Greg Stink wrote:Two reasons:
1) It's not worth the trouble to spoon-feed him, so we're not doing it anymore.
He still can't create anything off the bounce, which was foreseeable, and it's not worth running a 10-second play which takes another 10 seconds for our guys to arrange (when Jose gets accused of pounding) for an ok 2pt jump shooter who struggles to get separation or a rim-cut for a guy who doesn't know how to get calls or finish through contact if he manages to find it before it's too late. Demar's not getting calls is all on him.
And forget about changing personnel, we don't even have enough shooters or any stretch bigs to augment an ok post game which can be controlled by a bigger/smarter defender or nullified by a 2nd one because he gets stripped so easily and he can't pass. We had AB or were going tiny when he was putting up numbers, throwing out LOLK, Peaches, popping Amir, anything to space for him and it clearly wasn't worth it.
2) His awareness and off-ball work is still brutal.
As bad as it was as a rookie. How is he not opportunistic, at all? He never, ever catches his cover looking in the other direction and dives to the rim for a rebound or pass and he's left alone A LOT. Fields had done that more this season than Demar has in his entire career- Jose looks for that and feeds anybody alone underneath but Demar is dreaming, alone, outside. He gets nothing for himself without a play. He hasn't even improved his off-ball work when it IS his play. Defenders can tell it's his play because he's moving, and it's probably as easy to lock/trail Demar as it would be Aaron Gray. In his first season, it was, 'ok, he'll get it, then he'll be a dangerous off-ball player'. He hasn't gotten anything, and he's not.
In short, he's been working on the wrong things, trying to Kobefy his game, while he should have been perfecting his off-ball work and finishing. We all knew years ago that he was never going to be an iso player but he's the last to know.
Can't say I disagree with this. However......he can still be an iso player. Just not in the traditional sense of a SG. He'll get his iso attempts off post ups & if he can finally find that 3 point shot.....it may help in other areas.
I'm not going to turn my back on Demar. He (with the help of the coaching staff) just needs to get out of this funk. I think he's a player that will continue to get better year to year, but you won't see a substantial jump. Just slow & steady improvement.