REPORT: Super Mario coming back for 10 days..

[WraithSentinel]

De RIO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:thumbsupsmileyanim::newspaper::handshake:

[ngc7]

some of you are lost. mario brings defense and energy to a team that needs it. he can come in when nate robinson happens and stopped it right away. we do not need another pg unless he is a all world defender.

of course another big man would bbe good but there are zero big men out there that can do what we need which is guard dhoward and them

[mattlanta]

so he'll probably take the spot of collins on the active roster depending on the lineup? against cleveland perhaps morris sits it out so that we can have collins and west? i can't see west not being played by woodson... we could always use someone like him.

[jerrywest]

Mario could have helped us in our 5 losess to NY(2), New Orleans, Chicago & Detroit. He could have shut down the opposing point guards for a few minutes and mess with their heads.

[Wurider05]

They bringing him in to guard Nate Robinson. Damn we could have used him when NAte dropped 41 on us!!

[Admin]

I'm happy for Mario but if he's used the way that he should be used, as a defensive stopper against quick PG's, it is only going to take minutes away from Teague. Then again I doubt Woody will do more than play Mario more than 45-90 seconds at the end of the half and maybe 3rd quarter.

[jerrywest]

I'm happy for Mario but if he's used the way that he should be used, as a defensive stopper against quick PG's, it is only going to take minutes away from Teague. Then again I doubt Woody will do more than play Mario more than 45-90 seconds at the end of the half and maybe 3rd quarter.

Woody won't put Teague in critical situations - at least not this year. In critical defensive possessions, I'd rather have West on waterbug point guards than Bibby. Playing next to West in garbage time will help Teague develop better.

I think West will change the energy dynamic of this team. Last year's team with far less talent and far shorter bench played much harder. I think West contributed to that significantly. West is Contagious. We should have kept him as assistant coach.

Also this will reduce Crawford's garbage time, reduce his probability of injury and give him rest. The deflated stats will also reduce his salary demand when he becomes free agent.

Edited January 13, 2010 by jerrywest

[Admin]

Woody won't put Teague in critical situations - at least not this year. In critical defensive possessions, I'd rather have West on waterbug point guards than Bibby. Playing next to West in garbage time will help Teague develop better.

I think West will change the energy dynamic of this team. Last year's team with far less talent and far shorter bench played much harder. I think West contributed to that significantly. West is Contagious. We should have kept him as assistant coach.

Also this will reduce Crawford's garbage time, reduce his probability of injury and give him rest. The deflated stats will also reduce his salary demand when he becomes free agent.

You're right that Woody won't put Teague in critical situations, but unless something has radically changed he won't put Mario in either unless it's the end of a quarter or a half. I think that Mario could be a very solid defensive stopper against those quick guards but Woody has very rarely used him in that role in the past and I doubt much has changed since last year.

[buckeye242424]

You're right that Woody won't put Teague in critical situations, but unless something has radically changed he won't put Mario in either unless it's the end of a quarter or a half. I think that Mario could be a very solid defensive stopper against those quick guards but Woody has very rarely used him in that role in the past and I doubt much has changed since last year.

I agree. Nobody can question his heart and intensity, but his offensive game is not at the level of most NBA players. Couple that with an offensive system that relies primarily on individual talents, Woody is hesitant to leave him on the floor because it would be like 4 on 5 (save offensive rebounding). But sitting where we are now, middle of January and in the thick of everything, I like having him back - just for his energy alone. Reading some tweets from some of our players, it appears he's well liked...not that Othello wasn't, but guys seem to be happy he's back on the team for now.

[Admin]

I agree. Nobody can question his heart and intensity, but his offensive game is not at the level of most NBA players. Couple that with an offensive system that relies primarily on individual talents, Woody is hesitant to leave him on the floor because it would be like 4 on 5 (save offensive rebounding). But sitting where we are now, middle of January and in the thick of everything, I like having him back - just for his energy alone. Reading some tweets from some of our players, it appears he's well liked...not that Othello wasn't, but guys seem to be happy he's back on the team for now.

I'm definitely happy for Mario that he's back and as long as he doesn't take away from the limited amount of time that Teague is currently getting then his energy and other intangibles that he brings to the team will be a big boost. I'm just cautious of anything that will take away minutes from Teague and I have to wonder if Woody didn't campaign to have Mario brought back because he is going to start playing Teague even less.

[Admin]

Well I will be the first to admit that I was wrong about Woody using Mario in a different way than he did the past 2 years and Mario REALLY looked good out there hustling and diving and jumping and blocking and I loved it. I think it's a no-brainer that West will be on the team the remainder of the year if he continues to play like he did tonight.

With Teague and West we might have the best mini-me shot blocking backcourt in the history of the NBA!

[TheTruth]

Well I will be the first to admit that I was wrong about Woody using Mario in a different way than he did the past 2 years and Mario REALLY looked good out there hustling and diving and jumping and blocking and I loved it. I think it's a no-brainer that West will be on the team the remainder of the year if he continues to play like he did tonight.

With Teague and West we might have the best mini-me shot blocking backcourt in the history of the NBA!

I dunno Dolf. I know he got 12 minutes tonight, but I surely dont expect anywhere near that on a consistent basis. I think Mario is a defensive stopper and decent rebounder off the bench we need that should see at least 7 mins a game...but I dont see it happening. I also think your concerns about Teague seeing minutes taken away and development by Woodson stunted are well-founded. I don't think Woodson was ever planning on really developing him this year from what I have seen. I wish he would, but I guess he just won't do it. I have resigned myself to believe that now. Since that is the case, maybe Mario can get some decent minutes to help stop/slow down uber fast guards...or just provide some much needed energy off the bench.

[Gray Mule]

mini-me back court !! Oh yeah!

Put Mario West and Jeff Teague in the back court and dare anyone to go to sleep!

Somehow, I can't believe even the Hawks would sleepwalk long with those two on the floor together.

:top secret:

[Admin]

I dunno Dolf. I know he got 12 minutes tonight, but I surely dont expect anywhere near that on a consistent basis. I think Mario is a defensive stopper and decent rebounder off the bench we need that should see at least 7 mins a game...but I dont see it happening. I also think your concerns about Teague seeing minutes taken away and development by Woodson stunted are well-founded. I don't think Woodson was ever planning on really developing him this year from what I have seen. I wish he would, but I guess he just won't do it. I have resigned myself to believe that now. Since that is the case, maybe Mario can get some decent minutes to help stop/slow down uber fast guards...or just provide some much needed energy off the bench.

Yeah I'm still skeptical that he'll continue to use Mario like this when he isn't under the pressure of trying to evaluate him on a 10 day contract but part of me thinks that maybe Woody will see Mario as a vet since he was gone and playing for another team, even though it wasn't an NBA team, for a while.

I'd like Teague to get closer to 10-12 minutes a night but honestly if he could just play every night, or close to it, I'd be satisfied with that compared to what he has gotten throughout this year so far. He was a big part of that nice first half run tonight so I hope Woody will keep that in mind.

The big thing is that it looks like we do have a guard Woody is going to be able to use to put on the lightning quick guards that have hurt us, although that will only work if our other 4 players on the court are playing good offensively since Mario won't contribute much in that regard.

[DJlaysitup]

Well I will be the first to admit that I was wrong about Woody using Mario in a different way than he did the past 2 years and Mario REALLY looked good out there hustling and diving and jumping and blocking and I loved it. I think it's a no-brainer that West will be on the team the remainder of the year if he continues to play like he did tonight.

With Teague and West we might have the best mini-me shot blocking backcourt in the history of the NBA!

This was kind of the "perfect storm" for Mario (in a positive way). The team seemed to lack energy early and we were missing nearly everything from the perimeter. It was Mario's first game back so it was neat that Woody could give him some real minutes without any negative impact. We didn't have to worry much about matching the Wiz basket-for-basket since they couldn't hit much of anything anyways. We finally got around to hitting some shots and - wow - we were up 42-22.

I agree with your previous post in that this game really won't change all that much as far as the way we (Woody) play the rest of the year. Mario could get some spot duty when a player is going off like Nate did and Teague will still be slowly developed as our PG (or backup PG) of the future. I just hope Mario doesn't hurt Craw in practice (crossing fingers and knocking on wood). Otherwise, depth is good to have, but the money guys are still the money guys.

[Admin]

LOL okay DJ if Mario injures anyone in practice you know that you're going to have to be banned for life right? Go do some serious knocking on wood after putting that idea out there into the universe.

[BusBoyIsBack]

Missed the game and saw it on the highlight reel. I was so shocked. Saw he got a tip in shot too. Awesome for him. Do we have space to keep him?

The more depth in the backcourt the better.