Old Man Game wrote:Knrstz wrote:Old Man Game wrote:Anyone ever wonder what is wrong with him? Seriously. Mentally the dude isn't all there.
Sent from my Pixel using RealGM mobile app
Virtually everyone that’s great has a chip on their shoulder. In the case of russ I think if he had made a couple he would have started going to the basket. It’s almost like he can’t quit shooting until he satisfies himself that he can make them. That being said, his shot is worse than ever. I hope it’s conditioning and rust but at some point we may have to accept reality. He’s still great at times. He was great last night. He wasn’t the same player last year that he was his mvp year. We blamed a lot of it on Melo and trying to accommodate the new guys. If he can stay healthy then at some point he needs to get close to what he was in 2016. Maybe not the massive numbers but maybe occasionally getting a field goal attempt and free throw shot passed the front of the rim. If he doesn’t improve, I think we have our answer.
I think there's got to be a sort of pathology to a person who can go 1 of 12 and just keep letting it rip while his teammates who aren't terrible just stand there twiddling their thumbs. This is not the 2016-17 season. Semaj Christon isn't coming off that bench. He's got help. There's no excuse for him to play that way. AND then, (this is the kicker) in other games not play like that. Can literally shoot no threes for several games and to play entirely within the team flow. Demonstrating he understands what he needs to do and what works. But he just randomly forgets it and has some sort of brain fart about this. THAT is what is incredibly weird about him.
he has poor game sense and always has, relative to his peers. but then again, when you've spent your whole career in a place where everyone is telling you to just be yourself i mean.. what is the result supposed to be? others have been like russ in certain ways. jordan, kobe, those types. but russ never got the same kind of support structure those two received which curtailed their self-destructive tendencies. russ only got tacit approval, especially post-kd.
this is what makes russ a table test player, in the words of bill simmons (originally used to describe gary payton). russ might be the ultimate table test guy. he puts so much on the table, maybe more than any contemporary aside from lebron, but at the same time he takes away more than any other superstar.









