Same. I still wear my Denver skyline hat since deep down it's a VCU hat, but I feel better about putting on the Memphis one.
Same.
True, but it is coming out that one of the reasons for his firing was due to locker room issues with how he treated players differently—not the superstars which is expected, but across the team. Also, it is apparently common knowledge that he would single guys out who fell out of favor and really make their lives difficult—even for petty reasons like they were brought in by the GM against his wishes.
Malone had a history of heavily favoring the name brand veterans, even if they were worse than some of the younger guys. An article that came out locally this morning talked a lot about Nnaji not getting minutes at the 4 despite being > +150ish points at the 4 and forced to play the 5 for years to favor another player, which he played the 5 at something like > -200 points. Also he 'preferred' to keep Westbrook out there over Christian Braun, despite analytics saying he was dead wrong. The only reason Bones got much run was due to Murray's injury at the time, I don't think Malone had much of a choice in it tbh.
Kind of what I have been posting since Bones left the team. As stated, people are quick to side with authority instead of thinking about it objectively.
Then how do you explain Bones not getting much burn playing elsewhere? I get it that Bones is our guys and folks want to point the finger elsewhere for his disappointing NBA career thus far. But at some point if you fail to get promoted at every job you're hired for, you can't keep blaming your supervisors.
Based on almost nothing, it looks to me that Bones owns a big share of the responsibility for what happened in Denver. He seemed to glide past "confident" well into "arrogance."
More and more, the NBA is getting away from "teaching" and they're expecting players to come in ready to play. If you're not ready, teaching will happen in the G-league. No different than other sports. In football I'm old enough to remember when quarterbacks weren't even expected to get on the field until at least 2-3 years of sitting on the sidelines. Now most quarterbacks who are high draft picks are expected to play either right out the gate or by half way into their rookie year.
Living in Denver and watching up close both Malone and Bones bear the blame. Malone simply does not like young players and does not trust them unless they can play really good defense (witness Braun who basically made bones dispensable). Bones was an offensive juggernaut but a defensive liability. You are absolutely right thinking the modern NBA expects players, other than stars, to come in, accept their role and sit until they are ready to “behave”. The irony is Denver really needed Bones and still do on offense for the second team. Westbrook is wildly inconsistent whereas Bones could ignite the second team even while he was sometimes clueless on defense. Malone got fired for not figuring out how to integrate young players more effectively so yes the blame is shared.
Acknowledging Malone didn't like playing people newer to the league was a point beyond just Bones. I also pointed out that Bones only really got much run here because Murray was injured....
That's not exactly true. Go through Malone's coaching history and you'll see plenty of evidence of him playing rookies and newer players extensive minutes. In 2013-14 in Sacramento he played rookie Ben McLemore all 82 games, started him in 55 games, averaged 27 minutes per game. That season he also played 2nd year play Isaiah Thomas 72 games, starting 54 averaging 35 minutes per game. His first year in Denver he played 19 year old rookie Emmanuel Mudiay 68 games, starting 66 averaging 30+ minutes per game. That same year he gave burn to an overweight 20 year old 2nd round draft pick name Nikola Jokić playing him 80 games, starting 55 of them averaging 22 minutes per game.
No one ever said Bones was a Saint. Just that, the situation in Denver may not have been his fault.