Jay10 wrote:Kampuchea wrote:Don’t think they are clear examples of anything, particularly Knox who just seems aloof and isn’t going to excel under almost any circumstances. A coach isn’t going to change Knox’s drive.
Frank needs to stop injuring his groin every time there’s an opportunity for more PT.
It’s nice for guys like RJ to have Hanlen around, but RJ is going to be great because he has an insane work ethic.
RJ's work ethic would've been useless if Fizdale and Keith Smart got another year of destroying his shooting form.
One more season under Fizdale and RJ would've been shooting like Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.

Nature-Nurture argument again and again on this board.
It’s so easy for macho Internet tough guys and wannabe scouts to proclaim that so-and-so would have been a bust no matter what or that Donovan Mitchell or SGA would have been successful anywhere; but if the Darwinian tough guys read the actual book by Darwin I think they’d see that environment is every bit a determining factor in the expression of talent as the talent itself.
Anyway, to play my own devil’s advocate I’m not sure DSJ had the mental capacity to succeed anywhere in the league but that’s just my own biased opinion based on seeing him pop gum and launch one footed half court shots during layup lines after he came back from missing time for his step-mom’s death. As soon as I saw him do that, I thought, oh he’s totally done as an NBA player. Nobody can save him now.
I can see how fans would have the same opinion on Knox and Frank considering their timid and/or space cadet personalities. I choose to believe that an alternate universe exists where all 3 of them succeeded because each has/had world-class raw talent; but none seemed to find the coaches, executives, fans, teams, teammates, etc. to develop it.
And totally agree about RJ. For him to fail a team would really have to try as an organization to F up his development. Problem is the Dolan organization really DOES seem to try.
"Sell the team. Sell the team. Sell the team."