(no subject)
Pistons guard Chauncey Billups is no fan of the way his former coach
Larry Brown handled
project Darko Milicic.
His fear is that Brown might have "beaten" Milicic up so badly mentally
that he may never
become a good NBA player.
Billups dumped a big load on Brown' lap during Thursday's Sport Inferno
Show at Lucky's
of Novi. Fans immediately reacted to what Billups' words much of the
day.
“I just think Larry beat him up too much,” Billups said. “He beat him
up and tore the kid’s
confidence apart too much and it was too tough for him to recover.
Maybe having a new
face in Flip (Saunders), it is different. Hopefully he didn’t beat him
up too much where he
can never recover.
“The kid has unbelievable talent and there’s nothing he can’t do out
there on the court.”
Milicic, 20, came to the Pistons as a 7-foot jump shooting small
forward. Brown attempted
to turn him into a post player, an experiment that has yet to pay
dividends.
Milicic has scored just 115 points in two seasons and is shooting 29
percent from the
field.
Billups said he attempted to talk to Milicic, but said he did not get
support from the
coaching staff.
“I have done a lot to help him but when I would try to help him with
that I was not getting
help from the coaching staff,” Billups said. “I just wanted Larry to
play him some minutes
in the second quarter or third quarter-minutes where it is not going to
hurt the game or
affect the game. It would get him thinking he can play or he is one of
the good players on
the team. And that keeps him from having those self confidence
problems.”
Billups said Milicic deserved more playing time in the second and third
quarters, but Brown
refused.
** In the same interview Billups picked the Pistons to return to the
NBA Finals to face San
Antonio. The Miami Heat made significant changes by bringing in point
guard Jason
Williams and forward Antoine Walker. But neither are strong defensive
players.
“Everybody knows you got to be able to play defense and stop people,”
Billups said.
“Everybody knows we and San Antonio are the best teams and I think it
is going to be the
same way."
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