Paydro70 wrote:I'm not going to ignore you, because there aren't that many posters around here anyway, and you say interesting things sometimes. I'm not trying to make you my enemy or whatever, I just think that you go to "He doesn't belong in the NBA!" or "We gotta get Okafor out of here!" WAY too quickly, and you've flip-flopped on players several times within the context of the season. I would expect that to encourage you to tone it down, but apparently "accountability" means you have to threaten players who will never read your posts with trades after every bad game.
However, all of that was based on my previous assumption, which was that you were just saying stuff like "Carroll doesn't belong in the NBA," that we should play Ryan Hollins over Okafor, and that we should trade Okafor for Sean Williams, to get a reaction, not because you actually believed it. That's why I said it was hard to take it seriously...
Anyway, a stroll down memory lane:
"Matt Carroll is outplaying J-Brick so far for half the money and he didn't cost us a first round pick. Carroll at least hustles on both ends of the floor while J-Brick is a human turnstile on defense... Bottom line is this guy is killing us and if he doesn't step up his play soon, I want him gone. Looks like we got hosed in this deal!!"
And you're welcome to disagree with me. But like I said, I believe in everything I write.
First lets start off with JRich. At the start of the season I had no loyalty to JRich. He started off the season very inconsistent. I appreciate defense and since that was a strong suit of ours last season, I thought he was out of place if he wasn't going to at least do the things that made him attractive to us in a trade. And that was good shooting and a scorer down the stretch of games. Like I said, if he doesn't step up his play soon, I want him gone. He stepped up his play and has won me over. I've even cut him a TON of slack when he has a bad defensive game or shoots us out of one like he did against Cleveland.
Matt Carroll has been a horror show this season up until tonight. I think we can both agree on that, right? Things change, this is the NBA and when some players sign big contracts they tend to relax and don't do the things that made them get that deal in the first place. Or some try to do too much trying to justify the contract. So far I don't know what Carroll's deal is, all I know is that he's been terrible. What compounds his bad play is not having someone else to come off the bench to spell Crash and JRich.
Okafor, despite what people say, Mek didn't always bring it every game last season too. There were many nights where he mailed it in. Except last season we were much better as a team defensively which kind of hid Mek's bad days and helped him to skate by.
This season the expectations were higher and that means Mek's play needs to be on a higher level. Instead, he's been wildly inconsistent, doesn't even bring the same intense effort on defense which he showed at times last season, and looks like he regressed on offense. The aggressive play is simply not there every night. I can understand missed shots, or getting outplayed, but what I cannot understand is why Mek doesn't bring A plus effort into every game.
Even our coach finally did something about Mek's lack of intensity by benching him in Cleveland and in Boston where he sat during the 4th quarters. That has seemed to wake Mek up and he's played inspired energetic full on effort basketball the past 2 games. Where has this type of EFFORT been all year? In order to win, you need players who bring it every game, not once every 3 games.
We're trying to develop players who can one day play on a championship level, not a just happy to squeak into the playoffs level. So when I criticize the players, I'm looking into the future and thinking how each individual player would react and what they would in a game 7 of the NBA finals. Is Mek going to bring A plus effort? Is JRich going to be able to hit clutch shots down the stretch of games? Is Felton a leader who can play at a high level and direct this team like a Chauncey Billups? Is Matt Carroll that role player who always comes off the bench in the playoffs to sink the other team? This what I look at when I judge players. Otherwise, whats the point of building a team if we're not willing to go all the way?
