DetroitSho wrote:tmorgan wrote:Don’t get your point or your attitude, Sho. Either you think I’m stupid, which is insulting, or you are intentionally saying strange things to bait an argument, which is pointless.
I made my stance very clear. Disagreement is cool. Distorting what I’ve said is not.
I'm taking literally your own commentary and trying to make sense of things. You're painting this picture that we need to be bracing ourselves for this potential blow to our defense immediately upon Ivey's arrival. Not when things "get serious". But, to your own admission, he's no worse defensively than the guy he's replacing.
Your whole characterization of Ivey's defense is based on a situation (a bunch of other bad/disinterested defenders) and a primary role (POA defender) that doesn't exist anymore. You never allow for that context, which lends the thinking to this being some "designated whipping boy" type thing going on. For some reason Ivey is the one of our young guys that's least allowed to grow by posters on this board.
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OK, this is all reasonably stated.
The other side is…
You act like Ivey didn’t play for 2.4 years of games before his broken leg and subsequent issue now. He’s been allowed to grow. His defense did improve a little, but it was still bad, and not just in the POA role he sometimes (not always) filled. His screen navigation remains garbage, and he doesn’t seem to have any instincts on when to pressure and when to react. I have no idea what it’s like to be an athlete of Ivey’s stature, as I was strictly average at best, but it seems to me he’s only using his additional quickness and speed to make additional mistakes and overreactions.
As a shooter, he looked VERY good last year. As a finisher, not so much, which is again really weird given his tools. I’m curious to see how his additional strength (he looked much bigger in preseason) affects both his finishing and his shooting. As an offensive player, he’s definitely grown, but he probably still isn’t much of an initiator for anyone but himself. It will be interesting to see how that goes, too, when he gets another chance.
It would definitely be foolish to trade Jaden before he’s healthy, no debate there. His value, which had peaked in December, has now cratered. No one knows what he’s going to look like when he returns. He looked pretty bad in his preseason game, but we subsequently found out he was still dealing with a leg problem (the other one, if I recall correctly). I’m speaking more of down the line. If Duren keeps playing like this, 30 is a given, and it could be more. If we start to struggle when Ivey is back, there will be inevitable finger-pointing. He’s going to be under quite a bit of pressure, which is unfortunate. I’m sure JBB will do a great job preparing him, but it’ll be up to Ivey to show his worth.