The first time I went to the coach's clinic was 2004 I believe. When they did those, it was typically late October and they had been practicing for a few weeks. Yesterday's work was their first official practice I believe, and I could really tell the difference. They aren't crisp yet and there are a lot of roles that need to be defined. All that will come.
There doesn't seem to be a "first team" yet. It started with Thornton working with the four returners, but it was fluid and I doubt that remains the first team. There was a good bit of work on full court man. Offensively, the bulk of the work involved ball screens and dribble handoffs. They seem to want to do that more to set up opportunities to attack since they don't have an Okafor they want to feed and play through.
Vrank was in a boot and didn't practice, so there was always a walk-on in, mostly Pags.
This was one practice, but I have tempered my expectations for Obi, even though they weren't ridiculous to begin with. In the last segement of practice they scrimmaged, and Coach let Marshall and Amile pick teams. Walk-ons Pags and Robinson were picked before Obi, and he didn't get to scrimmage.
Danny Ferry and David Robinson set court side and watched.
