Derrick Rose is eager to mentor Pistons lottery pick Killian Hayes, according to Keith Langlois of Pistons.com. Rose, who is entering his walk year, plans to make Hayes “uncomfortable” in camp to get the French point guard prepared for the rigors of the NBA. “My job is to push him and to groom him,” Rose said. “Coming from overseas, guys are going to try to play aggressive with him, so it’s my job to play aggressive on him throughout this whole camp so when he gets in a game he won’t feel that much pressure.”
We have more from the Central Division:
- The Cavaliers’ small forward starting job is up for grabs, as Chris Fedor of The Cleveland Plain Dealer details. Rookie Isaac Okoro, Cedi Osman and Dylan Windler are the candidates, with Osman trying to holding onto the spot he’s occupied over the past two seasons. “Minutes have to be earned,” head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “You’ve got to earn everything here.”
- The Pacers won’t have fans for their December home games but they’re hoping that changes as early as January, according to a team press release. Pacers Sports & Entertainment’s statement read in part, “We look forward to having fans back to Bankers Life Fieldhouse in January, and we will provide updates in the near future.”
- Guard Delon Wright wanted to rejoin Dwane Casey for the last two or three years, Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press tweets. Wright was traded last month to the Pistons, where he’ll be coached once again by Casey. Wright played three-and-a-half seasons with Toronto – mostly under Casey – before he was dealt to Memphis in February 2019. Wright thought he might get traded to Detroit before he wound up with the Grizzlies. He played for Dallas last season.
- Bulls big man Daniel Gafford said he contacted former coach Jim Boylen to “clear the air” after Gafford made some remarks this summer criticizing Boylen’s personality and coaching methods, Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times reports. “I had contact with Jim, just made sure I cleared the air that it wasn’t anything intentional, that I was just trying to bash him or anything like that,’’ Gafford said. “It was nothing like that at all. … That was just basically constructive criticism, in my opinion.”
“Bickerstaff said Okoro looked good Friday. One player joked to cleveland.com that Okoro is built like an ox, much bigger in person than he looked on film. Okoro’s maturity and basketball IQ have been impressive, with Bickerstaff crediting the youngster for his retention skill, only needing things explained once.” -Chris Fedor’s article.
Okoro is going to force Bickerstaff to play him because of his defense. We don’t need him to score either, since there are already a lot of shot takers on the team. Just play D, rebound, make good passes. I’m excited to see him play.
I don’t mind Osman, but he doesn’t have much of a ceiling. Okoro does.
Okoro got game. I see a lot of Butler in him. He can start now on Cavs. He doesn’t need ball to be effective. Still will get you 14-16 pts. Give him a couple yrs and his offense will be much better.
Rose is a good mentor for Hayes. Very similar to a young Rose. Kids young do they shouldn’t rush him. He’s got to go right innNBA. He’s always beaten everyone left so much. That even when he goes right he shoots lefty. He’s got the handle to go either way. He won’t get away with that in NBA. He’s got a bright future. A big lefty traditional PG.
Respect to Gafford, showing that kind of maturity for such a young man.
However, he wasn’t wrong about Boylen, and if Boylem wants to coach again, he needs to hear alot more constructive criticism. He also needs to take it to heart, because he was a really bad cosch for the Bulls.
He mainly didn’t know how to use his bigs, and as a result of his firing and hiring Donovan, I expect we will see some big seasons from Markkanen, especially Wendell Carter Jr., and even some big improvements from Gafford as he goes into his second season…WCJ is about to put alot of people on notice this year, if he can stay healthy….BOOK IT!!
Also, kudos to D.Rose, he seems like he has matured greatly since his time in Chicago as a young man..
That comment by Rose shows why the previous GM wanted Rose not just as a scorer but as this year’s leader. Smart by Weaver not to trade him.
How many 20-wins seasons will be tolerated under JB? Maybe two more?
Question, are you talking about Jim Boylen or JB Bickerstaff? Because Boylen was fired already, and JB Bickerstaff was only hired as the Cavs head coach on March 10th of this year…And of the three full season Bickerstaff was head coach in the league, two were 33 and 37 wins.
And two of those years he inherited the team after the main coaches were fired.
Safe to assume houston has predicted two seasons of 20 wins max for the Cavs.
20/72 ~ 23/82
Lol we’ll see
Yeah…fans back in January….and we’ll inaugurate the same President too
Sexton might make sense coming off the bench as a scorer for them, so Okoro could theoretically fit at the 2, depending on the rest of the lineup.