Rashad Mccants: my view

[collin_k41]

Mccants came into the league as the 14th pick of the 2005 NBA draft of the Minnesota Timberwolves. He was a 6’4” shooting guard that showed a lot of promise along with controversy. The first couple years we had Mccants KG and Casey were still around. I don't know if anyone remembers back that far but Mccants showed A LOT of promise. He was a far better defender than advertised, didn't take horrible shots, and made a lot of the ones he did take. Mccants had attitude questions coming out of college and they didn't seem to be a problem. As we all know KG was/is a crazy good leader and I give him credit for what Mccants accomplished early in his career. Once KG got traded and Mccants came back from his injury I think he felt like he was responsible to step up and be a good wing player for our struggling team instead of playing within his limits and letting the game come to him like he did when KG was here. All of the sudden whenever he touched the ball he jacked it up, took dumb chances on defense and ended up committing dumb fouls, and generally got this attitude that he had to be THE man and acted that way. There was nobody left to tell him that he was playing the game wrong and hurting the team. All of these things eventually developed into habit. By then it was too late. Now Mccants finds himself sitting at the end of the bench of a young team wondering what happened. I obviously realize that this isn’t the only reason for the demise of Shaddy, but I think it’s a major one. I don’t think there’s much hope left for Mccants. I think it would take a miracle. Or he could realize that he’s playing the game the wrong way, it’s HIS fault, and start over with some knowledgeable vets and a coach that believes in him. This isn’t going to happen in Minny and he will, almost certainly, be gone after this season. I hope he straightens everything out and succeeds even if it’s not with the Wolves. I don't know if you guys agree at all with this or can see it at all, please feel free to input.

[wolves_fan_82au]

actually im just waiting for mccants to start complaining
which he isnt ,what happened to that attitude he had ???

[jack612]

My view: sucks

[PeeDee]

My view: sucks

Don't be so hard on yourself.

[Kevin_Love_42]

I totaly agree with you.

[karch34]

I think KG and Casey did a good job of making him work and understand the importance of D. What I find hard to understand was after that initial education how he has regressed. I'm sure he probably pressed to be the man and that's an understandable struggle. Where he loses me is the complaining after every foul called on him. I think there's a point in a career where you have to figure it out and don't just do what you need to do when there's a KG or Casey type pushing you.

I wish him success, but I'll be very surprised if it happens for him here or on another team.

[theGreatRC]

It saddens me that a rookie who looked like he was improving with every game his rookie year, then got injured his second year, but made a full recovery, is now rotting on the bench which must be killing his confidence right now.

I can't blame Mchale for not giving him any PT, we have won 6 out of our last 7 games without him.

I wish him the best wherever he ends up.

[Mcfale313]

a blind man's view: even i heard about how much better the wolves played lately with McCants a full-time bench-warmer for the rotation players

his best potential-our next MadDog, so he better starts cheering up with the bench now

[collin_k41]

Where he loses me is the complaining after every foul called on him.

I think there's a point in a career where you have to figure it out and don't just do what you need to do when there's a KG or Casey type pushing you.

Ya I think the complaining was a combination of a couple things.
a. the attitude he's had all his life.
b. he was complaining because that was the only excuse there could be for his poor play. I mean surely it wasn't his fault(in his mind that is)

I agree 100% that he just needed to figure it out, but the fact is, he didn't and it pretty much cost him his career. At least it appears that way.

[mamba81]

People still trying to say McCants has an attitude? It's just his natural look and people assume he's pouting. When has he ever said anything public that pointed towards an attitude problem? He's one of the most liked guys in the locker room.

[TrentTuckerForever]

^I think most fans of this team think he has an on-court attitude, and that's the problem. Check out this recent interview:

http://slamonline.com/online/nba/2009/0 ... d-mccants/

McCants thinks he's entitled to play like an elite player (Wade, LeBron, Kobe) but hasn't proved he can even be a rotation player. That's the problem, and it's all about attitude. The fact that the Wolves are better (over the last ten games) with Brian freaking Cardinal playing 15 minutes per night instead of McCants tells you all you need to know.

[Devilzsidewalk]

pretty good interview. Don't agree with his comments and some of the readers' comments that he hasn't been given an opportunity, it'd be a slap in the face to guys like Ollie and Carney to get passed over for McCants when they've been putting up results in their minutes while McCants continues to struggle almost every time out. He's been given a chance, but he just doesn't do much besides shoot threes and drive. When his three isn't falling, hes a liability.

Ive been a big supporter of playing him when all the guards were struggling, but now Foye and Carney have locked in and Telfair is even picking up a little - just doesn't add up to be throwing McCants a bone right now. Trade him to Memphis, they need some depth behind Mayo.

[jade_hippo]

for what its worth, I think he could be able to supplant Miller with a little effort. Mike has been downright terrible shooting the ball, and compared to Miller he is a bargain financially. He's really the only guy on the team other than Miller who is a behind the arch shooter (although Foye/Gomes/Chearney are not too bad from downtown, they just aren't of that same skillset [even Cardinal isn't too bad of a 3pt i guess])

[skorff26]

for what its worth, I think he could be able to supplant Miller with a little effort. Mike has been downright terrible shooting the ball, and compared to Miller he is a bargain financially. He's really the only guy on the team other than Miller who is a behind the arch shooter (although Foye/Gomes/Chearney are not too bad from downtown, they just aren't of that same skillset [even Cardinal isn't too bad of a 3pt i guess])

But I'd much rather have miller out there since he is better defensively, miller actually passes (unlike mccants) and picks up quite a few assists, and miller rebounds some as well.

Look at Miller's line even from last night, 28 min., 5pts, but 8 reb, 6 ast, 2 blk

and on the year he is averaging 5.2 reb and 3.4 ast.

So, IMO I'd rather have miller who even if he isn't hitting shots can do something else and will do something else rather than putting mccants in and having him miss some shots and decide to shoot some more and miss them to and then not play defense and let the other team make a few easy buckets.

[collin_k41]

skorff you nailed it. Mccants can score when he's on, but he's a liability everywhere else. Miller doesn't shoot unless he's open, and is a really good rebounder and passer. He's a suspect defender but that's more than you can say about Mccants who seriously could care less about defense. Miller is kind of in a slump right now shooting wise but all great shooters go through slumps like this. There's only one thing you can do to cure it, shoot the ball. I'm not saying jack up 20 shots a game but I still think Miller needs to shoot near 10 shots per game and his shot will come back.

[Devilzsidewalk]

Miller's defense has been fine this year, I don't ever remember being disgusted with guys blowing by him. If he would start making it rain from the perimeter, we'd have a pretty lethal offense.