Skybox wrote:pepe1991 wrote:Max Power wrote:Call me crazy, but I think we should start Mo Bamba next season. How are we going to know anything about his future prospects unless we go “trial by fire” with him. What’s the worst thing about it? We lose more? That’s the objective next year anyway. At least we can gauge the talent he has for real. I’m not itching to drop a bunch of empty cash on Wendell Carter, so we might as well see what our own #6 pick has. I know we can’t give him Patrick Ewing’s competitive fire, but if we can get him to at least be as competitive as Cole Anthony the guy may be useful.
Why you feel need to point out he is
our former 6th pick ?
Now they play on same team, Wendell is night in and night out better, also happends to be younger and happends to be former 7th overall pick, from same draft.
Dumping money on empty calory stats on any of them is pointless ,but at least one will be kept after this year.
Why start Bamba over Wendell if he is noticablly worst player ? What message are you sending to young players ? Don't worry if you suck, you will be protected with "our pick" cloak for whole rookie contract and we will give you unlimited amount of opportunity, so don't work hard, don't improve over 3 yeras, play like complete s***, just make sure you "improve" just in right moment, before it's time to sign new contract?
Anthony Edwards arived in nba with same "motor" question mark above his head that Bamba had. Minessota stopped treating their lottery picks as babies, so in his second year, Culver lost all PT as soon as he showed no improvment . You don't think that Edwards didn't take that as clearest message possible that being lazy won't get you anywhrere ? In same time, Jaylen Nowell, 43rd overall pick was getting PT mostly because:
a) he showed massive improvments in second year
b) plays hard defense even when his shots don't go in
And here we are, year 4, we treat guy who is 23 years old as "rookie" while he is playing 4th year in nba. Same guy who couldn't beat Khem Birch on regular bases to get into rotation. At some point it just turns into mockery. And now you want to start him ? Award him for showing no improvments whatseover in 3 years , right in time to put up some empty points and rebounds so he has leveradge in nogotations for next contract that he probably isn't even looking to sign here ? Why?
Fair points...but the flip side is "Did Minn blow it with the way they handled Culver?" I don't know, but I do think Bamba and Clifford did not have synergistic priorities and Bamba might (just might) flourish in a more supportive setting where development outweighs wins. Cliff (rightfully) was scrapping for wins.
Call me a snowflake but I'm playing for long term upside. If it's all Clifford school of "hard knocks" this season, expect to see TRoss, Harris and, eventually, MCW as our leading shot-takers and Robin Lopez playing 30m per game. I think we all know that's not the vision.
Bamba was 6th overall pick, Culver was 7th. Those guys arived in nba at age of 20. 1/5th of all selected allstar players last couple of years is made of bunch of 21-22 years old kids.
High lottery also means they are payed s*** loud of money to be good. When you get payed whooping $18M over 3 years.
High lottery and sky high money also comes with set of expetations. Culver and Bamba and lot of others like Jaxson Hayes, Kevin Knox, Jerome Robinson or Frank Ntilikina flat out did not deliver anything.
In theory, all those guys are 22-23 years old , like Bamba, and in theory you could collect all of them and rename yourself into Orlando bust rehab. What is realistic , objective outcome of any of them actually turning into decent players or players that in near future can help Orlando turn franchise around?
Let's reframe question. Why would you invest your playing time and
even more money into players who's best possible outcome at this stage is to become simliar players who in NBA make less than $10M a year and can be signed literally every year in free agency?
Kevin Knox, for example, at apsolute best scenario now, will be Al Faruq Aminu- but no defense type player? Same Kevin Knox can be shielded with usual suspect excuses:
-just turned 22
- bad team in past
- coach who hates mistakes
- coach who hates young players
But reality is simple. Kevin Knox is just 22 years old but he hasn't been good or even playable at any point of his nba career. Over 182 games played his eFG is constantly among the worst nba players. No, he won't show up in year 4,get it together and live up to -fanfiction of Paul George comparison because we have 3 years that prove that he is not capable of playing at nba level.
Same goes for Bamba. Bamba failed at basketball in nba . He won't show up month from now with "new motor" running like maniac , understanding baketball, having BBIQ worth something and be mistake free.
HE will probably hype himself into playing hard 5-8 games, but you simply can't teach high character and high energy, and he will just fizzle out. It's like a diet, 99,99% of them fail because people don't have discipline to make it out. Jordan and Kobe where out there hiring people to teach them how to play table tennis because it was their competitive spirit, in same time Caleb Swanigan, also basketball player, eat himself into 500 pounds over 2 years.
Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans. -John Lennon