This was incredibly impressive, and luckily the refs were letting us be a little more physical last night, not calling every little thing
One of the criticisms of Rob has been his "losing on the fringes". Drafting JHS last year, give POs to the minimum signings last offseason, stuff like that. Its fair to criticize some of that stuff, but AR and now Max have been two massive wins on the fringes. UDFA and a second round pick as the starting backcourt of the 5 seed in a tough West. I have a bad feeling that Max is going to struggle if/when we get to the playoffs as young role players typically do. The one that really sticks out in my mind is when Danny Green first got the starting 2 job in San Antonio in 2012. Really nice regular season but got picked on in the 2012 WCF against OKC and he lost confidence in his shot. But Green obviously bounced back and became one of the best role players of the decade, almost won Finals MVP the next year. I think Max could be one of the best role players in the league in a few years too. I'm confident the kid is going to be an important player with us for a long time.
yeah, we went from discussing whether we'd be able to get off his contract to being pretty happy with him as a starter in a matter of weeks. sometimes patience pays off.
How do we know if it wasn’t the scouting department that picked AR and Max? I’m honestly asking. If it was Rob, then I will give him his flowers. Rob also gets negative points for letting Pippen Jr and Huff go too early. They both have been great on one of the best teams in the League. We literally have our Franchise Cornerstone begging for a decent big to play alongside. Huff isn’t full time starter material, but he’s shown to be a very capable second string big who for short stints, could start against some of the teams with weaker starting centers.
Well the scouting department reports to Rob, no one is getting drafted, signed or traded without Rob's sign off (unless Jeanie overrules him, which I doubt she's ever done). So the scouting department probably flagged AR and Max and Rob signed off on it. He would still deserve credit for trusting the scouts. It sounds like something that should just be taken for granted, but GMs in all sports ignore their scouts or their assistants all the time.
i think rob listens to scouts on all decisions. and sometimes that's reaves, and sometimes that's jhs. it's part of his job to learn which folks to listen to about what and when. interestingly, despite being known as a rob defender (i really don't think he's special, just that he's not the reason we're where we are), i don't give him a lot of credit for our success in the draft and udfa. a lot of that pre-dates rob and can probably be credited to joey buss (i think). he gets some credit for listening to them. but his job is largely seen at the contract negotiations. i think we've generally done well here, avoiding major conflicts and not hamstringing the franchise--main exception: eagle (i wish not to discuss this further and for you to give me and my family time to continue grieving). anyway, looking like max's draft and deal is another in a long line of successes in the margins that we supposedly fail at time and again. and tbh, even i was doubtful as recently as november.
He's been struggling with his shot a bit, but he's been so consistent in other areas. When he hits his shot like he did tonight, it makes it much harder to defend. He's 21 and still has plenty of room to grow.
Redick has done a nice job of making him a finisher only on offense (either he shooting the 3, attacking the rim, or cutting). Basically all of ball stuff. Since Reaves and Lebron do all the on ball stuff at a very high level can't ask much more from him terms of growth JJ is seeing some stuff he might not like though as he's been going to Gabe to finish games which I'm not a huge fan of.
He just needs to be gently told to dribble drive less- his handle is very shakey and often loses it. However, he usually does well cutting into the lane, receiving the pass, and finishing. Other than that, I’m so happy that he’s become a dependable player.
Yeah his drives are sketchy. He is quite good in off-ball moves which is great in a role player. It just happens we lack dribble penetration as a group, only Reaves and Bron do it. Gabe and Dalton occasionally but it's not their game. It makes our offense more predictable and away of what teams like Boston, OKC and Memphis do - drive and kick on repeat until they get a good shot. Not sure we are able to get some help until the deadline on that dimension
This man cannot be on page two. Perfect example of how young players develop if they are allowed to play. Hats off to JJ for having the vision to develop the young guys now so they will help us win the championship instead of setting them up to fail by putting them into situations they were not prepared for.
