No vets

[flow]

The team that admittedly struggled with on-floor leadership last year, at least had off-floor leadership in Tolliver, Anthony and Blake. They'll all be gone this year. This concern was acknowledged by RJ recently. The most 'veteran' player on the team is now Ish Smith, who is also the only leadership-type. I'm not a fan of having no vets on a roster, especially when the team core is young and lacking in leaders.

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/reggie-jackson-says-pistons-face-adjustment-without-veteran-leadership/

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[bballnmike]

That reminds me I'm past due to take my cat for a checkup

[Kilo]

It's time they take ownership of the lockerroom and grow into their roles. They might be young, but they've been in the league 3-4-5 years already, it's not like they're complete noobs. They can have the player development coaches to lean on if need a veteran mentor for advise.

[mercury]

Would like them to hire Ben as a defensive coach & mentor

[chrbal]

We needed those 3 to change the culture of the team (well, Steve Blake was desperation with the Jennings situation). But we don't need them now.

Now, Tolliver got a nice contract with the Kings for basically the same reason we brought him in. Anthony is going to join the Spurs on a non-guaranteed camp deal. And Steve Blake is in Portland trying to draw attention to the fact that hes still available. 'Yeah...great, thats nice"

[Pharaoh]

Those 3 & Butler/Illy were brought in to change the culture....

Mission accomplished!

Now we're at the stage Drummond & RJ have to step it up

[whitehops]

i think the example that "true vets" like steve blake, joel anthony, and anthony tolliver set for a young team are very important - it was one of my critiques of sam hinkie's approach in philly. young players need to see how hard you have to work and how disciplined you have to be to succeed/stay in the league.

that said, they have to be able to play at a certain level. setting an example for the young guys is valuable but at the end of the day if the vets themselves can't perform on the court then they should be replaced with better players (like we did with ish, jon and boban).

and guys like ish and leuer have been around the league and worked hard to make themselves commodities in the league. they both sound mature (just based on interviews) so i don't think they'll have much trouble being a positive example for the younger guys. i think marcus morris could also take on a bigger leadership role. ultimately though, reggie and drummond will have to become the vocal leaders of the team. personally i think reggie would be more suited to it since dre still has his bouts of immaturity.


it's obviously tough to speculate the impact when you haven't been in the locker room but i don't think it will be a big issue because we have added quality people to replace the vets we let go.

[theBigLip]

I'm thinking the team grew up a lot last year. They are hungry. As much as it is nice to have vets on the team, I think we're ok with leadership. I guess we will find out soon.

[Pharaoh]

I'm thinking SVG is doing what George Karl did to Payton/Kemp:

All of our young core (other than SJ) has been around enough and/or in the league long enough now that it's time for them to step up.

And we don't have to worry about SJ & leadership

[tmorgan]

Andre will be well-liked and good for team chemistry, but he'll never be a leader, at least not in his 20's. He's a guy that needs a mentor, not a guy that can be one.

Reggie, maybe. He's outspoken enough, but he seems a little too emotional to be a steadying influence like Joel or Tolly.

SJ is the guy with leader DNA. Give him two to three more years and he'll rule our locker room despite his age, I almost guarantee it.

Morris is probably the best candidate in the meantime. Vocal enough, serious enough, tough enough.

[Blkbrd671]

We have

Baynes
Ish Smith
RJ
Harris
Mook

Our main problem is we don't have many players with a lot of playoff experience and understand how to close out games. SVG is our off the court leader and always has been. The beauty of our team and what makes us so scary is that fact, our starters are so good(statistically) at a young age with very little experience.

I think this year RJ, KCP, Dre, Mook and Harris all grow up a little. SJ i think might become a headache as i think he's going to get pulled early at times for starters

[The_Irony]

This team isnt winning a championship this year.

Vets will join this team eventually. I like having this super young squad. The cream will rise to the top and the right players will get moved. It's true though, you cant really think about being contenders until they add talented vets.

[Pharaoh]

We have

Baynes
Ish Smith
RJ
Harris
Mook

Our main problem is we don't have many players with a lot of playoff experience and understand how to close out games. SVG is our off the court leader and always has been. The beauty of our team and what makes us so scary is that fact, our starters are so good(statistically) at a young age with very little experience.

I think this year RJ, KCP, Dre, Mook and Harris all grow up a little. SJ i think might become a headache as i think he's going to get pulled early at times for starters

SJ will never be a headache mate. He was born for this!

SVG has mentioned that sometimes you gotta do **** to SJ just to challenge him a little - pulling him out of games for the starter is gonna motivate SJ to work harder

[Blkbrd671]

We have

Baynes
Ish Smith
RJ
Harris
Mook

Our main problem is we don't have many players with a lot of playoff experience and understand how to close out games. SVG is our off the court leader and always has been. The beauty of our team and what makes us so scary is that fact, our starters are so good(statistically) at a young age with very little experience.

I think this year RJ, KCP, Dre, Mook and Harris all grow up a little. SJ i think might become a headache as i think he's going to get pulled early at times for starters

SJ will never be a headache mate. He was born for this!

SVG has mentioned that sometimes you gotta do **** to SJ just to challenge him a little - pulling him out of games for the starter is gonna motivate SJ to work harder

his work ethic is not the problem, its staying within the realm of the system especially defensively . I think SJ is going to think he should have more minutes and his play dictates so and i am sure it'll be discussed on this board, but i have a feeling SVG will stick with mook and other vets. I could be absolutely wrong but there's definitely a chne with SJ's confidence and sometimes arrogance

[hoophabit]

I'm with the group that think it's time for our young core to step up as leaders on the team. I do agree though that it's not reasonable to expect that every young player on the team will be retained. If SVG and Co. have shown anything it's that they are willing to trade.

I'm not comfortable with using arrogance to describe SJ. Extremely confident, motivated, and hypercompetitive no doubt. He did get himself benched briefly last season, but caused no obvious problems and came back and played better. I guess until he acts in some way that marks him as a bad teammate I'm giving SJ the benefit of the doubt. I have never read anything but that his coaches loved him.