monsterpile wrote:Q12543 wrote:Well, we have seen three years of 'Bazz playing mostly in the role Thibs has planned for him, so I don't think we are going to discover anything shockingly new about his game.
That being said, he certainly feels like the type of player you want coming off the bench featured in a role that creates mis-matches and generates instant offense. The question with him has always been defense, spacing on offense, and finding the open guy. Those liabilities have overshadowed his ability to score a lot of points. We'll see if that changes this year.
I agree with what you are saying Q but I think it's fair to say to some extent Bazz hasn't exactly been featured in his role (relatively speaking) except when Flip was his coach. That year which was only 38 games for him was his most effective. I'm not suggesting Thibs is going to transform him or anything but we may see the best of Bazz doing what he does and him being more effective because he is being put in more positions to succeed. Bazz is going to do what he can and will do regardless (and like you said he has for 3 seasons) but running a few things for him and putting him in a position to succeed makes a lot of sense. It also looks like Dunn can actually make some nice post passes so that could be a positive. That's a skill that isn't talked about all that much and it's something that can have a significant effect on how that post player get a good look.
I think this is a great point. The only time he was featured for his strengths was in those 38 games under Flip and he lead the league in points per touch over those games. He was also in the starting lineup at times during those games. Then last year all of his minutes were watching Zach dribble around and jack up bad shots at the point. He's finally going to be under a coach that understands when to take advantage of mismatches, I can't see how there won't be an uptick in his performance.