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mary123
Pridružen/-a: 06.07. 2018, 01:40
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 Objavljeno: 09 Jul 2018 04:17 Naslov sporočila: They have no bench right now. And |
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| BATON ROUGE, La. -- His purple LSU coaching shirt was soaked in Gatorade, and even amid the roar of the crowd and piercing tunes of the band, that unmistakable and booming voice reverberated all over the field.Ed Orgeron hugged players, hugged staff members, traded high-fives with EMS personnel and wiped his brow furiously. Lets face it: What doesnt the guy theyve taken to calling Coach Oeaux around these parts do furiously?Granted, it was just one game -- Orgerons first as LSUs head football coach -- but it was the most complete game the Tigers have played in some time: a 42-7 beatdown of Missouri that saw LSU gain 634 total yards -- the most against an SEC opponent in school history.It was a magical night all the way around for the entire Orgeron family. His oldest son, Tyler Spotts-Orgeron, was on the LSU sideline as a member of the recruiting staff. In the second quarter, Spotts-Orgeron came charging up the sideline toward his dad to tell him that his younger brother and one of Orgerons twin sons, Parker Orgeron, had just scored his first touchdown at McNeese State. They hugged excitedly, the first of many bear hugs applied by Orgeron on a gorgeous Saturday night in Tiger Stadium.As Orgeron made the rounds on the crowded field after the game, he spotted the man who will ultimately decide whether Orgeron will be just a temporary fix or the guy to lead LSU back to national relevance after Les Miles was fired two Sundays ago.What do you say, Joe? Orgeron bellowed to LSU athletic director Joe Alleva, who smiled and slapped Orgeron on the shoulder.Thats one down, Alleva shot back.How many more Coach Oeaux truly needs to fulfill his coaching dream on a permanent basis is anybodys guess, but good luck in getting him to refer to himself as LSUs interim head coach.Listen, this thing here, Im going to get it, Orgeron told ESPN.com on Sunday morning while sitting in the office at the LSU football complex formerly occupied by Miles. If we do what we need to do, I feel in my heart Im going to get it. If I dont, its because we didnt do well enough and I dont deserve it.Really, we control our own destiny, and I feel like we have a job here, and we have a right to earn it. If we earn it, we ought to get it. If we dont earn it, I get that. I know what the expectations are here. Theyre my expectations, the same expectations I had growing up in this state and cheering for the Tigers.Orgeron, 55, has been on some of college footballs biggest stages. Hes used to the glare, the pressure and the raw emotion that engulfs the sport, but hes never had a job that means as much to him as the one hes fighting to keep right now.Hes back home, back among his people and back where he thought he would only be in his wildest dreams as a kid growing up in Larose, a small Cajun town in the Lafourche Parish. This is a coach who spent his childhood with his family huddled around a radio listening to LSU games and whose love of the Tigers runs so deep that his father told Bear Bryant thanks but no thanks when the legendary coach wanted to recruit his son. (More on that in a bit.)I think everybody in Tiger Stadium enjoyed themselves. I know I sure did, Orgeron said. I want to connect them all, make this state connected. [Saturday] night, you could feel the whole state come together, and Im part of them. I know it. I get it. Ive been there.They also understand each other. With Orgeron, its not the Tigers, but the Tigahs. Similarly, he also understands that nothing is guaranteed past this season. Hes been down this road before at USC in 2013, when he took over for the fired Lane Kiffin and guided the Trojans to a 6-2 record.But that wasnt good enough for former USC athletic director Pat Haden, who opted for Steve Sarkisian instead. Orgeron sat out the 2014 season from coaching and spent it in Mandeville, Louisiana with his family, but Miles scooped him up as defensive line coach at LSU for the 2015 season.The difference is they want me here at LSU, Orgeron said. I never felt in my heart that they wanted me at USC until the very end, and then Haden pulled the plug. I thought all the time I was fighting an uphill battle. They always saw me more as a stopgap.Orgeron said Alleva gave him full license to do whatever he needed to get the program headed back in the right direction.And hes never called me the interim head coach, Orgeron said.Its a given Alleva is going to look around, and Florida States Jimbo Fisher and Houstons Tom Herman will be high on his list. But a person close to the situation told ESPN.com that Alleva is also serious about giving Orgeron legitimate consideration if the Tigers finish strong this season and continue to look as sharp and as re-energized as they did against Missouri, particularly on offense.If they beat Alabama [on Nov. 5], they might sign him to a new contract before midnight, a source told ESPN.com.Its no secret Miles undoing was an unimaginative offense and his unwillingness to adapt. Against Missouri, LSU came out in four wide receivers on its first offensive series under new offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger and showed several new wrinkles and formations along the way before ultimately pounding Missouri with the running game.The only thing I told Steve was not to come out in the I-formation on that first series, Orgeron said with one of his vintage baritone laughs.Orgeron also overhauled the practice schedule during the week and drew from his previous experience at USC. The Tigers practices were shortened, but there was an added emphasis on a quicker tempo. Orgeron emphasized more individual work with first-team offensive linemen going up against first-team defensive linemen, for example.The players love it. We call it, Competition Tuesday, and we have our best going against our best individually and not as much team stuff, Orgeron said. I got that from [former USC coach] Pete [Carroll]. I just wanted to change it up and do things differently. Every day has a new theme, and not everything runs into each other.Orgerons phone blew up after the game. Really, it did all week, with the homefolk wanting him to know how proud of him they were. One of his closest pals, Bobby Hebert, grew up with Orgeron on the Bayou; they were teammates on South Lafourche High Schools state championship team in 1977. Hebert, now a New Orleans radio personality, went on to be a Pro Bowl quarterback in the NFL and helped guide the New Orleans Saints to their first playoff appearance.Even now, with some of the experiences Ive had in football, Saturday night in Tiger Stadium is the end-all job, Hebert said. When you grow up where we did, its hard to explain the connection you feel with LSU. I mean, it was sacrilegious, if you had the ability, to even think about leaving the state and not playing for LSU.To Hebert and everybody else Orgeron grew up with, he will always be BeBe (pronounced Bay-Bay). His father, who died four years ago after a bout with cancer, was also known as BeBe. Orgeron is still called Junior by his mother, whos known affectionately as Coco and wasnt at the Missouri game because she was at the McNeese State game watching her twin grandsons, Parker and Cody.The most emotional Orgeron got Saturday night was thinking about his dad and how proud he would have been to see his son leading the Tigers out of the tunnel on a Saturday night at Tiger Stadium. Even Sunday morning, as Orgerons thoughts drifted back to his dad, his eyes moistened.I felt him there with me, and I talk to him every morning, said a red-eyed Orgeron as he nodded his head proudly. He loved LSU. We all loved LSU and listened to all of the games on the radio. There were no other schools.And when he says there were no other schools, he means it. Orgeron was a highly recruited lineman coming out of South Lafourche, and Alabamas Bear Bryant was interested in recruiting him. Orgeron still remembers Bryant calling the house one night and talking to his father.Coach Bryant wanted to come visit me, but my father told him not to bother, that I was going to LSU, Orgeron said. Thats just how it was.Orgeron only lasted two weeks at LSU after growing homesick and returning to Larose. The very next day, his father put him to work digging ditches as part of the elder Orgerons crew with the local telephone company.It was humiliating for Orgeron, who said people would drive by in cars and yell insults to him for having the audacity to leave LSU before his career ever had a chance to get started.Theyre yelling, You f---ing pansy. You couldnt make it, recalled Orgeron, who still winces when he thinks about it. Talk about going from the penthouse to the outhouse. You know what my daddy said? Id look up at him when theyd be yelling at me, and hed turn around and say, Dig!Orgeron wound up reuniting with Hebert at Northwestern State, but he always regretted not giving LSU more of a shot as a player.Thats always been in the back of my mind, Orgeron said. I felt like there was unfinished business.Well, heres his chance.The schedule is brutal the rest of the way, starting with a trip to No. 18 Florida this Saturday and four more games against ranked foes, including No. 1 Alabama at Tiger Stadium. The Crimson Tide have won five in a row over the Tigers.If he beats Alabama, there shouldnt even be a coaching search, said Hebert, whose son, T-Bob Hebert, was an offensive lineman on LSUs 2011 SEC championship team under Miles.Orgeron hasnt been bashful about making changes from the Miles regime. But hes also been extremely respectful of Miles. Orgeron said he talked with Miles last week a couple of times, including on Saturday before the gameI just wanted him to know that this was his team, the team he recruited and that we were going to represent, Orgeron said. Hes been great and said he would be pulling for us.The state of Louisiana is pulling for Orgeron, even with higher profile names such as Fisher and Herman floating around as the most likely candidates to replace Miles past this season.Josh Pitre, who went to the same high school as Orgeron and is a diehard LSU fan, sported a shirt at Saturdays game that read: Orgeron/Aranda 16. Make LSU Great Again!It would be great if he got the job, Pitre said. Hes a Cajun, speaks our language, eats the same food we do, grew up in the same culture. We all identify with him. Hes one of us. I think all of Louisiana would be proud if he got the job.Jacob Hester, one of the most popular players on LSUs 2007 national championship team under Miles, is also in Orgerons corner.Were fortunate in a situation like this because the fans are still in it, the players are still in it and Coach Orgeron is a huge part of that, said Hester, who played six seasons in the NFL and is now a member of LSUs radio broadcast team. Even before I had a relationship with Coach O and got to know him, people around here who knew him always said that if he ever got to the point where he was the head coach at LSU that hed never let it go.Its going to be interesting to see what he can do.The LSU players are also on board.All I know is that this is who we are. This is what the LSU Tigers are supposed to look like, LSU defensive tackle Davon Godchaux said following LSUs dominant performance against Missouri. Were just glad to have Coach O as our head coach.With last week being so hectic, all the added responsibilities as head coach and the changes he wanted to implement, Orgeron said it wasnt until the drive back to his hotel suite on campus with his wife, Kelly, late Saturday night that it sunk in what lay in front of him.Its the coaching opportunity hes grinded for all these years -- crisscrossing the country as an assistant, not getting it done (or enough time) as Ole Miss head coach, learning from the mistakes he made at Ole Miss in trying to be too hands-on -- and now staring his dream job squarely in the face.Man, it was surreal driving back after the game, because I couldnt let myself go there during the week, Orgeron said. Think about it. A boy from South Lafourche is the head coach at LSU. Its like a dream. Even Hebert was like, Man, is this real?Its real, all right, and about to get even more real if Coach Oeaux and the Tigahs have their way. Marcus Davenport Jersey . 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They make this monstrous new superteam, this juggernaut that just decapitated its biggest long-term threat in the West, unlike any that came before.Shooting makes every fit easier, because great shooters do damage even when they dont have the ball.This isnt the 2011?Miami Heat, with two ball-dominant wings who couldnt spread the floor when the other guy took his turn.This isnt the 2004?Los Angeles Lakers?--?or the later Steve Nash and?Dwight Howard?version, either.The?Golden State Warriors?now have four All-NBA players ages 26 to 28. The?LeBron James-era Heat had three stars,?not four, and one of them --?Dwyane Wade?-- was older in their first year together than any of Golden States current stars.The collective shooting on this team is outrageous -- including perhaps the two greatest shooters ever, with a seven-foot gunslinger about to enjoy the cleanest catch-and-shoot looks he has ever had. Only three guys had a larger gap than Kevin Durant between their actual field-goal percentage and the mark we would have expected based on the difficulty of those shots, per SportVU data provided to ESPN.com. One of the three was reigning two-time MVP Stephen Curry. Things are about to get much easier for Durant and Curry.Defenders have to be inside the jerseys of Curry, Durant and?Klay Thompson?at all times. Do you know how powerful that basic reality is? Even if the Warriors changed literally nothing about their offense -- if Durant just played the role of?Harrison Barnes?-- they could be the greatest scoring team in history. The lane will be wide open for cutters. They can generate open 3s at will, just by running everyone off picks until some defender falls behind.But the offense will be different. Thats the point. As great as they are, the Warriors over the past two seasons found the going much tougher in the playoffs. The whole league watched the?Oklahoma City Thunder?and?Cleveland Cavaliers?ugly up their offense by switching everything on Curry. A healthier Curry would have exploited that more often this past postseason, but it still felt at times like the Warriors were dancing around the 3-point arc, waiting for some event -- a defender messing up a switch or Curry launching step-back fire.It was hard work, and it happened far from the basket. The Warriors now have more ways to enter the teeth of the defense. Durant can drive. He can run a nice pick-and-roll. He shot 61 percent on post-ups last season, per Synergy Sports, and honestly, that number kind of makes you want to cry. He has a ton of experience screening in the pick-and-roll, and his old dance partner,?Russell Westbrook, is a so-so jump-shooter that teams are generally?fine with leaving open; theyd try to go under and stick with Durant. Currys main pick-and-roll partner,?Draymond Green, is a so-so jump-shooter that teams are generally fine with leaving open.What are you supposed to do with a Curry-Durant pick-and-roll? You cant leave either party open, even for a millisecond. You cant switch -- unless you hide your point guard on Thompson so that a bigger wing has Curry, and probably not even then. The Warriors offense was beautiful and intricate. It will still be beautiful, but now it can also be simple: Dump the ball to Durant and get the hell out of the way. Simple is really useful during the playoffs, when defenses focus hard enough to track the intricate.There will be fit issues; Durant will not get to hold the ball and jab step for five seconds as often as he did in Oklahoma City. The Heats Big Three and those great Lakers teams were not nearly as good in real life as they looked on paper, at least not right away.But again: shooting. Curry is fine playing away from the ball; he might be the most dangerous off-ball player in the league. Thompson might never have to dribble again.The Warriors have limited resources to fill out a bench and acquire large humans, especially since they apparently chose?Shaun Livingston?over?Festus Ezeli?as the mid-sized salary to keep while squeezing in Durants max money.?Six?months ago, the Golden State brass preferred Ezeli, but they have no confidence left in his knees or his game. The Warriors have only the minimum salary and room exception, worth about $2.9 million, left to fill the roster. That buys you nothing in a world of infinite cap room.?Jon Leuer?is making eight figures.They need some competent size to cinch up their rebounding;?Chris Kaman?and?JJ Hickson?arent getting it done. That is a real problem. Then again, there are a ton of leftover big men and very few cap-room teams with a need?up?front. But Durant fits their switchy defensive scheme. And he showed a new frenzy on that end in the postseason -- better effort, smarter reads and scary rim protection. He can guard every position in a pinch and provide more length and rebounding than Barnes in the revamped Death Lineup.Every contender builds with one eye on James, and Durant is a much better one-on-one option against him than Barnes. That is crucial in preserving?Andre Iguodalas body.This team will be top-heavy -- and thin. They will need to find a couple of?Richard Jefferson-like?ring chasers. That is the price you pay for loading up on stars. They would have eventually faced the same general money crunch anyway, with Barnes?and then Curry on max contracts. This price is a little steeper, since they lose rotation players and access to the full mid-level exception, but you get Durant and figure the rest out.Most championship teams are top-heavy and thin. No matter how deep you are, if a star gets hurt in May and June, you are probably sunk.In the end, that is the best reason for choosing Durant over Barnes, Ezeli and?Andrew Bogut: He is a hedge against an ill-timed injury to Curry, Thompson or Green in a way no seventh or eighth guy ever could be. The cruel irony is that?the post-James Harden?Thunder know better than anyone the importance of a hedge against superstar injuries. The Warriors can engineer depth when things really count by keeping two of their four stars on the floor at all times.This star hoarding is only possible because of an unprecedented spike in the salary cap, and both the league and players union must reckon over what they have wrought here. We have spilled a ton of internet?ink over Currys absurd below-market extension, but the cap leaped so high that the Warriors could have fit Durants salary even had Curry signed a max-level deal back in 2012. The only extra cost would have been Livingston.In the end, the Warriors were the only team that really drew Durants interest. His reps at Nike love the idea of him stationed in the San Francisco Bay Area, even playing with Under Armours signature star, league sources said. Executives from another team that met with Durant said he spent most of the meeting silent and didnt ask any questions. Without the cap spike, the Warriors would have had to make more painful sacrifices to get in the conversation.And the cap will jump so high again in a year that Golden State will have plenty of room to re-sign Durant for his full super-max -- though it may cost themm Iguodala, depending on the precise cap figure.dddddddddddd The league proposed smoothing the cap increase to prevent this exact scenario, but the idea emerged too late, and the union rejected it out of hand. It all felt perfunctory, almost for show.?With collective bargaining talks ongoing, enraged owners might push for a deeper discussion about scrapping the ceiling on individual player salaries.So now, we have another superteam. Durant will get ripped for this, and it will mostly be stupid. It was stupid how the media lionized him way back in 2010 for tweeting about his extension with Oklahoma City, while James rushed into a ridiculous television show. Durant was a restricted free agent then, and few things are as predictable as a superstar restricted free agent re-signing for the maximum salary at the first moment possible. LeBron was unrestricted in 2010, and Durant, in his first shot at the free market, changed teams after a whirlwind courtship.Staying didnt make Durant a humble hero then, and leaving doesnt make him a villain now. He left a job he held for nine years in favor of another job. His route to the championship is easier, and if he stays long term in Golden State, he might never be indisputably the greatest player on a championship team. That could be interesting in sussing out his place in history. He also might win three NBA Finals MVPs. Who knows? Everyone hated James for joining his friends in Miami -- until he won a ring. No one ever hated Larry Bird for playing next to Hall of Famers all over the damn court.The Warriors will enter next season as massive favorites in the Western Conference. They didnt just sign Durant, they gutted the only Western Conference team they feared. They do not fear the?Spurs.?After losing in San?Antonio in March, Golden States players talked in the locker room about how the Spurs had no chance against them in a seven game-series, per several team sources -- about how San Antonio could only manage 87 points even with Iguodala and Bogut in street clothes that night.They were right to fear the Thunder. Golden States road win in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals, after being down 3-1, will live forever as a comeback that changed the foundation of the league. That game made Thompson an NBA immortal. He saved the Warriors season -- and ultimately nudged Durant away from Oklahoma City.It was a performance so remarkable that Warriors general manager Bob Myers went back and re-watched the final five minutes right away -- the first time has done so for any Golden State game.I never do that, Myers told me during the Finals. I just wanted to see what happened. I didnt understand it. I still dont.Warriors coach Steve Kerr was in such disbelief after a Thompson 30-footer with about five minutes to go in that Game 6 that he scanned the crowd, locked eyes with a Thunder fan seated courtside and exclaimed to her, How the heck does he do that?I just had to say something to someone, and she was the first person I saw, Kerr said during the Finals.Those shots are the margin between the Thunder making the Finals and this complete franchise devastation.Thunder GM Sam Presti prepared Oklahoma City for Durants departure as best he could.?Steven Adams?and?Victor Oladipo?are real building blocks; perhaps the Thunder will invest a little more time in?Dion Waiters. Scouts love?Domantas Sabonis, the other core piece Presti wrangled from the?Orlando Magic?in the?Serge Ibaka?deal.If Westbrook re-signs next summer, the Thunder will be feisty enough to soften the blow of Durants departure -- and of Hardens presence elsewhere on a below-market extension that runs through 2018. But these Thunder without Durant arent title contenders, and Westbrooks eyes will wander. Other teams will start calling.The Lakers, Westbrooks hometown team, have a gleaming city, several interesting young players and a timeline for recovery hanging over the neck of team executive Jim Buss like a guillotine. In theory, the Lakers should simply wait for Westbrook to hit free agency, stink badly enough to keep their pick yet again and sign him without dealing away any assets -- the road not taken with the?New York Knicks?and?Carmelo Anthony.In practice, that is a risk, especially given the Lakers can no longer get star free agents to pick up their calls. Everyone will have cap space again next summer, including the crosstown?Clippers. Unless you know for sure -- wink,?wink -- Westbrook is in, there is value in picking him up ahead of time and securing the right to offer him more years and more cash.The Lakers still have enough cap room to extend Westbrooks contract on the spot if they nab him. Any team (including the Thunder) with the requisite space can bump his 2016-17 salary up from $17.8 million to his new max, about $26.5 million, and tack on three more years from there with 4.5 percent annual raises. By signing an extension, Westbrook would forfeit free agency under next years mega-cap, but the huge raise this season makes it closer to a wash than expected over the next four years.Presti doesnt want to trade Westbrook, but if he feels backed into a corner, he will chase young players and draft picks. The?Phoenix Suns?reportedly talked with the?Atlanta Hawks?about?Paul Millsap, and they come armed with prospects galore,?extra point guards and two future Miami picks. The?Denver Nuggets?had the Hawks biting on a package of picks and players, including?Kenneth Faried, for Millsap, per several league sources, but its unclear if Denver would?chase Westbrook. Both teams have enough cap space left to renegotiate and extend Westbrook, though he might not have any interest in sticking around either place.The Magic, a trade partner just 10 days ago, have a bunch of interesting young guys and a win-now mandate. The?Boston Celtics?can throw all?their unused trade assets at Oklahoma City.Presti would call everyone with a young stud, just as he did in dealing Harden: the?Milwaukee Bucks?with?Jabari Parker, the?Minnesota Timberwolves?with?Andrew Wiggins?and a few other possibilities. The Lakers threat will depress the trade market, barring?some?hush-hush advance agreement from Westbrooks camp.Either way, the Durant-Westbrook Thunder take their place as the NBAs great dynasty that wasnt. They made one precocious Finals run and never returned, undone by injuries, bad luck, the rise of Golden State and one trade that reduced their margin for error. If Westbrook stays, they will rebuild from the middle, and we will see if Presti can appeal to free agents who might take them from 40-plus wins back into the 50s. If Westbrook leaves, the climb will be long and painful.Golden State has reached the top, and the Warriors are primed to seize the throne back from Cleveland. Its too soon to pencil in a dynasty. They have no bench right now. And crazy things can happen -- just ask the Thunder. But the Warriors will enter next season as favorites, with the chance again to be an all-time team. Cheap Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Throwback China Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys From China Wholesale Nike NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys 2020 Discount NFL Jerseys ' ' ' |
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