Post#24 » by Hon-essim » Tue Jan 8, 2013 2:26 pm
It's not Big Baby or the Reddick tandem. It's the Celtic mentality...or the SVG mentality...or whatever the Spurs mentality is when the yet to be known underhyped scrubs are doing it.
BBD can stop putting up shots and focus entirely on D and it won't have a positive impact compared to when he's putting up poor shots and then bringing the intensity back to the D and then back to the O and then back to the D.
You need someone with a natural hatred towards bad plays the worse the team plays overall...but with the opposite impact of also willing the momentum towards the opposite end of the floor. Someone who can bring it to the court and back to the locker room and then back to the court and then back to the bench and then towards the next game and back again. All without relying on clutch scoring or pale performances.
The Tony Allen who had recently left the Celts had a similar impact and Kendrick Perkins organized an OKC meeting when times were tough.
The problem remains that these guys are not quite the ideal characters quite off the court so they don't have as much bench leadership. They are basically students of Garnett's leadership but Garnett can make an impact off the court because of the special way he had to grow into a sole superstar leader in a Minnesota team.
It's a long shot but if you can get Pau Gasol and he ends up being motivated but injured, you'll see what Fs with these mentality can really do to a bad team even when they're not on the floor which BBD does not have yet (or never will have). They tend to have a history of this mindset not just the superstars but superstars tend to have the most load to carry and of course, locker room respect is easy to get so long as everyone sees how good you are talent-wise.
Hakeem, Ewing, Gasol, Duncan and KG all showed these in spades and Duncan and KG were influenced by senior big men while the Knicks have the legacy of Willis Reed looming over them. Bird also turned around the Celts against Magic's Lakers with the same mental shift.
It's coachable but vague in how it impacts professionals. The Amare who first went to New York for example had BBD-level leadership but despite his superior talent he did not grow to be better. Then there are guys like Alston who can turn this in the playoffs if their shots are going in but then it fizzles out and sometimes causes these uncoached players to stray towards being cancers. Something both BBD and Alston and big hearted players like AI have been accused of in the past.
That's what the team is lacking without BBD on the court, not BBD specifically. Something inside the team chemistry that can make players play better not just harder when they are making mistakes after mistakes and someone who can get mad rather than act mad whenever the team loses even as the next game comes and the first play gets set.
Gerhalt11 wrote:What? He produces better results than he should? Fire that guy!
No coach. No GM. Probably no star. I swear, in my 23 years of following this team, I can't name a stranger time than this moment to be a supporter of the Magic.