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The left handed thing…

GreenCheckRex0807

GreenCheckRex0807

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Jun 22, 2023
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Listen, I’ll be the first to let you know how my opinion on Pope has went

-Immediately questioned the hiring
-Got pumped after the press conference
-Full support during and after S1
-Supportive, but not optimistic after S2

All this being said, the weird obsession with left handed players is a bit odd. With the news from Matt Jones about Dedan Thomas, the obvious interest in Byrd…it’s just weird.

Pope is a smart guy, probably too smart, and sometimes I think if he would just simplify things in his evaluation, his coaching ability would take a jump. Instead, takes a deep dive into the numbers, trying to be a smart guy and find something no one else can see.
 
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mhs1964

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Feb 8, 2018
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TFCat11 said:
There’s 2 types of highly intelligent people…

1. Takes complicated concepts, and simplifies them.

2. Takes simple concepts, and complicates them.

Pope is the poster boy for #2!!
Click to expand...
I love your classification of highly intelligent people but my experience with high level math classes there is actually a third group—- those that take complicated concepts and make them more complicated.
 
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FitchandMurray29

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Don’t think he’s targeting lefties in particular, just how the board is working out.

The KSR guys really amped up the points to laugh at the silliness of it. Think Pope was just expressing they set up their playbook to have actions and designs that favored a left handed PG and that’s what they practiced all summer. Then with him in and out the first 2 months, they kept the playbook the same due to uncertainty about him actually being done. Then when he officially was, they just made the decision to keep it instead of flipping things around.

Separate point, why do lefties seem so much more left dominant than righties do? Often left handed guards go left at an absurdly high rate compared to righties going right.
 
JPFisher

JPFisher

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FitchandMurray29 said:
Don’t think he’s targeting lefties in particular, just how the board is working out.
Click to expand...
He is.

FitchandMurray29 said:
The KSR guys really amped up the points to laugh at the silliness of it. Think Pope was just expressing they set up their playbook to have actions and designs that favored a left handed PG and that’s what they practiced all summer. Then with him in and out the first 2 months, they kept the playbook the same due to uncertainty about him actually being done. Then when he officially was, they just made the decision to keep it instead of flipping things around.
Click to expand...
They set up the play book to have a lefty PG because when defenses hedge or drive a player to the left like they are trained to do for 90% of athletes, it actually gives the lefty guard an advantage by "forcing" him to his dominant hand, which just puts us at an offensive advantage. A coach friend of mine explained this to me and then I did a little deeper dive into it.

FitchandMurray29 said:
Separate point, why do lefties seem so much more left dominant than righties do? Often left handed guards go left at an absurdly high rate compared to righties going right.
Click to expand...
Probably because of the former point. If you're at such an advantage because everyone is trained to handle a right-handed player and you can make them look silly with your left, what incentive is there to train right? They're at an advantage and you're at a significant disadvantage.

Obviously, you gotta have both to make it big, but still.

The lefty remark seemed like BS at the time, but it makes sense in hindsight. We stuck with the lefty playbook with the hope that Lowe would return. When he couldn't, it bit us in the ***. Pope just did a really poor job of explaining things to the media. They then took it and ran with it as a joke because they don't know half as much as they think they do.
 
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Johnfarrel

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I'm a lefty, and was not much good at basketball, but when I played, the guys I played against knew I was a lefty, but when I faked right and went left, they always went for the fake, because they are trained to think right. Lefties fo have an advantage. if two guys are equal I otherwise, take the lefty.
 
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NociHTTP

NociHTTP

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Goose Jerk GIF by 9 Skies Photography
 
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Ukbrassowtipin

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Aug 12, 2011
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Revolving your offense around a left handed 1 comment was dumb, bc he acts like we haven't seen his sub patterns. Does he think we believe lowe was going to play 40 mins?

2. The team was clearly not smart enough to run the offense he ran year one, and pope wasnt smart enough to adjust. I mean run the f'n flex or something
 
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20MRoster

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TFCat11 said:
There’s 2 types of highly intelligent people…

1. Takes complicated concepts, and simplifies them.

2. Takes simple concepts, and complicates them.

Pope is the poster boy for #2!!
Click to expand...
Type #2 is not intelligent, IMO. But that's another topic. What I think everyone should agree on is Type 2 is not suited for leadership. Leaders need to make things easy for the troops. This guy isn't that.
 
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20MRoster

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mhs1964 said:
I love your classification of highly intelligent people but my experience with high level math classes there is actually a third group—- those that take complicated concepts and make them more complicated.
Click to expand...
That person is not smart. They are just masquerading. If someone cannot transcend different planes of intelligence, they are not "it".
 
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UKCowboys

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Man this isn't 6th grade. A legit PG should be able to go left as easily as going right even if they are a righty
 
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MichaelGray

MichaelGray

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Ukbrassowtipin said:
Revolving your offense around a left handed 1 comment was dumb, bc he acts like we haven't seen his sub patterns. Does he think we believe lowe was going to play 40 mins?

2. The team was clearly not smart enough to run the offense he ran year one, and pope wasnt smart enough to adjust. I mean run the f'n flex or something
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They definitely weren't smart enough to run the year 1 offense. Pope did adjust, his adjustment was, send a guy to set a screen up top for Oweh or Aberdeen to drive lol, yeah, teams couldn't figure out how to defend that 🤣🤣
 
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mhs1964

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Feb 8, 2018
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20MRoster said:
That person is not smart. They are just masquerading. If someone cannot transcend different planes of intelligence, they are not "it".
Click to expand...
Agree to disagree. There are highly intelligent folks who lack the ability to teach less gifted. I encountered such in my highe level math classes in college and an occasional one in my med school studies. No way these folks were not smart. Teaching (coaching) is a separate skill. Coaching skills also include more leadership and motivational aspects.
 
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Farsight Clone

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Why do people keep on claiming Pope is a smart guy? He may be in other areas, but he has yet to be for basketball.
 
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