MVP Chants & Byron Mullens

[playoffs...PLAYOFFS?]

just read rbonell's post
http://blogs.charlotte.com/inside_th...ats-hawks.html

do you agree that fans are being sarcastic about mullens being an mvp? is he that terrible?

i realize he's a white guy PF (like a brian scalabrine), but i think he's improved this year and stepped up to the plate considering that he's the only decent PF option we currently have. not saying that he's a keeper, but he's doing what he needs to do.

[JGib23]

I hate him almost as much as Tyrus...

[playoffs...PLAYOFFS?]

i like the guy, again, our options are very limited....plus his whiteness and 3pt shooting skills remind me of a poor man's fabio (walter herrmann), but clearly not as good looking

[QC Kat]

Yes he's horrible he needs to get his butt down in the low post and play like a real big man. He has shown some improvement, but he was awful tonight on both ends of the court.

[QC Thundercats]

I hate him almost as much as Tyrus...

What has he improved at? He's playing more minutes and is basically putting up the same per minute stats as last year but, shooting a worse %.

If we could keep him for around 4 or 5 Million as the first big off the bench, I would be ok.

I do not want him as a starter here for the long term.

Games like tonight is why I don't want to give Byron the dollars that he will ultimately get...

He was horrible, the box score doesn't looks as bad as it was in real life. His defense was some of the worst post defense that I have ever seen.

Also Coach Dunlap needs to tell him to stop shooting 3's, in fact he shouldn't be allowed to shoot unless at least one foot is in the paint.

Just wanted to combine your Mullens' observations under an actual thread about him.

Basically, I see his weaknesses, but I think I view him completely opposite from you. For one, I don't understand the hatred, he's not a knucklehead like Tyrus, and he seems like he's completely bought into the system, is a hard worker, and does exactly what the coaches tell him. And I don't think he's threatened any fans to meet him in the tunnel after a game for a gentlemanly duel of fisticuffs.

Now I agree with you that his defensive awareness can be painful, and he needs to show more restraint on his threes, but I've seen a ton of progress from his ways from last year.

First big improvement is his rebounding. If you just look at his statlines by season, it appears that they have only gone up based on minutes. But honestly, the Bobcats threw up a historic amount of bricks last season, so that enough accidentally careened into his unsuspecting hands. This year, I see him actually attacking the boards, and fights other players to get them. Is he a great rebounder? Not quite yet, but he is averaging 9 per game, which its much more than other shooting bigs like Bargnani and Ryan Anderson. With increased strength and experience, I do actually see him averaging double figures throughout his prime.

Defense is his biggest weakness of course, but there are components that he has greatly improved upon. One of Dunlap's favorite stats are deflections, and Mully's hands are much more active this year. I see him constantly getting tips on balls, and he actually had 6 steals against the Hawks. Last year, he would never even put in the effort to get his hands in the passing lanes, but this year, he goes hard for the deflections and isn't afraid to dive to the sidelines or to the floor for the sake of defense.

Out on the perimeter, I think he moves his feet decent enough to hedge out on pick and rolls and stop penetration. He does sometimes get lost in recovering back to his man, but a lot of times its the help defense that doesn't do their job in helping cover until he gets back.

I think if he continues to gain strength and studies more film of his post opponents, he'll be able to give more resistance on the post and be able to beat them to the punch. He's pretty quick and agile for his size, he just needs to understand what is going on so that he doesn't keep getting taken advantage of.

On offense, he's improved in a couple areas that are obvious to me. First, it may seem minor, but his outlet passing has been outstanding. He seems to be good at grabbing a board or steal and looking ahead and throwing pinpoint touchdowns to a breaking teammate for a transition bucket. Kevin Love himself would be proud of several of these. Then on his first ever double team, he found Sessions cross-court for a 3 pointer. This shows he has good court awareness

Two, he has a latent post game, he just needs to bring it out more often. I don't know if you saw the Milwaukee game, but he became a true power forward that night. He only shot 2 threes, but he had a full repertoire of post moves. He nailed a deep right handed hook as well as a running left handed hook, he was able to face up and either drive past his man if he was too close, or pull the trigger and nail the 15 footer, he got deep position a couple times for some nice up and unders and drop step combos. It was shocking seeing him actually put it together like a young McHale reincarnate, but it has been disheartening that he hasn't gone back to that since then.

As for his 3-point shooting - I'd guess that since he hasn't been cut off yet, he must be nailing them in practice, and the coaches' want to encourage him to keep shooting until he gets his stroke down from deep. But just the threat of him from 3 actually helps the offense a lot. If you notice, the guys guarding him make sure to jump out at him, taking a big man away from the paint on defense and creating much more room for our penetrators to drive. I think his shot is bound to come around though, his form is good, he just tends to pull it a little short or long each time.

This was much longer than I planned on writing about Mullens, but I've actually been quite pleased with the progress I've seen, and was surprised to see someone actually hating on him.

Different strokes I guess

[CampNightmare8]

Rather have Mullens than Dj White..

[Toocool]

If there was one thing I could tell Mully, it would be for him to post up way more. He's actually got a surprisingly decent post game.

[Scottley Crue]

I tend to think of Mully as many other important pieces on this roster...a work in progress. As greatly noted by QC Thundercats, Mullens has made great strides since his arrival. Now he has his faults, defensive awareness chief among them, but given the improvements I've seen from him this year and my belief in Dunlap as a teacher, I see Mullens continuing to improve.

[JGib23]

Just wanted to combine your Mullens' observations under an actual thread about him......
Different strokes I guess

I don't hate him as much as I let on last night, I'm just really frustrated with his play. You made some good points but, as you said- different strokes.

He is not a knucklehead like Tyrus but, on the court he has shown flashes of being on T-Times level. Trying to act tough against Anthony Davis and then getting totally dominated by the rook for the rest of the game, jawing with the Raptors bench and not getting back on defense, crying about a no call to the refs and getting beat down the court by the opposing big man. These are the type things I was talking about.

Statistically, despite his hard work with Dunlap & the improvements that you noted, he's basically performing about the same (+1.7 reb, 1 stls) but, shooting much worse per 36 minutes.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/...mulleby01.html

He may be the worst man to man post defender in the league. BJ doesn't run the floor like e did last year when he was getting all the dunks on the secondary break, now he half-asses it down the court for the trailing 3 from the top of the key ( I don't remember him hitting a single shot in that scenario this season)

My main point is that I'm okay with him being on the team at a reasonable price & coming off the bench for 25 minutes per..... I do not want to pay him 7 or 8 Million per year to be our long term starting PF.

[ammofan]

You have got to be fucking kidding me if you think Mullens has not improved and is 'terrible'.