Post#74 » by cl2117 » Thu Dec 30, 2021 12:56 pm
The issue I've got with Ime is less to do with his late game mistakes or rotations or anything like that. It's that I was expecting him, rightly or wrongly, to be some sort of Jay whisperer. Maybe I got the wrong end of the stick, but I thought he was heralded as a guy who wasn't going to get tuned out and was going to be able to break through to these guys where Brad simply wasn't able to.
Haven't seen that yet. Feels like deja vue with a lot of the mistakes we see from Jaylen/Jayson. And we obviously don't see everything, but I haven't seen anything that gives me hope that he's on the verge of being that guy.
The whole reason Brad was "needed" to be moved off the bench was that he was seemingly getting ignored as noise when it came to trying to get these guys to listen to the tough conversations. Great X's and O's, but not the leader they needed. This season it's feeling like we have neither.
Such a tough year to try to evaluate with all the COVID roster issues and things just not breaking our way in general, so I'm not going to entertain the idea of getting rid of Ime. That being said I also want to see some progress. I want to see Ime connect with these guys and see some change.
I'm just an arm chair basketball coach, but I don't understand why we don't see coaches go to extremes more often. Tell Smart I literally do not want you to shoot all, just pass the ball. Not forever, but just for a game or two so he can get the feel for what being a pure PG is like. Run sets with literally just Jayson/Jaylen playing a two-man game/high pick and roll and just run it 10 times in a row good or bad. Let these guys understand how they can benefit from the other one being on the court more than just drawing attention away. Set them the goal of having double digit assists for a game. **** the score just focus on getting guys involved. Have Timelord take some jumpers, let him feel what its like to not be so one-dimensional offensively. Try something new. What do you have to lose?
And on the other end of the spectrum hold these guys accountable in a Belichickian way. If Tatum/Brown are icing guys out, pull them off the court. Throw Nesmith/Langford in and sit next to the Jays and explain why they can't play that way. Don't let bad basketball stand, don't wait until things get worse to call them out. Hold these guys accountable even if it means playing Brodric Thomas and Bruno. Set some goals/standards and when they're not being met, have consequences. Make them earn their court time.
Sure our record will take a hit, but we're already losing more than we're winning. Who gives a **** if we let them play the wrong way and have a .500 record as opposed to forcing them to play the right way and having a .400 record. At least we're building towards something in the latter scenario.
UHar_Vinnie wrote:If you don't lean forward while hugging a dude, you are gonna have a wiener touching incident. You know this.
