mkot wrote:cupcakesnake wrote:
The guy had 2 back surgeries in 3 years, missed an entire season, has yet to play anything close to a full season. It's wild to me that people are still talking about his mental health as the main thing.
I think when people say "mental" it doesn't necessary mean depression or soft, I do think he is mentally soft and also play soft which led to him not having the mental toughness to come back from his injuries, both physical and mental. Michael Porter Jr. had 3 back surgeries in 4 years, played 70+ games the past 2 seasons. KD played 60+ the past two seasons. So while injuries is the main reason why he wasn't able to stay on the court, his mental toughness and work ethics play a role too imo
KD and MPJ are tall shooters. Ben Simmons was a lot more reliant on his athletic advantages. Even with that in mind:
- KD missed a full season, then played 35, 55, and 47 games the next 3 seasons. It's cool that he's bounced back some, but it took time. He also completely stopped getting to the rim, and lives exclusively off his pull up game.
- MPJ missed a full season, and played only 9 games in another. He also lost most of his juice at the rim and became almost exclusively a movement shooter. He finally looked a little better this year, but then got hurt again in the playoffs.
"Mental softness" is such an overstated concept. It's a narrative we pin on guys, not an actual measurement of some kind of intangible quality.