Seems with the removal of Crawford, the culture change is mostly if not completely complete. I don't t think they worked that process of removing Dray and Crawford very well and didn't get value but at least its over. Its done. Moving forward.
Here is my observation.
While we have given Ted and EG a good bit of bashing over many thing, lets see whats left and what it looks like is different about the players they are adding. What kind of players they used to add and what kind they are adding now.
Seems EG never used to give enough weight to smart/personality over the years. Gil, Crawford, McGee, Nick, Critter. I could even add D Sleez in there. Talent... yes but to much DSleez/JSteez. Nick and McGee were just
Gil was mentally special. Critter pretty much insane. Bulter was solid. AJ was good but played zero defense. He would add players that had talent, but to many had questionable personalities regarding what works for a winning professional NBA basketball team. If you are trying to build a winning team, personality and smarts need to be considered higher. Sure you want talent but after identifying talent, they have to measure up and pass the personality and smarts test or you don't add them. Professionalism and character matter a ton on a winning basketball team.
But for all we can complaining about Ted, it does seem there is a different standard now. Nene, Okafor, Webster, Trevor A, Beal. All of them are in a completely different class regarding personality type. Even Temple fits in with the second grouping. I would rate all of those players with A or B grades regarding that quality.
With the removal of J Craw, it does look like the culture change pretty much complete. What remains is a group of players with no bad eggs and smart mature professionals leading them. The remaining younger players are good kids that will follow the lead of those players and the HC.
From here, you keep adding talent but only if that talent measures up to the personality and intelligence level of the new core. I have harped on this for a long long time and it finally looks like they are doing things differently.
As for young player, Beal is the standard. Some people jabbed at me because I said I was won over after watching my first interview of him but that was really all it took and I was locked in. I saw his talent in the videos. I know the position they team most needed to fill and what skills that player needed to have. It was his personality and maturity that lead me to believe he would be something special and would fit perfectly with this team that was looking to rebuild. His draft position was 11th at the time and the focus was on A Davis and MKG. I said get that Beal kid. He would be perfect. He ended up going #3 and if CHA was smart, he would have gone #2.
For vets, Nene, Okafor, and Webster are the standard. Nene for McGee was a huge huge win. He added exactly the personalty and skills they needed to add and in doing it, they removed McGee who was the opposite. He didn't have to skills they needed to anchor the D or the personality.
So I see this as a new team now. Adding Nene was the move that really started it. Okafor and Trevor A expanded it. And Beal was the perfect draft pick to seed the future. And if the trend continues, I feel pretty good that they will only add pieces that measure up to this new standard. The good news it, the draft seems to have a plenty of this type in it.
They have to find the best fit of personality, smarts, maturity, motor, need, skill.
