Dellavedova is dirty? Or just playing hard?
Just wondering what you guys think of Dellavedova's plays over their last two series. To me, in the Bulls series he was very much trying to instigate with Taj, but I don't really remember anyone else having that opinion. Fast forward to Hawks Game 2, loose ball on the floor and he goes flying at Korver. Watching it live it definitely looked like he was trying to protect the ball, but he was also definitely out of control (and that should have been a loose ball foul). Then last game, his altercation with Al Horford. Yes he was falling, but it didn't look like he was trying to catch himself and he definitely knew where he was falling towards.
Also, if you pay attention you will see that he flops (or significantly embellishes) at least three times a game. LeBron says that he works hard and plays his butt off, but I would not consider flopping and instigating things to be that. But maybe he's learning it from LeBron (the king of the flop).
Just wondering what you guys think.
No matter what Dellavedova is, LeBron will stick up for him because he's his teammate, so it doesn't really matter what LeBron thinks. As for Dellavedova, that's how he makes his living. He's not especially skilled or talented, so he contributes with hustle plays. He also has a rugby background, so he's used to scrapping. The way I see it is he's either super crafty for being able to dupe the refs into siding with him for 3 straight incidents or he's really just playing hard (I know I'm not really answering your question, but IMO it's genuinely hard to tell). If it's the former, he'll eventually get the shit knocked out of him by someone on the court one of these days (maybe Draymond Green in the Finals, and then Kendrick Perkins can start some shit with Green and then we'll have ourselves an entertaining Finals) or the league will step in with a suspension. These things tend to work themselves out.
When I watched the replay from the Horford incident, it looks like Al may have gotten caught an elbow below the belt as Dellavedova was falling which may have started the whole thing. If this is true, was that elbow intentional or not who knows. The Korver incident is sad and it reminds me a bit of the Patrick Beverly tackle on Westbrook in the playoffs a couple years ago.
Time will tell if Dellavedova is dirty or not (I think there isn't enough evidence to suggest he is as yet, IMO), but I agree with @design on his rugby background and lack of talent making him a bit more scrappy.
Everyone flops. The Taj play was the weirdest... Other 2 were basketball plays bang bang. Hard to say in the heat of the moment, split second he was like "lets injure this guy" while watching ball.
Don't think he plays dirty, but the way he plays significantly increases the likelihood that anyone around him will get injured.
This. I don't think he has the intent to hurt (don't think there was for Korver or Al), but perhaps sometimes has the intent to get into someone's head (Taj). He's that guy that goes all out, hustles, and lays everything out on the floor. If you're playing in a pick-up game, he's that guy that you would be like "wtf is he doing, he needs to calm down a little bit." To me, dirty implies intent to hurt.. however, the way he plays certainly increases the chances that players around him get hurt because they don't expect him to be running into everyone the way he does.
Seriously all that talk is BS. Those are basketball plays. The leg lock against Taj was just to get into his head which is nothing out of the ordinary in the playoffs. It is literally impossible to get somebody injured with that. Second play against Korver is a 100% hustle play, nothing else. It's just extremly unlucky Korver gets injured on that one. Last night wasn't a malicious play either. If the other incidents wouldn't have happend noone would have raised an eyebrow. Yes the other plays actually did happen but as I said this is playoff basketball. To be honest I wonder why nobody says Horford's play was dirty. He tries to elbow Delly WWE style. If he would have hit him like he intended to, that would have been ugly. Only reason for the one sided discussion is that he has no history at all.
And can I please have a source where it says Delly played Rugby? As a kid he played Australian Football which is a different thing.
As he did not really play much during the regular season, I don't really have anything to reference against. But as he has played more during the postseason this year it is clear to me that he is not a clean player. He may not be a straight up dirty player, but no one could reasonably claim that he is a clean player.
With respect to Horford, he was not trying to knock him out or anything serious like that. It looked like he was trying to hit him in the chest or somewhere in the body. If he was trying to get him in the head or face he could/would have. But just like Horford said post-game, he better figure it out. If he doesn't someone will go Ron Artest on him (which I would personally love to see).
And yes, he played Aussie rules, but I believe that is closer in form to rugby than American football, so I think that's why people are saying he played rugby.
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