That was fun! The last time I was at the arena was for that awful playoff game in March 2020 against Miami, right before everything shut down. Everyone was kinda warily looking around thinking, should we be here? So it was great to be back. I was so psyched I was giving horns up signs to cars going by on the way there.
It felt like some games the last year or two where you thought, "they're not playing that well...but they're winning. So should I be complaining?" They were sloppy in the first half but I guess it's the beginning of the season, it may look a little ragged for a while. Second half they did a better job defensively of forcing some bad shots, boxing out and cleaning up the rebounds. That gradually opened up a big lead and that was that.
Jack - a smart, polished player who is a nice compliment to Williams/Mballa/Rondo.
Brock - this is what, his sixth year here?
Hardnett - some tough plays underneath keeping some possessions alive. I think that's his role at this point, hopefully he gets some touch around the basket.
Fagan - almost forgot he was still here. Hit the boards hard a couple times, hopefully that's what he can give them this year
Brewton - looked a little more polished and comfortable than last year. We need another outside shooting threat and hopefully he can step up
Skogman - I'm not sure what his best spot is. I feel like he's a little slightly built to be playing inside against a lot of teams, and he can hit from outside, so he could be a good matchup problem on the wing. He's an interesting player with a really good upside if they can develop it.
It was great to be back, see a lot of familiar faces, hear the band and everything about game days there. True Blue needs to pick up the enthusiasm - maybe some new material will help. That DJ continues to be useless. I'm not a fan of the electronic ticketing - I've just used the website, because the Horns Up app keeps crashing on me and my tickets won't show up in the Ticketmaster app. Typical.