GT: Game #69 - Charlotte Vs Denver (May 11th)

[Braggins]

Monk seems a shell of himself after having that very short purple patch all the way back in Feb (or whenever it was).

Not sure how you guys keep pretending Monk just got hot one time when hes shooting 41% from 3pt with a 58% TS% on a 40 game sample. He was 3/6 with 4 rebounds and 3 assists in 18 minutes this game. He still looks tentative on drives, but he didn't look bad to me.

He has had his worst stretch of the season since returning from the ankle injury, but over that period hes shooting 34% from the field and 37% from 3pt, which is barely worse than Devontes percentages for the season, and his assists over that period are up to 3.8 per game and 5.9 per36 with a 2.9 ast/to ration, if you don't count the game he played 9 minutes and didn't return due to injury. Some of you act like Devonte actually played good when he puts up pretty much those same stats.

I'm not saying Monk hasn't played poorly recently, but the double standards just get old. Sorry for posting like the Monk defense brigade lol. He and LaMelo are my favorite players on the team if it wasn't already obvious.

[BigSlam]

...which is barely worse than Devontes percentages for the season...

Not sure how you guys can’t discuss Monk without bringing up Graham.

Monk looking terrible and being criminally inconsistent and unreliable has nothing to do with Graham and everything to do with Monk.

[Braggins]

...which is barely worse than Devontes percentages for the season...

I don’t know why you can’t discuss Monk without bringing up Graham.

Monk looking terrible and being criminally inconsistent and unreliable has nothing to do with Graham and everything to do with Monk.

I bring it up specifically with you and a couple other posters to point out the hypocrisy and double standard you have with these two players. You can't act like Monk is criminally inconsistent and unreliable if you don't think thats even more true for Devonte, which you obviously dont. The point I'm trying to make is that its pretty obvious some of you just don't like Monk for weird reasons that don't have anything to do with his play, or at the very least judge him by a different standard than other players on the team for some reason.

Again, Monk is shooting 41% from 3pt with a 58% TS%. Good luck making the argument thats criminally inconsistent lol.

[Rays Pompadour]

Neither Monk nor Graham is the problem in Charlotte. The starting center had one rebound in 16 minutes and 4 points (with a =\- of -24), and the Hornets' usual, undersized starting center was 0 for 9 from three point range. The problem is not at the guard position.

[BigSlam]

...which is barely worse than Devontes percentages for the season...

I don’t know why you can’t discuss Monk without bringing up Graham.

Monk looking terrible and being criminally inconsistent and unreliable has nothing to do with Graham and everything to do with Monk.

I bring it up specifically with you and a couple other posters to point out the hypocrisy and double standard you have with these two players. You can't act like Monk is criminally inconsistent and unreliable if you don't think thats even more true for Devonte, which you obviously dont. The point I'm trying to make is that its pretty obvious some of you just don't like Monk for weird reasons that don't have anything to do with his play, or at the very least judge him by a different standard than other players on the team for some reason.

Again, Monk is shooting 41% from 3pt with a 58% TS%. Good luck making the argument thats criminally inconsistent lol.

That’s just not true.

I was the very first person on the board last year who said, while everyone was singing Graham’s praises and falling over themselves about him and wanting to sign him to a max contract, that I was worried that as far as his scoring was concerned if he wasn’t nailing 3’s he had nothing else because he lacked an in between game and couldn’t finish in the paint.

What I didn’t do every time I said that though was point out how much of a disaster Monk had also been - because the two things are in no way connected and I was taking about Graham so there was no need to bring up Monk. I can easily separate the two. Can you?

They are just not related - as much as you try again and again and again to connect them.

And there’s nothing weird about not liking Monk. I don’t like him when he plays bad - and he’s just happened to play bad for about 90% of his career so far.

Which is no one else’s fault, not Clifford’s, not JB’s not Graham’s, NO ONE ELSE’S fault but his.

As much as you try and suggest otherwise.

And your standard, and tried response to “Monk has been ****” is “well, yeah? Well, well, well....what about Graham?!?!?”

If Monk hadn’t been so terrible you wouldn’t have had to try and prop him up against someone else to try and distract people from Monk’s own terrible.

Oh yeah? Well, well, well what about Clifford? What about JB? What about the refs? They’re all against Monk as well!!!!!

Most amount of tin hat wearing since Mork and Mindy.

[Braggins]

I don’t know why you can’t discuss Monk without bringing up Graham.

Monk looking terrible and being criminally inconsistent and unreliable has nothing to do with Graham and everything to do with Monk.

I bring it up specifically with you and a couple other posters to point out the hypocrisy and double standard you have with these two players. You can't act like Monk is criminally inconsistent and unreliable if you don't think thats even more true for Devonte, which you obviously dont. The point I'm trying to make is that its pretty obvious some of you just don't like Monk for weird reasons that don't have anything to do with his play, or at the very least judge him by a different standard than other players on the team for some reason.

Again, Monk is shooting 41% from 3pt with a 58% TS%. Good luck making the argument thats criminally inconsistent lol.

That’s just not true.

I was the very first person on the board last year who said, while everyone was singing Graham’s praises and falling over themselves about him and wanting to sign him to a max contract, that I was worried that as far as his scoring was concerned if he wasn’t nailing 3’s he had nothing else because he lacked an in between game and couldn’t finish in the paint.

What I didn’t do every time I said that though was point out how much of a disaster Monk had also been - because the two things are in no way connected and I was taking about Graham so there was no need to bring up Monk. I can easily separate the two. Can you?

They are just not related - as much as you try again and again and again to connect them.

And there’s nothing weird about not liking Monk. I don’t like him when he plays bad - and he’s just happened to play bad for about 90% of his career so far.

Which is no one else’s fault, not Clifford’s, not JB’s not Graham’s, NO ONE ELSE’S fault but his.

As much as you try and suggest otherwise.

And your standard, and tried response to “Monk has been ****” is “well, yeah? Well, well, well....what about Graham?!?!?”

If Monk hadn’t been so terrible you wouldn’t have had to try and prop him up against someone else to try and distract people from Monk’s own terrible.

Oh yeah? Well, well, well what about Clifford? What about JB? What about the refs? They’re all against Monk as well!!!!!

Most amount of tin hat wearing since Mork and Mindy.

Monk has been pretty good this year lol. I haven't had to make any excuses for his play because his overall body of work hasn't been bad this season, so I have no idea how you interpret me occasionally saying he doesn't get much respect from the refs or that he should play a bit more as me making excuses for him supposedly sucking (and I never bring up Clifford, so no idea where that is coming from). Its weird that you and Ben apparently sit around waiting for every time Monk has a bad game so you can post about it and act like its a huge deal that he doesn't light it up literally every game. He hasn't even been THAT bad since returning from injury. Hes had one really bad game, one pretty good game, and a few mediocre games. Definitely hasn't been good by any stretch of the imagination (below average for sure), but he hasn't been the disaster you are making him out to be. He was 3/6 with 4 rebounds and 3 assists in only 18 minutes this specific game and looked fine and somehow your response was that he looks like a shell of himself...

Again, as much as you want to harp on every bad game he has and push a false narrative about wild inconsistency or whatever, the fact is that hes shooting 41% from 3pt with a 58% TS% this season. Your opinion on the matter doesn't reflect the reality of how hes played this year no matter how much you want to twist things and have a selective memory.

You are applying a bizarre standard to Monk that doesn't make any sense and doesn't get applied to literally anyone else on the team. Like I've repeatedly pointed out, Graham has been way more inconsistent and unreliable than Monk and yet you don't seem to post about him every time he has a bad shooting game like you do Monk, so the entire thing just rings extremely hollow and comes off has hater'ish. If you think Monk is just a degenerate coke head or something and don't like him, then just be honest about it and stop doing this silly "WiLdLy InCoNsIsTenT and CrImInAlLy UnReLiAbLe" shtick, or at least wait til the numbers actually reflect it.

I don't really have much else to say on the matter and the entire thing is getting extremely tiring, so I'll try to just stay out of it.

[yosemiteben]

I don't have a strong opinion in the Monk vs. Graham debate, other than to say I think we actually keep both but of the two Graham is the more likely to stay on the roster because his cap hold is so cheap.

I would love for Monk to have turned the corner and become a reliable contributor. I'm not really a believer yet, but I'm not a non-believer, I'm just on the fence. I do think he looks super rusty and that he's struggling to find his role after coming back from injury, but I don't fault him too much for that.

Hell, I'm still not sold that Rozier is actually the guy he's been this season.

I don't feel like I've been a Monk hater this season, but I do think when his shooting is off he's not really contributing as much as Graham (who statistically this season has pretty much always had his shooting off).

I do hope we roll the dice on Monk and keep him around, selfishly I'm hopeful that he's torpedoed his value and we can waive his cap hold and sign him long term for the room exception.

ETA: Flipped over to the Monk thread to read my takes to see if maybe I really am a hater and came across this:

I don't really buy the "he hasn't had a chance" narrative, not that it offends me or anything but I just don't agree with it. Monk lost me when he shot 28% from 3 last season while not really contributing anything else despite playing 21 MPG. He has more work to do to fully win me back and show me that he can produce without dominating the ball OR that he will be a consistent shooter. Extra points if he can do both.

I’m assigning you to team anti-Monk with Slam lol

Maybe I am a hater? I dunno. I'm not sold on him turning the corner, but I hope he has and I'm not looking to dump him.