Post#217 » by Phish Tank » Sat Jan 6, 2018 6:08 am
Summary:
Sorry, this game was really a doozy for most of the first three quarters until Beasley got us back in the game in the 4th quarter to eventually get us to into overtime. Then we couldn't get any easy buckets in OT and ended up losing.
Not that I really care too much. I can only state the obvious each and every loss. Jack plays too much, Kyle does stupid things, on and on and on.
The reality is that this is just the beginning of a long process. We overachieved the first 30 games or so and have hit a wall. Everyone has hit a wall. The reason we've hit a wall is because our players are being asked to do things beyond their own limit.
However, the team is in a tough place because we won a lot of games early on - with KP, Frank, Timmy, Kanter, etc. playing a big role in those victories. Think about the message it sends if we just - at 3-4 games under 500 - just start playing Dotson and Willy major minutes and bench Jack, Lee, Kyle, and others. It would just send a terrible terrible message. Forget the thought of veterans helping young players ....
Look, Jack and Frank are pretty much literally splitting the point guard duties 50/50 at this point. Jack's not a starter anymore and Frank's not ready. We barely have patience with KP now, throw Frank in the wolves being 4 games under 500 and it might be bad. Not everyone can start and play major minutes right away. And we'd do a disservice by just starting and playing rooks big minutes right now.
Lee right now is trying to play the role of 2nd option right now in the rotation. He's really - at best - a 4th option. Kanter really should be coming off the bench. Lance Thomas should be a bench player and is also asked to do too much.
KP's learning how hard it is to be a #1 option. Timmy's not even a real #2 option either.
Add all of the above up and you have people playing way above their heads and have hit a great wall. But in the process of hitting the great wall, they're still competitive in most of the games, even when KP's struggling or Frank's not getting a lot of minutes.
Just a weird spot. But all the bad teams this year and last have dealt with similar problems. The Lakers are in a deeper problem because none of the vets are there to tell their players to stop sulking.
We have no business being only 3 games under 500, but that's where we are and you can't just throw everything in the tank right now. Just trust a process, work hard in practice, and perhaps work on things a step at a time.
