og15 wrote:Ranma wrote:MartinToVaught wrote:And if he had said "LeBron's definitely coming to the Clippers" and gotten the organization fined for tampering, you'd be criticizing him for that too. If he had just said "no comment," you'd be using it as an example of him refusing to recruit. It was a no-win question for Blake.
And as I've already previously pointed out to you, NBA players are at practically no risk of being charged with tampering or getting their team in trouble. And even if the team were fined for a player's comments, it'd be a relatively minor monetary penalty, which is a slap on the wrist that most any organization would happily pay for in order to help lure LeBron over. Look how the NBA is "punishing" Magic Johnson for his comments about Paul George and Giannis Antetokounmpo and Johnson is a personnel executive for the Lakers.I've always supported my opinions with facts.
Then why don't you cite 3 respectable NBA experts who support your opinion like I asked? Citing facts on particular moments or isolated series while ignoring the whole picture does not make for a convincing argument. Your convenient ignorance of matters isn't fooling anyone.
Alternative facts? Lol
Paul was not perfect, far from it, small players like him have limitations that either more size or teammates have to make up for, and since more size isn't happening since he isn't growing, so it's teammates. Still, he was clearly the teams best and most impactful player while he was here, you really have to try hard and twist things to argue otherwise. Even in the Spurs series where Griffin had a great statistical series, Paul was actually the one who led the scoring in 3/4 wins. In the games the Clippers won, it was Paul doing big work. You can check the numbers yourselves, he averaged like 27-28 ppg in the wins. It's interesting to note how well Houston has played late in games and how one game it's Paul, the next it is Harden, the next it is both. The presence of the other had made it easier for each of them down the stretch of games.
Blake has constantly made strides, but despite being the bigger and more assisted player he was still never able to truly dominate as a scorer. Blake differentiated himself from a guy like Amare with his playmaking, something Amare couldn't do, but he was never able to consistently score at a high level like Amare.
The idea by some was that Paul was holding him back, but this season with the Clippers and so far with Detroit, that's not really showing itself to be true. The reality is that injuries held him back, and his length limitation held him back on both ends. Then his shooting that progressed but didn't come to full fruition until his athleticism declined, thst didn't help. What about when it comes to leadership and being "the man"? Jerry West is the kind of person we love until he makes moves and says things that disagrees with us. West didn't see Blake as that top level star or as a leader. It was telling that West in the Playbook interview said that Blake deferred to Lou Williams' leadership on the court. Remember West is not a passive observer, and when we go back and think of the idea that Paul was holding Blake back, it changes the narrative. Life without Paul has shown that Blake just doesn't have that personality to take over leadership if there is anyone else there to do it. This team was primed for him to be the undisputed leader, but as we went into the season, it was Beverley, and it was Lou. That's why it always seemed like Paul and the rest of the team was almost trying to force and push Blake into the role, but he could never take a hold of it.
I discussed with people before that the Paul holding him back idea just didn't make much sense. Blake got so many touches and touched the ball every possession and the plays had options which meant that any time he wanted to shoot, drive, whatever he wanted to do, he could do it, but he wanted to go through the flow of the offense and be a ball mover. Don't get me wrong, it was good, the Clippers had a top offense, and realistically the team lost more because they didn't have the size, length and personell to defend at the highest level and were too dependent on offense, than Blake not scoring more, but Blake wasn't being held back from taking more of a role, he was just comfortable with his role.
He's still young enough where things could change, but any limitations of his can no longer be scapegoated unto Paul, and now, not even unto Doc.
Nailed it.
I was in belief that this is the year we saw Blake taking the reigns. Well, it just didn't happened after watching first 40-45 games of the season. That deferring to Lou Will thing was shocky to hear at first but it is what you see when you watched the games.
Blake is the only one responsible for his lack of leadership. Everybody bring it and leave it to his door he just didn't pick it from there. That's the only reason I'm in favor of move him, it was the right choice.
