jbk1234 wrote:JonFromVA wrote:jbk1234 wrote:He has to believe, himself, that he's doing something wrong in order to improve. I see zero evidence of that. I don't think making the right play, keeping his teammates involved, and/or winning will ever be more important than getting his.
But he's already cratered Love's trade value and I'm angry not only at him, but the organization, for that. To the extent that he doesn't understand it because the team hasn't been clear, or hasn't imposed consequences, that's on the Cavs.
It's just one game, but Sexton made some decent decisions in the Denver game. As I've said before, I believe he struggles to keep track of what's going on around him (especially to the sides and behind him) and that he needs to trust that open guy in the corner even when that guy misses shots; but that doesn't preclude him figuring things out from experience, scheme, and constant feedback from the coaching staff.
The only question is how much patience do we have?
In my book, based on his age/experience, I think the answer should be a lot; but there's certainly a lot more to it than we as fans get to see.
Heck, I find it fascinating that the recent bruhaha between Love and Beilein was because Sexton was running the play he was being asked to run rather than breaking it off and posting up Love who had position on CP3.
I'm not used to players who actually do what the coach asks ...
To the extent he's doing anything, he's doing the bare minimum and only after 90% of the fan base is screaming to move him to a sixth man role on social media. Watch the fourth quarter of the Denver game again, particularly the exchanges between Love and Sexton when Love is getting a mismatch on the block after Denver switches.
I remain deeply skeptical that this is a matter of Sexton failing to see the open guy or not understanding what the correct basketball play is. In that Pistons loss when Love scored 30 and barely touched the ball in the 4th quarter, Sexton dismissed it as having to move on to the second option (meaning him) because the Pistons were keying on Love.
The issue isn't how much patience we as the fans have, it's how patience the organization has and whether they've already erred.
Even if the Cavs manage to find an acceptable trade for Love before the deadline, and I'm skeptical at this point, then what's the plan going forward with Sexton? It better not be surround him with inferior players and then hope against hope that he plays team ball on a truly bad team.
Teams send lottery picks to the G League now. They bring lottery picks off the bench all the time. Unearned starters minutes on a rebuilding team is one thing, but when bad habits aren't changing in a guy's second year, to the detriment of the other starters, it should be an easy call.
Altman's job is to put together the best possible team. If he thinks he can do that by trading ANYONE he should pull the trigger. So, he needs to determine the relative value of what we have .vs. what we can get in trade. Hence his "patience" might be measured in days or decades. Not much we can do about that.
Some fan patience, otoh, makes the message boards a more pleasant place.
We don't have to like Altman's choices, we can point out when player's are struggling, and we can even harbor fears they won't improve significantly; but presumably we all want these guys to learn, grow, and help our team win a lot of games. It's not a lot of fun to sour things about these players to the point we hope they fail so they prove we're right.
So, while I've said over and over that player development is job #1 for this team, I recognize that I'm not working with these guys, I'm not familiar with their plan for them or their goals. I don't know where they've met expectations or where they've been stubborn or perhaps even downright beligerent. I've suggested myself maybe the Cavs are using too many carrots and not enough sticks, but I'm not going to pretend I'm right unless I knew a heck of a lot more about what was going on and the personality of these guys.
Stuff leaked out about Kyrie that made it very clear what he was all about. I've just not seen the same with this group. So, I'm going to keep hoping and looking for signs that Collin, Darius, KPJ, etc, can expand their games until they're no longer wearing wine & gold.