THE J0KER wrote:Mickey8 wrote:team is playing horrible since Millsap is back into line up
Yes, but looking all these matches game by game you will realize that Millsap alone has nothing with this collapse. It is all coach Malone mistake which uses Millsap comeback as an excuse to destroy the offensive system which worked so well in February (including February of 2017).
If you want to see what it means a negative impact of an incompetent coach on a young player, just look at the Nikola Jokic and Gary Harris 4th quarter stats this season. We talked on this forum many times about all these embarrassing Jokic substitutes during the final quarter, or how Harris team role is suddenly downgraded (mostly in favor of Barton) once when the final quarter starts. And these young guys are not the robots, negative influence and damage to their self-confidence in 4th quarters are obvious, and thanks to coach Malone malicious strategy they are not the same players in a final quarter like they used to be in the rest of the match. You can see how they dropped in points compared to other quarters, how their shooting percentages go bad, and without freedom and under negative pressure, Jokic assists going down and turnovers rise notably.
Now in March, we have a case of the downgraded role of Jokic and Murray, and instant effect on their whole game production (not on just particular period) is obvious. In March Jokic is 22-11-9 (ts%68%), and Murray is 17-4-4 (ts%66%), but so far in March Jokic is 7-7-8 (ts%41%) and Murray is 10-2-3 (ts%51%). Should we blame players for this young core meltdown or coach Malone who initiate without any reason by unnecessary changes which have a sense only in his mind?
At the end Malone is the one who should be able to integrate Jokic and Millsap successfully , can he instruct Millsap to not hinder Jokic while he's running the team offense , does he has the guts to tell Millsap in the face that he's the Jokic's sidekick ??? I don't think so , he will cozy to Millsap on the expense of not making the play offs, he never learns on his mistakes, and there are plenty of evidence to support that claim .