Terry Stotts isn’t retiring, even though the 65-year-old coach is exiting Adrian Griffin’s staff with the Bucks, Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
Stotts wasn’t comfortable with his fit on Milwaukee’s staff. Griffin claimed they got along just fine.
“It caught all of us off guard, of course, but again, you just support him,” Griffin said. “He was a terrific guy. I learned a lot from him in a very short time. He was really good at what he does. He made a decision – a personal decision – and we just have to respect that.”
However, The Athletic’s Eric Nehm and Shams Charania report that Stotts and Griffin had a tenuous relationship. That included a shootaround incident in which Griffin yelled for Stotts to join the coaches’ huddle when Stotts was about to have a conversation with the team’s star players. That highlighted the potential difficulty of Stotts adapting to an assistant role under rookie head coach Griffin. Conversely, it also spoke about the treatment and level of respect that Griffin needed to show Stotts, considering his lengthy coaching career.
We have more from the Central Division:
- The Pistons paid Monty Williams a lot of money to coach their team, and their star player, Cade Cunningham, has bought in to Williams’ hard-driving style, Keith Langlois of Pistons.com writes. “I love the way he pushes us,” Cunningham said. “He calls things the way he sees them. I think that honesty and that bluntness towards us, that’s huge. Especially for a young team. The systems that he’s put in, the way that he’s made it around our abilities and the personnel we have has been great for us. It’ll continue to get better as he learns us and we learn him.”
- Rookie second-round pick Emoni Bates has led the Cavaliers in scoring during the preseason. Coach J.B. Bickerstaff told Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com that he’s thrilled Bates dropped to the No. 49 overall pick. “I believe if Emoni had gone in the lottery he’d have been the type of player who’d have been in the Rookie of the Year conversation,” Bickerstaff said. “We are extremely fortunate that he’s here with us and we look forward to working with him.”
- Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen is showing progress from the right ankle injury that has sidelined him during much of training camp. On Thursday afternoon, he went through post-practice shooting drills and then went through an individual workout, according to Fedor. He is set for re-evaluation this weekend and there’s hope he can return for Cleveland’s regular-season opener on Wednesday night.
- Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard went through a full practice this week and is on track to play in the team’s preseason finale on Friday, Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files tweets. Nembhard is working his way back from an ankle injury.
Stotts did his job…convince Dame to be okay joining Bucks.
Something stinks in the Stotts resignation, whether its Griffin, Stotts, Dame or Giannis is yet to be known by the public. but there is a behind the scenes issue there. Buck fans better hope it isnt Griffin
I’m honestly surprised Bates wasn’t taken earlier considering his high level of talent. Maybe it took him some humbling to fully realize how hard he needed to worm to make it to the league, idk, but the talent was obvious.
If I’m a confident GM, and there’s an extremely talented player available, that just might suffer from a lack of motivation, I would always trust in my team culture and my coaching staff to be able to get the most out of him.
Clearly, it is only the preseason, but it looks like the Cavs gamble is definitely going to pay off for them with Bates.
I’m not ready to join the Bates bandwagon yet. He can shoot, that is certain. That alone will keep him around for years. But he’s not going to get so many wide open looks as the season wears on and he keeps hitting them. I can see that he is an intelligent player, but my eye says most of his other skills are below average. If coaching and hard work can improve him, great. But coaching and hard work can’t make his arms longer and that body is never going to be more than “wiry.”
Bates can be a poor man’s Michael Porter Jr.
While that’s all true, adding muscle and better understanding your defensive schemes and assignments can make up for a lack of long arms or having extremely quick feet.
Those things plus consistent effort won’t immediately turn you into a great or even good defender, but it will help you become an adequate defender.
As long as he’s an adequate defender, and then continues to sharpen his offensive skills I could certainly see him growing into a valuable primary or secondary scoring option off the bench for a contending team like the Cavs.
Whether he ever becomes a starter or not will significantly depend on his offensive and especially his defensive growth over the course of his first two full seasons.
Like you said, he will always be a limited defender, but he does have a very high ceiling offensively, and if he can become at least adequate defensively and continue to grow his offensive game, then the Cavs will have easily found a heck of a steal. Only time will tell his story though, but it’ll definitely be fun to watch him and the Cavs and see how everything unfolds.
Either way, it was a very solid gamble for the Cavs.
I agree with most of what you say. The Cavs got a good 49th pick, and Bates comes to the perfect situation for him. But I still doubt. He’s got a great jumper and can shoot it even with a defender. But watch his drives to the hoop. I don’t think he beats a lot of guys, and his shot on defended drives looks to me like he short-arms it. Maybe he develops a good floater, maybe I just don’t recognize what he’s doing. Still, at worst he can potentially become a Korver-like bomber off the bench. I’m good with that.
A team like the Cavaliers should be a perfect fit for a player like Bates. For the first time in his life he is not the go to guy.we have a lot of guys who can score and just as many who can pass. He can shoot and if he tries he will be at least adequate defending the 3 spot. He’s not ready to be the focal point of an NBA offense. That said as raw as he is he is can probably match Strus now.He is fast and can shoot. The real issue is how he will handle stress after the honeymoon wears off. Th G-League should help the kid to regain his confidence. That G-League team is loaded with several players who could earn standard contracts. My only concern is that Bickerstaff is overly cautious with unproven players. These Cavaliers could be a title threat this season. For that to happen JB will have to remove the training wheels and sign his 3 way players to standard deals. ISAIAH Mobley is probably better than than Jones or Thompson at this stage of his career. Likewise Bates is good now and should get better when used right. Even Porter lols like the best backup point guard currently active. Jerome is more of a combo guard like LeVert. All 3 will need patience and a good coaching. Bates might eventually be a star. That said if he can score 10 to 15 a night with a good field goal percentage he can be good enough to make this team a perennial title threat. Knowing JB the 2024-25 season will be the first time we see how good both Bates and the Cavaliers can be.
I been tryna use Bates in 2k24 and he’s not on the roster or free agents.
2k often releases an incomplete game. They likely won’t have everyone in until Christmas.