soxfan2003 wrote:Many people got on K Walker in the game threads.. I don't think that is really fair.. Recently, he hasn't shot as well and he normally does but he is facing tougher defense and he is willing to take shots at end of quarters that usually hurt your FG%. And Walker is making mostly good decisions and playing reasonably hard on both ends. As a fan I feel that is all one can ask for.
Ainge's biggest weakness as gm is being too infatuated with weak defenders at PGs that are undersized like Iverson (reported tried to trade for him), IT, Kyrie Irving and now K Walker. On defense Walker is one to two levels up from IT since he is bigger but he still compromises the defense against elite competition for him to be worthy of a max/near max deal. Kyrie Irving isn't even that short but he plays more like a small PG.
These guards all work reasonably well during regular season. But usually they are bad investments at max money if you want to win a championship.
Some will counter and say Steph Curry is clearly a bargain at max money. Not only is he 6"3 and arguably greatest shooter in NBA history but Steph Curry is super strong so even Lebron James in the NBA Finals was reluctant to try to back him down.
Honestly, if fans are ever frustrated with K Walker in this series, blame Danny Ainge/maybe Stevens and not K Walker. If you are going to succeed with a small PG, against truly elite competition you usually need other players to make up for it. SAS won with Avery Johnson and even Tony Parker but they were usually a huge team elsewhere to make up for it and neither of those PGs made the max. Duncan after all often played PF. They even had lineups with Duncan at PF and Leonard at SF. Duncan/Robinson.
Toronto won with Lowry but he makes up for his relative lack of height with a lot of strength and savvy. And Toronto with Gasol/Siakam/Leonard had a big front court.
Rajon Rondo may have been skinny but he is super long and athletic so he hardly fit the mold of undersized PG. Rondo also taller.
This is all dead on. Kemba's offensive woes are problematic but the Heat were attacking, abusing and switching onto him on defense all night and that is probably a bigger issue. Was just going to say that for an organization that values defensivel versatility so much it's odd that we have run a never ending string of defensively weak and/or under-sized pg's under Brad. It's almost like thats the one position we sacrifice the D for O so if the O isn't there...kinda gotta have the balls to keep the guy on a short leash, which Brad doesn't.
Also, I don't think it was perfectly apparent that Smart was the full-time answer at PG at the time we extended him, but he has made it apparent since then.
