Marquis Teague: “It Just Wasn’t Clicking with Thibs”

Marquis Teague was officially traded to the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday and practiced for the first time with his new teammates on Thursday. After practice, the second-year point guard revealed that he knew he might be on the trading block and when it happened, it didn’t really come as a surprise.

"I wasn't really shocked," Teague said. “I knew a lot of changes were being made around there, so I was kind of prepared."

In the season and a half that he spent in Chicago, Teague never could find consistent minutes in Tom Thibodeau’s rotation and revealed that he and his coach didn’t exactly see eye-to-eye.

“It just wasn't clicking with Thibs the right way," he said. “Just trying to figure out the system was kind of tough for me. The way they play isn't really my style, so it's kind of difficult for me.”

Teague said his preferred style of play is more up-tempo, which didn’t quite mesh with Thibodeau’s grind it out style of basketball.

“I like to push the ball, play fast, get up and down, play off pick-and-rolls," he said, admitting he patterns his game after über-quick guards like Allen Iverson, Steve Francis and Baron Davis. "Over there it's more structure and sets and things like that."

But comments like that speak to a larger problem with Teague in terms of his level of understanding of what Eastern Conference basketball is all about, and the way he views himself as a basketball player. Still, Teague is happy to have a fresh start in Brooklyn.