After spending 17 years as an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs, serving the last six as the lead assistant and sounding-board for legendary coach Gregg Popovich, Budenholzer took the reins of the Hawks last season, installing a bombs-away motion-oriented offense carried over from the latter-day Spurs juggernaut and leading an injury-plagued Atlanta squad to a playoff berth that saw them scare the wits out of the top-seeded Indiana Pacers in a seven-game loss. With All-Star big man Al Horford getting closer and closer to returning from last year's season-ending torn pectoral muscle, improved depth on the wing and another year of experience in his system, Budenholzer's aiming to take a big step forward this season — after this offseason's big steps back — and get closer to building the sort of foundation in Atlanta that Pop and company have built in San Antonio.
Evidently, Coach Bud sees "messing around on the injury report" as an integral aspect of that culture-building. Check out the box score from the Hawks' Monday night exhibition contest against the New Orleans Pelicans:
Apparently, new Hawks offseason addition Kent Bazemore didn't dress for the preseason matchup because ... he is Kent Bazemore. Not quite "DNP-OLD," Coach Bud, but not bad. Clearly, you were paying attention all those years.
That said, not dressing Kent Bazemore for a preseason game simply because he is Kent Bazemore seems like a misstep. Stuff like Summer League and preseason — that's when little-used, on-the-come-up regular-season performers like the former Old Dominion standout shine brightest. And how's he going to develop his new, ATL-specific round of celebratory maneuvers if he doesn't get his reps in during the exhibition slate? Seems like a real missed opportunity to me.
For what it's worth, NBA.com's box score has Bazemore's reason for missing the affair listed as "DND-RIGHT FOOT," a nod to the fact that the 25-year-old former Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers guard is still working his way back from April surgery to repair a torn tendon in that dog. I like the other explanation better, though. Facts are bogus.
My only hope is that if Kent Bazemore didn't dress for the Hawks because he was too busy being Kent Bazemore, then that means that at some point on Monday he spent time doing some of the more unique sort of dressing that Kent Bazemore is wont to do:
Even if he didn't, don't tell me about it. I'm not going to let any dumb facts get in the way of that dream.
Hat-tip to Andrew Lynch at The Friendly Bounce.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
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