GrandTheftRondo wrote:Mr_Mojo_Risin wrote:GrandTheftRondo wrote:When Jimmy has single coverage he isn’t bricking layups, travelling, losing the ball, throwing dumb passes like Tatum has in this series and like he did all NBA finals.
Maybe you have amnesia. Andrew Wiggins made Tatum look like a scared little boy last finals. Andrew **** Wiggins.
No need to play the man. My memory is crystal clear.
JT rarely has single coverage, especially around the rim. He generally deals with a crowd the closer to the rim he gets including last year's finals with a fractured wrist at 24yo. He underachieved compared with what we expect of him but 21/7/7 in the finals with that attention, that young while injured is not my definition of a scared little boy.
What was Jimmy was doing at the same age?
Butler wasted years playing for poorly run organisations.
If you’re arguing time is on Tatums side I agree.
However, it’s still incredibly disappointing that Tatum and the team keep failing in the exact same manner. It’s especially maddening considering all the talk in the off season about redemption. If they were losing going down in a tough 7 game series against the Nuggets I could cop it.
It’s like there has been zero growth from this team.
You could argue we were a mess with Kyrie situation, several coaches in as many years, a change of GM with the new one taking over a bit of a mess of a roster but we still kept making playoff and conference final appearances. At some point should we credit the quality of players we have to do that despite the unrest in the background? Not to mention losing your coach just prior to the start of the year and several good assistants throughout the year and making the ECF anyway? Plenty of teams would have folded far earlier than this.
Even when older than 24 and being surrounded by the calibre of players he was at Philly, Jimmy still wasn't that guy, go and watch the series they lost against Toronto.
A great coach putting you in the best position to succeed with your strengths and age seem to matter a lot.
I get that we are all frustrated, I am too. JT has moments where you can see when he is angry and he just plays with a different level than he often does and you want him to bring that all the time. I'm not sure it's realistic, but even if it is history shows players don't bring their best consistency of high level play in their early to mid 20s. There must be a reason for that. Even without it there are too many basic and advanced metrics and team success that we have to support who JT has been even this young. Only time will tell but trying to keep perspective suggests we might be expecting too much from him right now.
It feels like we are failing in the same manner sometimes, but think back a year. Our offense lost us the finals, this year our defense has put us in this situation (and especially Joe IMO).
