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I got a chip on my shoulder. I mean, every team in the NBA said no to me – especially this team. I mean, I couldn’t even get a training-camp invite. The Clippers thought it was a good idea. Doc said no. I tried to get a workout, then Doc said no.

- Hassan Whiteside

How do teams find the right balance between going with vets vs. giving young prospects a chance?

It's still ludicrous to me that 29 teams refused to give Hassan a chance after maturing, both physically and mentally, after his first stint with the NBA. He has one of the longest wingspans in draft combine history, yet teams still went with old vets that had nothing to give.

Same thing with Perkins last year, where Scott Brooks refused to play Adams even though Perkins was one of the worst players in the league. Adams did everything that Perkins was once known for better, but he it took until this year for Adams to start seeing real minutes.

Another example is James Young, where Brad Stevens said multiple times that the wings (Thornton, Turner, etc. ) are too deep in order to give Young minutes on a terrible team. Same thing with Smart, when he can't get consistent minutes because we have to keep our beautiful, future-impacting veteran like Evan Turner his chance for 20-5-5.

Should young players really have to wait until multiple injuries happen in order to even get a few minutes thrown their way? And why are teams so reluctant to even give young players a chance -- especially bad teams? What is there to lose?

The contributions that old, washed-up vets can give are so marginal compared to what young prospects with undetermined ceilings can give. Isn't it worth a gamble to play young players, especially on bad teams, even when considering the chance that the young player won't pan out?

Sorry, had to get this off my chest. Sick of seeing bad "veterans" get playing time/opportunities over young players.

I agree, Spo is a master at this art, pretty sure Pat put some sense into him to finally change (a bit) anyway.

Isn't uncommon though.

I think you're exaggerating.

NBA is a league where you play as soon as you get drafted for the most part.

Baseball and specifically the MLB is a sport where young players for all intents and purposes "don't geta a chance" until the veteran fails.

The NBA not so much.

The Sixers can't find all of them.

Stuff like this is more about teams under evaluating a individual then not giving a player a shot because his chronological age over a veteran.

In baseball a superior, younger talent might stay a year extra in he minors because according to an organization he needs "more seasoning" while they run out a less talented veteran everyday.

Basketball not so much.

In before the raptors fans bring up Jonas Valanciunas

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It's always been like this. I used to be a gym rat and played against quite a few nba and college players. Once in awhile a guy who played in Europe would show up who was just as good as the pros, but couldn't sniff the league.

This is one thing I used to love about Don Nelson. He would constantly be swooping Mario Eli type guys from the CBA or Europe.

I think a lot of NBA guys like Doc are just super conservative and go by reputation. They are just too cronyistic to give new guys a chance. This is why smart teams like the Spurs clean up.

Blame casey

Because the team needs to get a good sense of which elder wolf the pup would be replacing. Too much alpha/beta male tension and it will cause problems.

In terms of spots 11-15 on the roster, I don't really understand why big men in particular don't have more value. I know we went through that phase in the '90s and early 2000s where 7-footers would get roster spots and hefty contract just by virtue of their size, but I'd think that there'd be more upside in having someone like a Whiteside or a Patric Young on the end of the bench than some random dime-a-dozen wing or guard.

yeah but Doc Rivers is making amends by giving Austin Rivers a chance /green

besides, no room for Whiteside on the Clippers becuse they needed to make space for Turkoglu who is a vet and obviously better

The truth of the matter is that 90% of young players don't really deserve a chance. For every Hassan Whitesite, there's about 20 Craig Brackins'.

Rivers is obviously a champion of finding the oldest washed up vets to round out his rotation, I mean how can a guy like Big Baby get consistent rotation minutes when Whiteside couldn't even get a camp invite?

He wasn't good at one point.
He's ok now.
It's a league that makes 30 old. There is nothing but young players on teams.

When it comes to execution, decision making, and just knowing what to do, veterans will always have this over young players. Coaches prefer planning for things they can predict, and it's easier to rely on a veteran's poise and steadiness over a young player's unharnessed and raw talent.

Most coaches aren't really willing to put unproven young guys on the court "just to see what happens". It's probably easier for us at home to look at/evaluate young talent and want to play them real minutes in games. As a coach I can imagine rookies, international players and undrafted guys need lots of work before they are "ready to play" during real games.

There's a balance that you need to strike with getting young guys PT and not messing with your chances of winning games. I mean realistically the more real playing time a player gets the faster he will be ready to contribute when the times comes. But rookies and players new to the NBA often make costly mistakes/unforced errors when given chunks of playing time, due to unfamiliarity with the speed/style of NBA play and possibly even with professional basketball in general. Unless you're going through a rebuild from the bottom up and can "do as the 76ers do", as a coach you're not going to commit to losing close games by playing unseasoned, unproven rooks.

Another problem is that the vets have the experience and understanding of the game (how plays are run, when to foul, their role in a system) that the rookies don't have. If you're coaching a team you want a well-oiled engine running. It's hard to do that when your bigs can't stop fouling and your guards make errant passes to the refs/out of bounds.

There are other things to consider as well. If you're a coach you always have to plan against getting fired because your style of coaching and distribution of minutes is unconventional (and often easily misunderstood). Also there are players who look GREAT during practice/shoot around that suck as soon as they're given real PT. I'm thinking Austin "Durant-Lite" Daye here.

If I were coach I'd probably be willing to be more experimental with rosters and PT than most as well.

But, there will always be players who slip through the cracks and don't get a fair shot of playing-- the Ben Wallaces and Wesley Matthews of the bball world. Coaches and scouts alike invest in the wrong guys, and hold back the right guys all the time. I think it's easier for us to sit at home and armchair coach, and want to give guys we like (Russ Smith hell yeah) lots of PT. Another problem with wanting to give guys you believe in bigger roles in real games... is that you might be putting your eggs into the wrong basket. For example.. Byron Scott's basketball love affair with Ronnie Price. Finding that diamond in the rough is especially hard when many players have a shine that catches your particular eye.

Also Memphis technically gave Whiteside a chance too. For whatever reason he didn't impress them.

I say this a lot, but we had Whiteside on our Summer League team and he looked seriously hopeless. He was lost, he was jumping at everything and fouling everyone, and didn't give us any indication that he was capable of being a future rotation player in the league. I can't believe this is the same player from 4 months ago.

This isn't about teams failing to discover Whiteside, but Whiteside needing to figure out whatever problems he had going on between the ears. He had confidence issues, he was nervous, and he dealt with them. And now he's finally realizing his potential.

DusterBuster wrote:The truth of the matter is that 90% of young players don't really deserve a chance. For every Hassan Whitesite, there's about 20 Craig Brackins'.

Well in the same token, you have had alot of teams that keep giving young player chances over his career far more than they need to. Looks at Tyrus Thomas, Magic Randolph, Micheal Beasley over their careers.

Most of it comes down to kids entering the draft when they just aren't ready or developed to play at that level. Usually lacking basic fundamentals and drafted entirely because they could dominate on athleticism alone... When you join the NBA and all of a sudden everyone is athletic or has strong fundamentals (or both) then most flame out. Whiteside was beyond sushi raw when he was drafted.