Skybox wrote:Xatticus wrote:What Cole did has been a tech forever. They will let you hang on the rim if there is someone or something (the ball) in the vicinity. They will let you do a half pull-up to stop your momentum. If Cole left it there, he would've been fine. What he did has always been a tech.
Fantastic play by Cole...absolutely stupid to give that one extra yank that makes it a guaranteed T....we all saw it happen in real time, he had to know better. Everybody watching knew "Tech" immediately - he did too. Fine line between spectacular game changing momentum play and poor judgement in a competitive game...I'm pumped for him to go off in the dunk contest, but that tech was just more of what makes people question his maturity.
It was one of two moments of weakness, the other being where he fought Wendell for a rebound, but overall he's showing good signs of progress.
Earlier in the season, people were questioning how easy it would be for him to relinquish control of the offense down the line, but he's already pretty happy to whip the ball to Franz and run to the corner. He also doesn't seem to mind when Suggs runs the point while they share the floor. It's just the eye test but he seems to hold onto the ball less now and he's already limiting long threes at inopportune times, although it's only been about 2 games since he was criticized for that.
FURTHERMORE, it's been a while since he had a game with heaps of defensive breakdowns. They're not gone but there are fewer of them and sometimes I find myself impressed with how well he slides his feet. There's a lot going on here but this game was good for him due to mostly covering a rookie and some good luck, but overall there is progress on D compared to earlier in the season.
Basically, I think he's playing smarter now. This is like Okeke, who was doing a lot right but his shot wasn't falling. Once Okeke made some buckets it became easier to appreciate the rest of his game. If Cole keeps up playing a more mature game, he'll have games where his shot falls and we go "Yeah, that's quite good". This game was almost there.
