as hard on him as anyone else.
Add to all that is that dude is only 36 years old, he's 4 years older than me and the idea of coaching the best franchise in NBA history that are in an unprecedented rebuild is crazy. Freakin MWP is 37, and Deng has to have almost a decade on him too.
Not even tracking it honestly. Just grabbed it for fun to drive traffic here. If I thought Luke was actually in danger of being fired I might track it. Now if I had fireByron.com, I would have been tracking and posting results on the regular LOL
Some of the quotes have already been posted but for those that want the entire post game interview here it is. Not happy to say the least.. He wasn't even asked about David's no foul call and had to bring that up because it was bothering him so much.
Luke apparently wants one of our young guys to step up and become an alpha dog. It's going to take awhile. The only two I can think of who might be future alphas are Zu and Randle due to their physical gifts. Zu being big and long, and Randle being fast and strong for his size. Dominant physical gifts can help fuel confidence necessary to become a leader. Unfortunately both of them don't seem to talk like leaders. Zu partially because English is not his first language and Randle just seems to keep his words short when he talks to reporters. D'Angelo seems to want to talk more than others, but his lack of athleticism and focus on the court holds him back too. BI doesn't seem like an alpha personality. Neither does JC.
Yeah it's an issue. Team full of young betas. Just waiting on Lonzo to show up and bring the A dog to the team.