"We need all hands on deck," Thomas said. "Missing him is a huge piece. A huge piece."

Posted by djsunyc:

"We need all hands on deck," Thomas said. "Missing him is a huge piece. A huge piece."

and not having jeffries will be the reason why our defense will be awful (per isiah).

not for nothing, but this is the same team as "you know who" had last year sans balkman and mardy. so why the pessimism about november? if the "joy" is back and everybody is finally on the same page, why are you bracing us for a 5-12 month?

Posted by Panos:

I wonder... will he get a pass for that too? What are the excuses this time?
Why didn't LB get the excuse of not having JJ2? He complained about not having
defensive players, but when he did it, it was sedition. What BS.

Posted by efw:

just keeping expectations low. saying anything else would be stupid.

Missing Jeffries will be big though becase even though this is the same team, IT obviously felt that not having a premier defender of the three spot was a big hole. Yeah Q did ok, but there's a lot of 3s in the league that killed us last year. And with the rest of our guards being undersized, that 6'11 is hard to replace.

Posted by Panos:

Posted by efw:

just keeping expectations low. saying anything else would be stupid.

Missing Jeffries will be big though becase even though this is the same team, IT obviously felt that not having a premier defender of the three spot was a big hole. Yeah Q did ok, but there's a lot of 3s in the league that killed us last year. And with the rest of our guards being undersized, that 6'11 is hard to replace.

Again, why wasn't that a valid excuse for LB? What about the other 4 positions at which we play no defense? Having a defensive SF is going to cover all that? What a load of crap.

Because Isiah obviously knows what he is doing behind the sidelines and LB obviously doesn't......(please pick up the sarcasm here guys)

Posted by BRIGGS:

now JJ and his 4 points is lebron james!

let me see the f suns won how many games without amare stoudemire? hes jst a little better than jared jefferies?

Posted by izybx:

I didnt get the impression that he was making excuses. Hes being honest. Look at the schedule. It would be rough for any team in the league, let alone a team coming in with a new coach and a new gameplan.

Hes in a no win situation. If he says that were going to tear it up and we dont then he looks stupid. If hes realistic and says we might get off to a rocky start then hes making excuses. What do you want him to do?

Posted by izybx:

I supported LB until he convinced me otherwise. The main reason I realized that he was ruining the team was when Ariza was benched. I loved Ariza, he always played hard and really left it all out on the floor.

Ariza requests a meeting with LB (seemingly normal thing to do) and LB DENIES HIM. Then he turns around and tells the reporters about it! After humiliating him, he goes the extra mile to call him delusional and insult his intelligence. As an Ariza fan I knew that the kid didnt deserve that. And that sums LB up in a nutshell.

So if that was you (Ariza), would you ever try hard for LB? Would you bust your ass to make those hustle plays when inside youre seething?

I mean LB is a great coach, and last year wasnt only his fault. But he had to go. And while they are both facing the same problems, the way Isiah is going about it will get the best out of his players. The way LB went about was getting nothing.