Razzputin wrote:
Chuck and Leo are always acting like they are surprised when he
puts up good numbers. Well, I knew and I'm sure the majority of the board knew that, given the chance, Rasho would produce.
I want to support Sam and I think that continuity in coaching and management is important, but how the hell did he miss out on the fact that Rasho is, by far, our second best big?
chsh22 wrote:I don't really think he did. I think to a degree he was given a mandate to develop the rookie/future in Bargs, and so had to rely on him. Plus, Rasho wasn't playing at this level earlier in the year. He was pretty consistent on the glass, but he didn't get any scoring touches really.
You can't put it on the playing of Andrea that Sam didn't take advantage of what Rasho could offer. Here's my case:
1: AB started for the first 5 games with Rasho as the back up, after that Rasho started, until Christmas. During that time other bigs like Hump got minutes, Bosh played heavy minutes before getting injured, of which Rasho could have gotten some, also both bosh and Andrea missed time with Injury and it wasn't like Andrea was doing a great job of avoiding fouls and staying on the court, so there was lots of time for Rasho to play and be used if Sam saw fit, even with the idea that he was "mandated" to get Andrea minutes. Again, there's still the minutes Andrea's not on the court, which on average for the season is close to half of the game, the time Bosh is not on the court, minutes other bigs get, and the time that was missed due to injury, by both Bosh and Andrea.
2. Sam's realization: It wasn't until Bosh when out that Rasho really became "Awesome" becasue Rasho got a lot of looks and made the most of them. He could have been doing that all year long, but they never really looked to him until Bosh went out, except for TJ who often found him. Now they look to him more and he's been great. Why didn't we use him like that during the time he played prior? Obviously Sam didn't know it would work. Maybe Sam should have paid more attention and made more use of his skills while he was on the court, sooner, rather than take him for granted. You can't just say Sam either gives Andrea no minutes or plays Rasho, because he could have had a three big rotation of including bosh and Rasho and Bargs, as even Doug Smith lobbied for all season, all of which would be averaging double figures in scoring, which would have still satisfied any mandate to play and develop Andrea.
3. It's not like he couldn't have seen it coming. It was widely talked about, even recently in the papers, by MG, how well Rasho played at the world's. According to many observers he was playing some of, if not the best, basketball of his career at the time coming into the the season. Do you think Sam paid attention to how his guys played in that tournament over the summer? Seriously, do you? I anticipate if he was asked, some response about how it's totally different in the NBA and that someone must have been dropped on their head as a baby for even considering otherwise.
Sam, as fas as I could tell - up till bosh went out, ran plays for Bosh, Parker, TJ and Jos
That sneaky bastard!
