Is Earl Clark a bust?

DirtyDez · Post #41 » by **DirtyDez** » Sat Jan 2, 2010 3:43 am

hunterxaz wrote:Hey, I'm the one who is content with EC not playing. You EC fanboi's are the jaded/disgruntled ones.

I'm also fine with him not playing a lot this year, but want him getting regular bench minutes starting next year after he's had some more time to develop. With our rotation i don't see him getting those minutes with Hill starting and playing 30 min per. Look at Duds he's balling and only getting better.

Traxxe · Post #42 » by **Traxxe** » Sat Jan 2, 2010 3:46 am

Being a head case.... I would argue a good chunk of head cases were great players. Rodman being the biggest headcase I can think of who in his prime was great to have. Beasley is another head case you'd want to have.

Earl Clark lacks motivational skills. The transition from college demand to NBA is not easy. He needs a full season of meeting NBA lifestyle and constant travel, game prep, etc. Once he has come to terms with that then we will see i he has the potential to develop according to his natural ability.

If he is a bust it is not the Sun's fault. Most everyone was very happy with the pick. Including most professionals and people with far more knowledge than us at the game. When you get an upside pick you have to wait until about midway through their second season to judge them.

MaryvalesFinest · Post #43 » by **MaryvalesFinest** » Sat Jan 2, 2010 3:50 am

Traxxe wrote:Being a head case.... I would argue a good chunk of head cases were great players. Rodman being the biggest headcase I can think of who in his prime was great to have. Beasley is another head case you'd want to have.

Earl Clark lacks motivational skills. The transition from college demand to NBA is not easy. He needs a full season of meeting NBA lifestyle and constant travel, game prep, etc. Once he has come to terms with that then we will see i he has the potential to develop according to his natural ability.

If he is a bust it is not the Sun's fault. Most everyone was very happy with the pick. Including most professionals and people with far more knowledge than us at the game. When you get an upside pick you have to wait until about midway through their second season to judge them.

Yeah nothings wrong with him being a headcase, it's mostly the motivational thing it seems like. He has all this talent and can't get any minutes?

Traxxe also do you know if the Suns had their eyes on any other players when they were drafting at #14 or was Clark their main target?

sunsbum · Post #44 » by **sunsbum** » Sat Jan 2, 2010 3:54 am

Just one of the many articles that say nothing about immaturity or weak work ethic. A guy with a body like that...I can assure, does not have weak work ethic. Who reads yahoo! colums anyways? This must be where you learn your hyperbole posting habits from.

I dont think earl clark has a killer instinct nor do I think he will ever have one... does that make him a bust 1/3rd into his rookie season? nah.

If you watched any college highlights whatsoever the best you could realistically hope for EC is a lamar odom type ceiling.

JohnVancouver · Post #45 » by **JohnVancouver** » Sat Jan 2, 2010 4:32 am

I think as the season progresses EC will get more time - Hill was killing himself at the start of the year and will need some rest before the playoffs. But I trust gentry - he'll play Earl when the time is right for both the team and EC.
That's just how it works

toucansma · Post #46 » by **toucansma** » Sat Jan 2, 2010 4:37 am

Is Maryvalesfinest a bust? Discuss among yourselves

hunterxaz · Post #47 » by **hunterxaz** » Sat Jan 2, 2010 4:50 am

JohnVancouver wrote:I think as the season progresses EC will get more time - Hill was killing himself at the start of the year and will need some rest before the playoffs. But I trust gentry - he'll play Earl when the time is right for both the team and EC.
That's just how it works

Hill is only averaging a slim 30mpg. That's like 6th man material right there. The entire team is pretty much averaging career lows in MPG.

RaisingArizona · Post #48 » by **RaisingArizona** » Sat Jan 2, 2010 5:23 am

We knew he'd be a project and with us being in contention, he's not getting the necessary playing time to see what he offers. I still think he'll be a really good NBA player in a few years.

Post #49 » by **lilfishi22** » Sat Jan 2, 2010 5:47 am

It's hard to call him a bust when the minutes he's got have been so inconsistent. The list of players you have listed are on teams where they either suck enough to play rookies big minutes or have no significantly better talent ahead of them in rotation.

Unlike those listed, we knew Clark was going to be a project and our FO and coaching staff made no secret of that. Whether or not there's another issue, these were the minutes he was expected to see. I can't call him a bust until he's gets consistent playing time.

hunterxaz · Post #50 » by **hunterxaz** » Sat Jan 2, 2010 6:08 am

I'd call 25 games out of 33 and 9mpg pretty consistent, I dunno.

dantian · Post #51 » by **dantian** » Sat Jan 2, 2010 6:33 am

Too early to tell. But if we need to use him in a good trade, I'd have no problem to give him up.

Post #52 » by **KJ7** » Sat Jan 2, 2010 6:51 am

hunterxaz wrote:I'd call 25 games out of 33 and 9mpg pretty consistent, I dunno.

You can't base consistency on mpg ...

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/461 ... FXFrikvLYF

... he has played approx 5 mins or less (ie. backing someone up for *one* quarter) 11 times. And as you say he hasn't played in 8 games at all. So that's 19 games out of 33 where he really hasn't been given a great opportunity to get into the flow of the game.

Whether he deserves more mins up is up for argument (I'm 50-50 on it right now) but you can't say he has actually been given enough mins to show what he can do.

I must admit we are better than I expected us to be so as SDU points out better teams are going to play their younger players less because with youth comes inconsistency. Better teams can't afford to have those inconsistencies.

Much like my thoughts last year on Lopez I would just like to see Clark get into a role. Whether that's backing someone up for the 2nd and 3rd quarter (5 mins each qtr) or whatever it is, give the kid a role for 10 straight games and see what he produces.

My thoughts on the rest of the team/rotations ...

I mentioned in a game thread I think Hill needs to reduce his mins. He was fantastic in the first month and was pretty avg for me in Dec. And just to back that up he had 7 or more rebounds eight times in Nov and only twice in Dec. He scored in double digits 11 times in Nov and 9 times in Dec so for me there was a bit of a regression.

I'm still not confident in Dragic running our offense. The best plays I've seen him do is when he has been aggressive looking for his own shots (either shooting or driving). He has not shown an ability to find his team-mates on an even semi-regular basis. So I would love to see Dudley start and a 2nd unit of: Lou/Clark/Hill/LB/Dragic

I can really see Hill helping the youngster with spacing , work ethic creativity. Considering how confident everyone outside of Lou is with taking their man one-on-one we should be able to find at least 2 players from the opponents back-ups who aren't good defenders and let their respective players go at them.

It's very different from when we have Amare/Nash in the game but then again I've never understood why we go with PnR when Nash isn't in the game. It's pretty clear Hill/LB/Dragic just aren't as good at finding their player in the congestion that comes with PnR. So lets go iso. Lets put some iso players together while putting all the role-playing players together with Nash/Amare.

garrick · Post #53 » by **garrick** » Sat Jan 2, 2010 8:54 am

How can you call him a bust already? Come back in several years and evaluate him then.

Post #54 » by **TASTIC** » Sat Jan 2, 2010 3:16 pm

Not to mention 'bust' is a little strong for a guy who was the 14th pick...Not like he was Darko or Pervis

He wasn't lauded as the franchise saver and Gentry etc said they didn't think he'd be in the rotation this season anyway

Give him a couple of years....

Traxxe · Post #55 » by **Traxxe** » Sat Jan 2, 2010 5:14 pm

MaryvalesFinest wrote:
Traxxe wrote:Being a head case.... I would argue a good chunk of head cases were great players. Rodman being the biggest headcase I can think of who in his prime was great to have. Beasley is another head case you'd want to have.

Earl Clark lacks motivational skills. The transition from college demand to NBA is not easy. He needs a full season of meeting NBA lifestyle and constant travel, game prep, etc. Once he has come to terms with that then we will see i he has the potential to develop according to his natural ability.

If he is a bust it is not the Sun's fault. Most everyone was very happy with the pick. Including most professionals and people with far more knowledge than us at the game. When you get an upside pick you have to wait until about midway through their second season to judge them.

Yeah nothings wrong with him being a headcase, it's mostly the motivational thing it seems like. He has all this talent and can't get any minutes?

Traxxe also do you know if the Suns had their eyes on any other players when they were drafting at #14 or was Clark their main target?

We were going to take Jennings if he fell. James Johnson was ranked right after Clark.

Post #56 » by **rsavaj** » Sat Jan 2, 2010 6:11 pm

James Johnson has done less than Clark has. I thought he was going to be good!

MaryvalesFinest · Post #57 » by **MaryvalesFinest** » Sat Jan 2, 2010 7:32 pm

Traxxe wrote:
MaryvalesFinest wrote:
Traxxe wrote:Being a head case.... I would argue a good chunk of head cases were great players. Rodman being the biggest headcase I can think of who in his prime was great to have. Beasley is another head case you'd want to have.

Earl Clark lacks motivational skills. The transition from college demand to NBA is not easy. He needs a full season of meeting NBA lifestyle and constant travel, game prep, etc. Once he has come to terms with that then we will see i he has the potential to develop according to his natural ability.

If he is a bust it is not the Sun's fault. Most everyone was very happy with the pick. Including most professionals and people with far more knowledge than us at the game. When you get an upside pick you have to wait until about midway through their second season to judge them.

Yeah nothings wrong with him being a headcase, it's mostly the motivational thing it seems like. He has all this talent and can't get any minutes?

Traxxe also do you know if the Suns had their eyes on any other players when they were drafting at #14 or was Clark their main target?

We were going to take Jennings if he fell. James Johnson was ranked right after Clark.

That would have been awesome if Jennings fell...

Fo-Real · Post #58 » by **Fo-Real** » Sat Jan 2, 2010 7:35 pm

The kid is no bust. I think if he had been thrown in the line up, much like Nicolas Batume, in Portland he would have had similar results. Attitude wise maby he dosnt deserve time, but talent wise he is should see floor time. only then will he make improvement. Its hard to get flow when you only play garbage time, and other players are trying to pad thier stats. The kid is an athlete, and he can shoot, the rest can be learned, unless your name is jason richardson. lol

hunterxaz · Post #59 » by **hunterxaz** » Sat Jan 2, 2010 10:54 pm

i just dont see where you guys think he has boat loads of talent. that may have been thought, but he certainly hasn't show any when he's hit the pine.

Post #60 » by **Qwigglez** » Sun Jan 3, 2010 7:55 am

Okay here check this out.
We all know you're opinion on Earl Clark. You think he is a bust. Congratulations. But we cannot trade him because of his inexpensive contract and he hasn't had enough time to develop. We weren't expecting him to come in every night and cause a nuisance for the opposing team.