DarkoWatcher
02-23-2006, 10:47 PM
Hi everyone. I had one of my proofreading professionals take a minute to give this message a quick once-over before I posted it because it is an important one.
I listened to Brian Hill's show on the Team 740 earlier tonight, and I came away completely convinced that Hill has zero faith in Darko and would never play him if given the choice.
A number of callers asked about why Hill didn't play Darko last night, and he gave a bunch of flimsy reasons. He more or less stated that his first priority as a head coach is to win games, and his second is to develop players, which is a bit silly given that Orlando is all but eliminated from the playoff hunt.
He also kept clinging to the message that Darko has not yet learned the system, and talked about upcoming practices. What was interesting was that he listed practices up to Saturday, and all but glossed over Friday night's game, which seemed to be a hint not to expect many minutes for Darko.
The fact that Arroyo received some playing time was another excuse for Hill not to play Darko... he stated that he could not put in two players unfamiliar with the Magic system into the same game. He didn't seem to realize that their minutes could have been staggered in such a way that both Darko and Arroyo would not be on the court at the same time.
After a few callers, Hill said that he was quite surprised by all of the questions about Darko. He stated that it seemed everyone was expecting Darko to receive 30 to 35 minutes a game. Hill said that Darko's minutes would increase gradually and that that kind of playing time would be possible by the end of the season if DM earned his way into them. From Hill's tone of voice, it sounded like that was a very remote possibility.
What was weird was that he kept stating that Darko had never really played in the NBA to this point. To me, this would seem like all the more reason to put him in and see what he could do, but somehow Brian Hill thought that this was justification for keeping him out of the game.
At the very end of the show, the Team host jokingly told Hill to give Darko some minutes and he gave a forced-sounding reply to the effect of "I will. I promise".
Why is it so difficult for these jerky coaches to just put Milicic in for a few minutes a game??
I listened to Brian Hill's show on the Team 740 earlier tonight, and I came away completely convinced that Hill has zero faith in Darko and would never play him if given the choice.
A number of callers asked about why Hill didn't play Darko last night, and he gave a bunch of flimsy reasons. He more or less stated that his first priority as a head coach is to win games, and his second is to develop players, which is a bit silly given that Orlando is all but eliminated from the playoff hunt.
He also kept clinging to the message that Darko has not yet learned the system, and talked about upcoming practices. What was interesting was that he listed practices up to Saturday, and all but glossed over Friday night's game, which seemed to be a hint not to expect many minutes for Darko.
The fact that Arroyo received some playing time was another excuse for Hill not to play Darko... he stated that he could not put in two players unfamiliar with the Magic system into the same game. He didn't seem to realize that their minutes could have been staggered in such a way that both Darko and Arroyo would not be on the court at the same time.
After a few callers, Hill said that he was quite surprised by all of the questions about Darko. He stated that it seemed everyone was expecting Darko to receive 30 to 35 minutes a game. Hill said that Darko's minutes would increase gradually and that that kind of playing time would be possible by the end of the season if DM earned his way into them. From Hill's tone of voice, it sounded like that was a very remote possibility.
What was weird was that he kept stating that Darko had never really played in the NBA to this point. To me, this would seem like all the more reason to put him in and see what he could do, but somehow Brian Hill thought that this was justification for keeping him out of the game.
At the very end of the show, the Team host jokingly told Hill to give Darko some minutes and he gave a forced-sounding reply to the effect of "I will. I promise".
Why is it so difficult for these jerky coaches to just put Milicic in for a few minutes a game??