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Norris Cole has been in a huge slump since the all-star break. He's a good player, but he has lost all confidence in his shot. I'm been through a similar slump before as a player. The easiest way to get it back is to play against inferior competition and light it up. Cole really needs to spend a few games in the D-League so he can get a large volume of shots up in a game and not feel guilty about it if he misses.

This would also allow Terrell Harris to play more minutes with Lebron/Wade/Chalmers at point.

It shouldn't take Norris long before he comes good again, but leaving him out there in the rotation is doing nothing for the team and nothing for his confidence right now.

I honestly don't think Cole feels guilty about the shots he misses, otherwise he wouldn't shoot as much.

But yeah sure, D-league would be good for him.

I think maybe we are starting to find out Cole might never be anything more than a 3rd string point guard.

Why would we send one of only two pgs to the D League?

another typical thread on this board. One minute the guy is the best rookie in history and should be starting the next he's not worth a roster spot;

Beasley wrote:Norris Cole has been in a huge slump since the all-star break. He's a good player, but he has lost all confidence in his shot. I'm been through a similar slump before as a player. The easiest way to get it back is to play against inferior competition and light it up. Cole really needs to spend a few games in the D-League so he can get a large volume of shots up in a game and not feel guilty about it if he misses.

This would also allow Terrell Harris to play more minutes with Lebron/Wade/Chalmers at point.

It shouldn't take Norris long before he comes good again, but leaving him out there in the rotation is doing nothing for the team and nothing for his confidence right now.

In all of these Cole threads someone always says he's a good player, a good defender, etc.

What is the evidence of this?

He might be a good player but he never has been. He's been a poor defender and a bad shooter (who shoots too much). He looked good in a small sample size in a handful of games but he's never shown that he was a good player and this is just a slump. This is all that he's shown. Right now this is what Cole as a player has shown.

My only question and concern is how we judge players on THIS TEAM. I remember at the beginning of the season, we were all over this guys nuts, now we want to send him to the D-League for the new flavor of the moment(Harris).

Could it possibly be that Harris has fresher legs and is playing the same as Cole did when he first was inserted into the rotation?

We were excited about Miller until he started missing shots or wouldn't take shots and wanted Shane to replace him. Now that Shane is in the rotation, we complain when he(Shane) misses some shots. We like players for the moment and bash them in that same moment when they don't produce as before. We keep looking at the furniture and not the foundation.

Ronny's next to get in the dog house just as soon as he picks up more fouls than points or rebounds

I just don't understand

Mundo wrote:I think maybe we are starting to find out Cole might never be anything more than a 3rd string point guard.

Ridiculous. If you can't see the kid's potential you are blind. He's getting to the right spots at will. He just has to finish. and he's shown at times that he can. Most rookies aren't consistent. Especially ones that had no training camp, summer league, or practices, plus a condensced schedule which his body is in no way or shape or form ready for--he shouldn't be playing right now. But the kid clearly has a future here, and could be the starting point guard as early as next year if he works hard in the summer.

**** hate knee jerk fans. Everything isn't some extreme.

WD wrote:My only question and concern is how we judge players on THIS TEAM. I remember at the beginning of the season, we were all over this guys nuts, now we want to send him to the D-League for the new flavor of the moment(Harris).

Could it possibly be that Harris has fresher legs and is playing the same as Cole did when he first was inserted into the rotation?

We were excited about Miller until he started missing shots or wouldn't take shots and wanted Shane to replace him. Now that Shane is in the rotation, we complain when he(Shane) misses some shots. We like players for the moment and bash them in that same moment when they don't produce as before. We keep looking at the furniture and not the foundation.

Ronny's next to get in the dog house just as soon as he picks up more fouls than points or rebounds

I just don't understand

This. I think it's just because there's a percentage of our fans that flat just don't understand basketball, but they do understand having a strong opinion about something. Plus we made the finals last year with Mike Bibby playing some of the worst basketball in the history of anything. These fringe players are a bonus when they produce something, but to think our success hinges upon them is just silly. We will win the title if the big three show up. Or even if just two of them show up if one of them is Lebron. We have two of the top five players in the game on our team. We have the best player on the planet on our team.

People need to stop worrying about freaking Norris Cole and Terrel Harris and James Jones and Dexter Pittman. Do you honestly think any of them will be in our playoff rotation?

This is our playoff rotation:
Lebron
Wade
Chalmers
Bosh
Turiaf(or Joel if Turiaf is in foul trouble)
Haslem
Battier
Miller

That's it. That's our 8 man rotation. End of story.

Looking at the 5-man units, the Heat seem very effective when Cole plays with Miller, and absolutely awful when Cole plays without Miller.

Data here

Because of injuries, the only 3 lineups that Miller has played in that have enough minutes to get statistically significant results have all featured Cole, so its hard to tell what type of interaction you're having there, i.e. is Miller just masking Cole's deficiencies and would look just as good with Chalmers? Or is there something about the two of them in combo that works?

Just becuase you guys dont know basketball and jumped the gun on him earlier in the season doesnt mean he's not a liabilty. What is the purpose of a PG who...

Cant Shoot
Average Dribble
Average Playmaker
Abysmal Finisher
Undersized

Yes I know he is a rookie but he will always be undersized with no ballhadling. Look at how small he looks compared to Mario, who is supposedley shorter than Cole. What a stupid overreaction.

In Coles defense AGAIN, there is not 1 player who has not had multiple bad games on THIS TEAM - we don't know enough about this kid to have such a negative opinion.

I remember what I said in December

by WD on Mon Jan 02, 2012 1:52 pm
He gives us what we need off the bench, kinda holding my breath on this kid, we have a tendency to stunt rookies growth (wade/butler the exception) - but we've improved in that area this year so far.

He was great beginning of the year.. he was controlling the floor and not taking many shots, mostly drives. It all changed after, not sure what happened

mopper8 wrote:Looking at the 5-man units, the Heat seem very effective when Cole plays with Miller, and absolutely awful when Cole plays without Miller.

Data here

Because of injuries, the only 3 lineups that Miller has played in that have enough minutes to get statistically significant results have all featured Cole, so its hard to tell what type of interaction you're having there, i.e. is Miller just masking Cole's deficiencies and would look just as good with Chalmers? Or is there something about the two of them in combo that works?

That could just be random fluctuations since you're taking a subset of an already small subset.

Not sure if I am reading that chart right but aren't those pretty large std errors?

I can't think of anything specific about Miller-Cole that would just "work" (as opposed to Chalmers-Miller or Cole-Lebron) so as of now I would just chalk it up to Cole being on the floor while Miller was shooting out of his mind. Not saying that definitively is it but to me random fluctuations seems more likely than some kind of special synergy between the two.

Not having combed through the data I would suspect that you could find similar instances of two random teammates doing well together in semi-small sample sizes. For me unless I can think of a logical reason for it, I presume it to just be statistical noise until proven otherwise.

To answer your questions I do think Miller would look just as good with Chalmers and I can't see how Miller would mask Cole's deficiencies. And to your second question I would guess that there isn't anything special going on and that it could just be that Cole was standing on the court while Miller went unsustainably crazy from 3 (Miller plays a lot more with Cole than Chalmers)

WD wrote:In Coles defense AGAIN, there is not 1 player who has not had multiple bad games on THIS TEAM - we don't know enough about this kid to have such a negative opinion.

I remember what I said in December

by WD on Mon Jan 02, 2012 1:52 pm
He gives us what we need off the bench, kinda holding my breath on this kid, we have a tendency to stunt rookies growth (wade/butler the exception) - but we've improved in that area this year so far.

This is exactly what I was talking about in my earlier post. How does he give us what we "need" off the bench? He might have a little potential down the line but he's the opposite of what we need off the bench.

Cole hit the rookie wall, no biggie. His still playing great defense and trying to attack. He already proved when his mind is right that he can play. This compressed season has hurt everyone! If a 10 year vet is complaining about the schedule, what makes you think a Rookie isn't feeling it 100X more. The key to the season is staying healthy and finding rest when we can; Something I think Spo can't see.

GreenHat wrote:

WD wrote:In Coles defense AGAIN, there is not 1 player who has not had multiple bad games on THIS TEAM - we don't know enough about this kid to have such a negative opinion.

I remember what I said in December

by WD on Mon Jan 02, 2012 1:52 pm
He gives us what we need off the bench, kinda holding my breath on this kid, we have a tendency to stunt rookies growth (wade/butler the exception) - but we've improved in that area this year so far.

This is exactly what I was talking about in my earlier post. How does he give us what we "need" off the bench? He might have a little potential down the line but he's the opposite of what we need off the bench.

Give the kid a break, your assessment is correct. BUT it IS based on his recent play, so do you agree that in DECEMBER my comments were valid?...I still say

There is not 1 player who has not had multiple bad games on THIS TEAM

GameTime_3 wrote:Cole hit the rookie wall, no biggie. His still playing great defense and trying to attack. He already proved when his mind is right that he can play. This compressed season has hurt everyone! If a 10 year vet is complaining about the schedule, what makes you think a Rookie isn't feeling it 100X more. The key to the season is staying healthy and finding rest when we can; Something I think Spo can't see.

this

and when he has a great game this week the bleaters will be shouting his praise.

He's done well considering what has been asked of him. He's not a lottery pick after all.

Norris Cole has hit the rookie wall and he was the last pick of the first round why do you guys expect him to be the next big thing ? He is a rookie he is bound to make mistakes I can recall when Mario Chalmers had a great rookie year looked like the steal of the draft and fell drastically as a player in his sophomore year . Wasn't till last years Finals he gained his confidence back.

Whether you guys want to believe it or not but Mike Miller is more valuable to this team than we think. He adds another player who can shot and rebound and creates shots for others. Once we get Mike Miller back we can go back to proper rotations and players can play the minutes they are used to rather than being ran into the ground .

Cole and Rose is on the cover of the April 16 edition of ESPN the magazine