I like most of what he is doing lately for the most part, I kinda like the Stix Ijax combo, and I obviously wish Benn and Obi played more

Benn has been scapegoated so much for the overall bad D on the team this year.

Offensively he is buried in the corner 3, hoping to catch a pass and then when he gets impatient cuz he doesn,t get the ball, he’ll force a transition 3 (hit or miss) or do that same old curl off the pick to his left and hope to draw fouls.

Mathurin is the highest pick the Pacers ever drafted at #6 in their history. He should be put in situations where his strenghts are showcased and stop picking on him on D. He is a ball watcher and needs to be much better at help defense. But his on ball defense is really good and the effort is clearly there.

I question if Rick will ever get the most out of this young man who has such potential. Not sure yelling at him is the way

… All those players were benched for poor defense at times against Portland AND all season (despite what some of you are spouting off about Buddy not being punished for poor defense).

Benn literally asked Rick to coach him hard. So when he goes out there and repeats mistakes that they likely just went over, while Carlisle is yelling instructions at him from the sideline, and he still fucks up basic help coverage that you start learning in grade school, he should get his ass chewed, as everyone who had ever played competitive sports knows.

Also if coach is yelling at you, that means you are worthy of his attention. Head Coaches don’t have time for players even if they fuck up if they aren’t talented enough to warrant the attention (again something you pick up on after playing competitive sports for awhile).

Buddy is old and not under contract after this season, not worth the effort. Tyrese is the best player on the team and he already gets on himself enough that a benching is likely all that needs to happen after a bad defensive fuck up. Obi, maybe he doesn’t take aggressive coaching well and Rick is smart enough to know that, or maybe the 5th starter possible future bench player isn’t worth the head coaches time and an assistant handled it.

Also, Utah sucks worse than us with basically no playoff chances, Taylor Hendricks is in the g-league as well as Jarace. They are like the two youngest draft picks this year, it’s fine. Jarace will get his time when he is ready, or if we could be at the shit out of teams like Detroit and Portland like we should.

Buddy starting over Matherin has been negative. The team has been mostly awful in that stretch

Must be nice, everybodys a NBA level coach these days, must be fuckin nice!

I’ll imma say is that Rick knows what he’s doing. he’s been coaching for like 30 years now, he has a ring as the head coach of a pretty mid team as far as championship teams go

I was at the game and TJ was absolutely crucial in giving us a chance to win, he changed the whole atmosphere

I don’t think Carlisle (or most coaches) cares about long term success. He just wants to win the day’s game. So he is not going to give our young talent many if any opportunities to fail and grow.

Needs a little more Jarace Walker