So were saving him a lil longer before unleashing and trying to make a deal before the deadline to sell high?... BRILLIANT!
Maybe Luke is trying to tame him but I also think there is enough film on him now that teams are taking him out of his game somewhat. If you noticed in the last several games, teams are more physical with him. The kid will need to adjust. He could be ailing too, e.g., his back.
This is probably why Nance is getting run over Kuz. I like coach giving the rookie extra motivation and personally I would rather Kuz get back being that scrappy defender that he was known for in college. The offense will always be there, but use that crafty vet-like feetwork on defensive slides and rotations. Till then, you'll be watching the end of games from the bench my dude.
Superb bounce back game from Kuzma tonight. 21 and 14 boards? Wowza!!! He played great. Loved seeing him out there in crunch time too.
Love how this guy responds to adversity. Had a terrible game and then bounces back immediately to earn extended minutes by leading the team in +/- without overemphasizing his offensive contribution (ie only scored 12 pts.) You can be a scoring dynamo, Kuz, but I rather see you dominate defensively (led the team with 11 defensive boards) and be an overwhelming net positive when you're on the court. That's how I want to see you play my man. And that's how you'll earn minutes over Nance (as Luke had implied).
Agreed Vash! Sorry read that box score wrong last night on the points (12 not 21 - some numeric dyslexia there on my part), but yeah, wow those 14 rebounds! And just a great bounce back game all the way.
This game is more proof that kuzma needs to start, he was playing better defense on KP than Nance, so if Luke thinks Nance is the holy grail of defensive player than he needs to rethink his thought process.
He played a good-not-great game. He should have been far more involved than he was offensively, but he was also poor defensively for much of the game. His defense late on Porzingis was great, but his off-ball defense wasn't.
He should be involved in more plays /get more shots I like what JC and Julius have done for our team this season but they need to get away from their 2 men game sometimes