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Happy Ourer: “Happy Ourer here with Marshall Richards and we are discussing the takeaway from the win over The Beer Bellys. Marshall, what three things did you come away with?”

Marshall Richards: “Happy, my first takeaway is that it was a hard game to have any takeaways from without sounding like you’re nitpicking. Still, Harrison Mann has a ball security issue that he has to be addressed. Right now, he’s a liability with the ball in his hands and he’s a liability in the rebounding department.”

HO: “That tracks, Marshall. Harrison had a huge game in a scrimmage on June 15th, and followed up with a solid game on June 17th, but he’s not giving the team the consistent production, or dare I say, the effort the team needs and demands from him.”

MR: “That brings me to my second takeaway, Happy. Damian Hatfield is another one that has to bring more to the table. He has much development work to do, but there’s more in there. Getting that production to translate on the court in games would go a long way to shoring up a weakness on the Linndale bench. Either he or Harrison Mann has got to bring it.”

HO: “There nothing more to be added there. What’s the third takeaway?

MR: “Rod Guyton is balling out of his mind, Kyle Knowles has become more efficient and accurate since the start of the season, and the duo of Floyd Hearn and Ramon Sanz Garcaa are doing work. The thing that no one has noticed is Serkan Sokmen quietly becoming a revelation. The team is 3-0 when he scores 20 points, and in those games the smallest margin of victory was 12 points. Simply put, if he’s scoring, you have a problem. When you get him going with Guyton and Knowles going at the same time, well that’s a problem I’m glad I don’t have. Pio Reina sees he has another weapon and is going to find ways to get him the ball. That’s something teams would do well to remember.”

HO: “Marshall, to add on to that, If Trenton Tovar and Mantas Petriukstis keep playing the way the have been, good grief! Tovar’s been finding ways to impact the game when his shot isn’t falling, and you can see Petriukstis growing in confidence out there. When he finally starts to assert himself, the second unit is going to be interesting.”

MR: “Well, it appears Petriukstis is gonna be forced to try asserting himself. We’ve got an incoming update from Air Allnite, who was with the team for today’s scrimmage. Air, what do you have for us?”

Air Allnite: “Trenton Tovar is going to be out 5 to 8 days with a bruised knee. He was 5 of 5 from the field, 3 of 3 from deep, and 2 of 2 from the free throw stripe, scoring 15 points in 11 minutes before leaving with the knee issue. I spoke briefly with an assistant coach and was told we should expect to see more of Rich McCain and likely Elijah Wilson might make his regular season debut this week.”

MR: “Thanks, Air. Pio had talked about getting more court time for the rookies, and injuries are a sure way to do it. I expect we’ll see more of Christophe Nguyen along with the two rookies. I would imagine that dictates the training schedule for the week.”

HO: “That’s also going to put pressure on Guyton and Knowles to produce. Linndale won’t be able to handle a bad game from one or both now. Petriukstis has to step up if only to keep pressure off the rookies.”

MR: "We'll talk about what to expect from the rookies and when we might see them on the other side of the break!"

This entire season is about getting Holley on the NT, and I guess about making millions. He's at 145 tsp and so very close so need a pop or two. He will destroy all of you as I lose by 60 points a game.

I personally love it. His pure dominance with no one else supporting him. Best NBA comp?

Pio Reina addressed his team. “I’m feeling like trying something different tonight. I’m not going to yell or scream or anything like that. I’m going to tell you if I like something or not about your game tonight. Don’t think that just because we won I didn’t see things you guys need to work on. Wilson and McCain you guys did a nice job on the bench.” Laughter followed. “Good to see you guys brought your sense of humor. We’ll see who still has it at the end of this.”

If that statement couldn’t chill the room, nothing would.

“Mr. Guyton”, Pio began, “I have to put some respect on your name. Sir, you are on quite the roll. You are as close to unstoppable as I’ve seen anyone here!”

“Thanks, coach, and thanks to my teammates for making me look good.” Guyton seemed to sense a storm was coming for his teammates and tried to mitigate it a bit.

“Kyle, you’ve been pretty darn good yourself! I‘ve noticed. I see the sacrifice you’ve been making.” Knowles smiled and nodded. “Floyd, that was a great performance out there! I see the work you put in on expanding your game!” “Team effort, Coach!” Floyd was happy with his performance, but he also sensed the storm coming for his teammates. Right before he called the next name, Floyd saw the look on his coach’s face change.

Guyton saw it too. Both knew there was nothing they could do to save their teammates from what ws to come.

“Sokmen, there was once a guy who played here who was called ‘Invisible Man’. He did a lot of things that don’t always seem important, but teams don’t win without guys like that. Every so often, he explode with a big all around game that showed off his varied skills. You were not invisible. In fact I saw you playing for the opposition tonight. How else can you explain 6 turnovers?” Guyton recoiled along with Sokmen. Rod made a mental note to chat up Sokmen later.

“Mantas, you have much more in you. We need to see it. Nice game, but far too passive. We need you to be aggressive off the bench. Ramon, you seem comfortable. I don’t like it. Assert yourself more. You’ve found a role and fill it well, but you are capable of much more. We want to see you be much more.” Ramon rarely showed emotion. This time was no different.

“Reese, I’m yanking your playing time Tuesday. We need more offense off the bench. Rolland is taking your minutes. You know what you’ve got to do if you want them back. Rolland, you know what to do if you want to keep those minutes. I will not have a defensive liability on the court.” Reese and Rolland were both fuming. Floyd was already sitting with those two, Guyton noted. They’re in good hands, he thought. Still, gotta talk to those guys.

“Mann, I still don’t see it. Even when the metrics say you’ve improved. I’ll allow that I appreciate the turnover free game. Do that again.” Mann didn’t seemed bothered, but Pio knew better.

“Nguyen, decent job out there. You’ll get another chance to build on that. Show me something. Hatfield, I cannot abide a big man with more turnovers than rebounds. That’s a problem and you need to fix it.”

“Gentlemen, the Zombies shot very well. They moved the ball well. On offense, they did what they wanted. On the other hand, we gave them the basketball too many times and let them hang around way too long in this game. We showed we still have a lot to clean up. We are not where we want to be yet. We’ve got time to clean these things up. Get it done.”

Pio turned and stepped toward his office. He paused. "If anyone has a problem with anything I've said, as I have consistently told you from day one, my door is open. Except for you, Harrison. I'm tired of talking to you. Show me."

Tonight looked a lot better than season 47 where my team was dominated from beginning to end. Tuesday a lost for my team too. I just got a feeling.

I had to go back and look at that. I looked at my roster and cringed. The best part of that unbalanced team was the backcourt. As far as Tuesday goes, it would appear we both have our hands full.

The thing that kills me is how Freeman perimeter defense is an 18 but he allowed everyone and their little sister big 3 pointers throughout the game.

Day 11 (Saturday 24 June 2023) : Performances by (https://www.buzzer-manager.com)

Night results
Tasty Tardsicles 86 - San Dominica Warriors 106
The Beer Bellys 84 - Lion Rebels 103
Mindless Zombies 🧟‍♀️ 101 - Linndale 114
Żubr Białystok 102 - 209’s MostWanted 104
Miami Cleo 81 - Philly Dribble 93
BKDogs 61 - Carolina Rebels 127
Super Sonics 120 - FR-S 93
LionPride 0 - Las Vegas Silver Stars 50

Best collective performance of the evening
Points : 127 : Carolina Rebels
Rebounds : 67 : Carolina Rebels
Assists : 31 : Super Sonics
Steals : 10 : Lion Rebels, Linndale, Mindless Zombies 🧟‍♀️
Block Shots : 8 : Linndale

Personal best performances of the evening
Points : 39 : R. Guyton (Linndale)
Rebounds : 24 : F. Hearn (Linndale)
Assists : 9 : S. Hollins (Lion Rebels), T. Freeman (Mindless Zombies 🧟‍♀️), T. Rumin (209’s MostWanted)
Steals : 5 : W. Acevedo (Mindless Zombies 🧟‍♀️)
Block Shots : 6 : G. Locus (Miami Cleo)

Top 5 of the evening
Point Guard : R. Guyton (Linndale) (39 Points, 2 Rebounds, 3 Assists, 3 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 39
Shooting Guard : T. Freeman (Mindless Zombies 🧟‍♀️) (15 Points, 5 Rebounds, 9 Assists, 0 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 22
Small Forward : M. Granja (San Dominica Warriors) (22 Points, 6 Rebounds, 5 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots), M. Craig (Super Sonics) (15 Points, 4 Rebounds, 5 Assists, 3 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 23
Power Forward : F. Hearn (Linndale) (23 Points, 24 Rebounds, 5 Assists, 1 Steals, 4 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 45
Center : G. Locus (Miami Cleo) (13 Points, 16 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 1 Steals, 6 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 29

MVP of the evening
F. Hearn (Linndale) (23 Points, 24 Rebounds, 5 Assists, 1 Steals, 4 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 45

The bad performance of the evening
D. Santana (Miami Cleo) (8 Points, 2 Rebounds, 3 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots)G. Bolcioni (BKDogs) (4 Points, 1 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : -8

All kinds of statistics
The player who forgot to remove his mittens : S. Sökmen (Linndale) : 6 Turnovers

Player targeted by the referees : W. Acevedo (Mindless Zombies 🧟‍♀️), F. Ferrandis (BKDogs) : 6 Personnal Fouls

The iron-man : S. Hollins (Lion Rebels), M. Grimm (Żubr Białystok) : 48 Minutes

The shooter : R. Guyton (Linndale) : 5 Three points

The best performer : T. Armstead (Lion Rebels), R. Guyton (Linndale) : Rating : 17.5

The worst performer : R. Mukhopadhyay (FR-S) : Rating : 4.0

I hate to break it to you, but 3 pointers are kind of our thing. We've got some shooters, snipers, and marksmen. We tend to have a minimum of 2 on the floor at all times. When our bigs get into the act like Hearn did last night, good luck with that.

Freeman can't cover them all by himself. Guyton is shooting .457 from outside and Knowles .438 fron deep. Freeman was matched up on Knowles, an 18 jump shooter. That still leaves Hearn, Petriukstis (off the bench) and Sokmen of whom the worst shoots .438 from downtown (minimum 10 attempts).

Minimum 10 attempts, Petriukstis is shooting .727 (8-11). Minimum 15, Hearn is .467 (7-15). When Tovar gets back, we gotta get him going.

My friend, defending the three ball against us is a TASK. Guyton is probably the best overall shooter. Knowles is 2nd best. This time next season, it's VERY possible Tovar is the best pure shooter on the team; the difference between 1 and 3 in these rankings isn't as big as their shooting stats would indicate.

Lest anyone think our bigs shooting 3's isn't worked on, I'll remind of the late season heroics of Ramon Sanz Garcaa. 7 of 11 on the season, who went 3 of 3 in a late season game we had to win to keep playoff hopes alive, and then 2 weeks later in the playoffs to lead us to a win. It's becoming what we do.

*returns to hunt for the elusive unicorn in my price range...

God, the Big 8 is a nightmare. Look at all those 7-3 records!

Gonna update that to 8-3. Much like last season, a really good team is going to miss the playoffs. I said it last year, when I insisted we'd make the playoffs. No one had better be comfortable; there's way too much basketball left to play. This is going to be a war of attrition. Injuries and depth are going to be key.

Harrison Mann was angry. He was angry at himself. He was angry at his coach. He was angry at his organization. He was angry because he was summoned to the office of the team’s General Manager. This is not the way he wanted to spend his rest day.

He would have knocked on the door, but it was open. He walked in to see the GM and his coach looking at video. Whoever that was has a good stroke, but isn’t all that impressive in the paint, he thought.

“Who is that guy?” Harrison was curious.

“You got here pretty quick. That is Pascal Michel Pemweiser. He’s either your teammate or replacement.” The GM wanted to get right to it. Pio never even looked away from the video.

“Harrison, we brought you here expecting to have to develop you a bit, and we have. Your inside game and rebounding have improved. You’re young enough that we’d hate to move on from you. The problem is there is no production or growth from you.”

Harrison flashed his anger. “Wait a minute! How can you say there’s no growth at the same time you say my inside game and rebounding have improved? That’s ridiculous!”

The GM responded. “We put you in a role where you could succeed. You defend the paint well. Your inside offense has improved. Your rebounding has improved. You possess skills that lead us to think there is a shot blocker waiting to come out. We primarily want bigs who can defend, rebound, knock down free throws, and protect the rim. You show the ability to do those things. You just don’t do them in games. Nobody cares about scrimmage stats. June 17th, 36 minutes, 10 and 8. Tasty Tardsicles owned you. June 6th, 34 minutes, 6 and 11 with 5 turnovers. Except for the turnovers, that game wasn’t so bad. You did a nice job on Terry Armstead. Those are the only two times you were given significant time in a regular season game.”

“Kid, you either get better or get gone. Pemweiser is going to be here. We think we can develop him, and he has a skill set that frankly we don’t have here. He’s not the defender you can be, but you ain’t in his league offensively. He’s serviceable on defense, and we can make him better. Same on the boards. He’s going to be a part of this team. With Damian Hatfield developing, we have to ask if there’s room for you. Is there?”

Harrison answered with a question of his own. “Who do you have that can do what I can do?” He was offended by the question asked of him. The GM replied succinctly.

“Floyd does, Ramon does, Serkan does. Pemweiser isn’t far behind you. Hatfield isn’t either. You’ve become a want, not a need. I want to see you succeed, but not to the detriment of this team. It’s your call. Show us you belong. Show us you’re indispensable. Make the case. You’re either indispensable or you’re expendable. You decide which it is.”