TheBigThree wrote:keynote wrote:QFT. I know that Jamison is a terrible defender, but it's not for lack of trying. But the youngsters looked confused and/or lax out there.
I am concerned about our coaching staff's ability to develop young talent. From a fan's perspective, our youngsters range in dedication and work ethic from the lazy (Blatche) to the slightly goofy (Young) to the average work ethic (McGuire, McGee), to the "gym rat" (Pecherov). Yet one thing is clear: we have yet to see significant improvement in BBall IQ and/or fundamentals in any of them.
Blatche many of the same boneheaded decisions he made in Year One. Frankly, one could attribute his improvement solely to physical maturity, rather than any fundamental skills development.
I'm going to cut and paste this into a new thread (do we have a "How to coach youngsters" thread?).
Great post. It's why I laugh every time I hear someone say we shouldn't have fired EJ. It's a travesty that our talent is wasted and not being developed/honed. Any good coach ingrains the fundamentals into his players. I see no evidence (in fact, I see evidence to the contrary when players like RMJ go to the Spurs and are forced to learn their fundamentals) that our coaching staff has ever made a real effort to teach these guys. I mean, when one of the least fundamentally sound basketball players in the NBA starts for your team for 3 years, I think the answer is pretty obvious.
Of course, none of this excuses the disgusting lack of effort we've seen of late.
This is why I think many are to harsh on Tapps. He took over after the season started and has had to make do without a roster full of vets. He was handed young players who are in their first or second year and who got little to no court time and who were coached by EFJ. Then he lost his only real PG he had during the season. He got a talented prospect in return who was not even court ready in this offense and a journeyman multiyear player who he has to play so we can dump him. Add to that he has no centers ready to start. He doesn't even have Blatche now. EFJ never had it this bad.
Our younger players look ok against the second line of other teams. That's who they should be compared to.
Crit
James
DMAC
AJ
DSong
Come on. AJ is the only legit starting quality NBA player in that bunch and most of us would agree that he isn't a starting PF on a really good team.
Back that up with
Dixon
OP
McGee
NY
What would you expect Tapps to do with those players.
Younger players develop best if they are brought into a winning environment with knowledgeable established vets leading the way to show them what to do. Right now, this ship has no rudder. It has no PG to help them develop by feeding the the ball in situations to maximize the skills they have. This is why this team desperately needs a Kidd, Nash, CP type. That is the key to maximizing what we have to bring it along. Having GA would help a lot but he isn't that type of player. If it wasn't for GA being injured and EFJ being forced to play Haywood, I don't think Haywood would have produced like he did last year either. EFG and GA has to lot to do with why we haven't developed young players well. AJ doesn't help much either because he just isn't that kind of guy. He is more, go get it done on your own. Of GA, AJ, and CB, CB is the best team player for younger players.
You simply can't develop a young team without these kind of player. Without them, you just have a lot of younger parts trying to do things they aren't ready to do. You need a conductor. Put GA, CB, and AJ out there and they can score because that is what they do but as a group, they never worked well working in a post player. GA never developed a younger player with his PG skills.
But given the players we have available right now, a true establish passing PG would help a ton.
Example. McGee can do some things well. A great PG would get him 2 alley-ops a game. That would help build his confidence. They would also get in his ear when he took a stupid shot at the wrong time but saying.... look get the rebound and give me the ball. A great PG is a coaches best asset. The coach is on the side lines. You need a coach on the court. With an established PG, everyone knows who hands the ball should be in.
The good news is Crit seems to be this type of player to me. I can see the skills there. His only problem is that he isn't established enough yet. He is closer to the level that Blake was when he was here which is a good sign given we have nothing else close to that on the team. Given what we have here right now, starting him would be the best thing for our team. James isn't going to start for any other team when he is traded so let him be the back up PG. Crit now knows enough to get it done. It's time to start him every game until GA returns.
I would do this even at the expense of not starting DMAC if it came to that. DMAC has gotten tones of burn and when everyone is healthy, he will return to being a bench player until he offer more on offense. Crit is the key at this point. He is the one who can help make other players better more quickly.
AJ talking about defense again. Someone needs to remind him when he presented LeBron with a red carpet baseline game winner in the playoffs. 
