Jalen Duren looked carefully at the replay of the Pistons’ Game 1 loss to No. 8 seed Orlando. Duren has taken heavy criticism for only contributing eight points on four shot attempts and seven rebounds in the 112-101 loss.
“For me, just being more aggressive, finding my spots and attacking more; I think I could have done a better job of that,” Duren said after Tuesday’s practice, per Coty Davis of the Detroit News. “I just spent time watching the film over, and, over, and over again, seeing where I wasn’t most effective at and just trying to capitalize on that next game.”
The All-Star center acknowledged that the Magic had an effective strategy to neutralize him. The Pistons will have to develop some counters for Game 2 on Wednesday.
“They just had a good game plan, packing the paint. Anytime I had catches deep, they collapsed on me,” Duren said. “They were coming from everywhere. I did not get as many shot attempts (four) as I should have. There were times when I did catch myself one-on-one, and I’ve seen those moments before, and I want to get more of those opportunities. But for the most part, they were collapsing from anywhere.”
Here’s more from the Central Division:
- Doc Rivers’ stint with the Bucks is over and he insists it was his decision and not management’s edict. “It wasn’t a hard decision. It’s probably on your mind your last couple years,” Rivers said to Andscape’s Marc J. Spears. “It had nothing to do with the season or anything like that. There’s times where you feel like you’ve had your run. I still love it. I still love coaching. But I don’t ever want my job to become work. I guess that is the best way of saying that. It’s more of a labor of love. So, I just felt like it was time. It was not like some lightning strike or something like that. I told ownership that a while ago.”
- The Bulls are also seeking a new coach after parting ways with Billy Donovan on Tuesday. According to ESPN’s Shams Charania (video link), Donovan was offered the opportunity to not only remain as Chicago’s coach but also a front office job as an alternative. He chose instead to walk away. “They offered him any amount of years that he wanted to stay as coach, any type of extension he wanted, even a high-ranking managerial role. But Billy Donovan wanted to keep coaching and he actually had an option in his contract for next season and he decided to decline it and step down as head coach,” Charania said.
- The Bulls currently hold the No. 9 and No. 15 picks in this year’s draft with hope of moving up from No. 9 during the draft lottery. The way it shakes out and the choices that they make will have a cascading effect on the roster, Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times writes. Players such as Anfernee Simons, Leonard Miller, Zach Collins and Nick Richards could be impacted by which rookies the Bulls select.
Wow, Donovan was given a blank check to coach or be in the front office, and he said no thanks. Didn’t even pick up his option to “wait and see”. Chicago is definitely a mess – on and off the court.
You keep saying that before anyone even has a job. Are you daft or just enjoy typing random crap. Right now my biggest nightmare is the Bulls win the lottery and draft in the top 4 and don’t draft Wagler. Then I have to buy another TV. Why I buy Vizio’s now. They work and are inexpensive. And every year I get a new one.
Focus – you’re rambling again.
Gonna post it one more time for better comment positioning here than in the Donovan article. Haven’t seen anyone suggest this yet.
What are the odds the Myers/Kerr tandem takes over GM/front office/head coaching (consider all 3 possibilities for Kerr) in Chicago? Provide a percentage if you like.
Also provide a percentage likelihood Draymond Green declines player option in SF and joins Myers and Kerr if they both are hired by the Bulls organization.
Greater chance of the first or second scenario happening?
I see zero chance Kerr comes here and coaches. He’ll either finish up with Steph or take a FO job or just quit all together. I know he’s had health issues and hates all the travel of being a HC. He might come here as a POBO.
Myers isn’t a horrible choice we’ll see. Why would the Bulls who are certainly rebuilding now want Green? That’s a non starter, Zero chance. Myers will want to build his own thing and acquire his own players as would anyone who gets the job. He wouldn’t hire a guy like Kerr to coach a rebuild nor would Kerr even think about that at this point in time. So basically I doubt any of that happens except maybe for Myers. Unless Kerr wants the POBO job and we know Jerry likes his pets but I still put that at less than 25%.