Cavaliers center Tristan Thompson wasn’t happy with a report that surfaced last week anonymously quoting three of his teammates who were critical of John Beilein‘s head coaching style.
Thompson came to Beilein’s defense over the weekend and fired back at the teammates quoted in that report, according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com.
“Y’all better find them names ’cause I’ll pull up on ’em right now,” Thompson said. “You can’t do that. … At the end of the day if you’re going to build a culture and a family, you can’t have that Chatty Patty (stuff) going on. That’s whack to me.
“Everyone’s got to look in the mirror, there’s only so much coach can do and there’s only so much we can do,” Thompson continued. “Do we have the best roster in the NBA? No. But we’re going to go out there and compete every night. Guys got to look in the mirror.”
Here’s more from around the Central:
- After getting a rough reception from Pacers fans on Sunday, Paul George
said he’s not the one those fans should be booing. What exactly did he mean? “The belief in Indiana is that he’s referring to Larry Bird,” ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said this week on an episode of “The Jump” (video link). Bird, adviser in Indiana, was formerly the team’s president of basketball operations and pushed George to move from small forward to power forward, something PG13 didn’t want to do, as Windhorst details. - Speaking of the Pacers, they look like they could become a legitimate threat in the Eastern Conference once they get Victor Oladipo back in their lineup, writes Jonathan Tjarks of The Ringer.
- It has been an up-and-down season so far for Denzel Valentine, who was out of the Bulls‘ rotation until late November. As Rob Schaefer of NBC Sports Chicago notes, Valentine has been playing his best ball recently, making at least three 3-pointers and scoring in double-digits in each of his past three games. The 26-year-old shooting guard will be a restricted free agent at season’s end.
