Dialing Long-Distance
Thursday, December 10, 2009, 03:47 AM EST [General]
Hey, everyone. It’s Darnell, checking in with another installment of the D-Blog.
The second half of the road trip was kind of tough – taking it on the chin in Memphis and Houston. But we’ll bounce back when we get home and get on another run. That’s what we do.
It was nice to get some time on Wednesday, even if it was in the final minute of the game. I was able to hit the first three-pointer of my NBA career. Believe it or not, that’s actually something we work on.
After practice – me, Coach Lloyd, Coach Jent, Bryant Moore – we work on long-range shooting. The coaches run me through my normal drills and afterwards, the coaches have me shoot five threes from each spot.
When I got in the game, Red (Delonte West) said, ‘D-Block, get ready.’ And I said, “Get it to me, I’ll make it.” So he came down, I set the screen and when he drove, I peeled back for the shot and he got it back to me like he said he would. And I was able to make it. It felt really good.
I have to admit, I already had my mind made up on it. As soon as he said “Block,” I said “Alright.” I don’t know what it is between Delonte and me, but he can just give me a look when we’re running a play and he makes the play. That’s kind of what happened tonight, even though it was late in a loss.
Your long-range shot – especially that shot for a big man – takes time to develop. But every day I work with the coaches and it’s just the same as it is in practice. I shot a couple in college, and I think I made a couple. But I didn’t want to shoot too many to mess my shooting percentage up.
Being in my second year, I’m still learning how the NBA goes. I just try to keep myself in shape and whether we’re winning or losing, I need to stay ready.
It gets frustrating. And any guy who says he doesn’t get frustrated with not playing, they’re lying. It gets frustrating out there. You see things aren’t going right and you think you can go out there and help. But you just have to wait your turn.
The coaches are always telling me: keep trucking down stop. And I’m not going to. I’m going to keep my foot on the gas and go full-throttle. And I’ll be ready to go if they need me – especially when we roll into my hometown – Oklahoma City – this weekend.
