payitforward wrote:Whoa there, Zards!!! I meant no such thing, & the thought that you, or any of my amigos here, would prioritize those characteristics of Kuz never passed through my mind even once.
PIF, I apologize if I misinterpreted your words. But there have been numerous times when you appear to admonish others on this board for not taking as seriously the stats and #s you subscribe to and/or for focusing solely on the points a player scores or his marketability.
I'm not even certain that "marketability" is the primary concern of Leonsis...as you often claim it is.
payitforward wrote:In a way it's a little bit like the idea of "clutch." Obviously, a made bucket in the first quarter has exactly the same impact on the final score as a made bucket in the last 5 minutes of the game. That's from the "competition" angle on the game.
From the other angle, the entertainment angle, that bucket late in the 4th quarter seems more important somehow than whether the shot in quarter 1 went in or not. Yet, if you need it in the last 5 minutes, that means you didn't make it in quarter 1. & if you'd made it in quarter 1 you wouldn't need it in the last 5 minutes!
I don't really agree with this…because I do believe there's such a thing as "clutch." I believe it can be more difficult to score in the last few mins of a game than it is in the first quarter.
For one, players are human and they're certain to feel more pressure/stress at crunch time as opposed to the freewheeling first quarter. And not every NBA player has the confidence and mental toughness to step up and take that "clutch" shot.
But, even more importantly, an opponent’s defensive intensity in the last few minutes of a close game is almost always going to be ratcheted up a few notches from where it was in the first few minutes of the game or the first quarter. That's just a fact, imo.
Yes, 2 pts are 2 pts whether they’re in the first quarter or in the last 5 mins of the game. But those 2 (or 3) pts near the end of the game are often harder to come by than they are in the first quarter.