When did he become one of those rare players that can nail that shot? He's one of the players I wished we had instead of Garuba.
Thibodeau gonna get fired and yet still 2/3rds of CF is pining for JVG. “Bring back JVG!” “Love JVG!” “Would be a great home run hire!” https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/...nforced-yet-again-in-blown-lead-against-nets/ Some things in today's NBA are nearly certain. Kyrie Irving's drama will threaten to derail a locker room. LeBron James will carry a team. Erik Spoelstra's Heat will play tough, focused, defensive-minded basketball. Steph Curry will hit a ton of 3s. Harden will want out. And Thibs, eventually, will take a promising start and grind it, and his players, down to dust. "He just can't help himself," said one league source who knows Thibodeau. "He can't change. He can't stop. It's just who he is." And that has consequences. He's stuck in a 1990s basketball paradigm in which minutes are things to be extracted from players rather than managed, and practices are physical and constant ordeals rather than low-key affairs that offer a shot at balancing out a long, already grueling season. One could imagine, almost, that if Thibodeau were the commissioner, he would push for back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-backs just for the sheer nonstop basketball of it, the consequences be damned. The Knicks trajectory under Thibodeau is not new. Early on, his teams improve, and play hard and show real promise. They did in Chicago -- a stretch of four largely successful seasons that still trended downward as the Thibodeau years bore down. Yes, Derrick Rose went from the youngest MVP in league history to an injury-diminished version of his former self. But Jimmy Butler was also on those teams, and still the Chicago Bulls -- good but not great -- often ran out of steam. Thibodeau moved on to the Minnesota Timberwolves, where they, too, shone in his second season as head coach. They went 47-35, made the playoffs and seemed to have turned a corner. But turning a corner has little value if you're so worn out and ground down you have nothing left once you do it. After another Thibodeau regression -- and another quickly-severed honeymoon period -- Thibs came to New York City. Things started very well. The Knicks played Thibodeau basketball, fighting for every loose ball, battling, being physical -- competing. Last season, Thibodeau's first in New York, the Knicks boasted the league's third-best defense. A lackluster offense notwithstanding, Julius Randle flourished and a playoff berth arrived with bated breath for Knicks fans sure they, too, had turned a corner. But the inevitable always arrives, especially for Thibodeau teams. This time it came in the form of a first-round loss in five games to the Atlanta Hawks. An exhausted Knicks team, without the offense needed for the playoffs or the energy to compete against a team that had one, were overmatched. In fact, since Thibodeau and Rose led the Bulls to the Eastern Conference finals in 2011, Thibodeau teams are 9-14 in the playoffs. Those teams have won just a single playoff series. The world -- the NBA -- has changed. Thibodeau has not. Players are not robots, nor gladiators, and this is not the 1980s. LeBron James -- and, beyond hoops, Tom Brady, Rafael Nadal, etc. -- understand an athlete's body has to be carefully managed and protected to maximize both excellence and longevity. That's a fact Thibodeau has never accepted, and a big part of the reasons the Knicks this season are an afterthought. … Yes, the Knicks woes go well beyond Thibodeau. But that doesn't change the fact that Thibs is -- likable and smart and dedicated as he happens to be -- possibly the most disastrous thing in sports: beyond change. He has not evolved. He has not learned. He has not taken his foot off the pedal. Typewriters must give way to computers, horse and buggies to cars, the old ways to the new. And Thibodeau -- stuck in the past -- has fallen into his own predictable pattern. The Knicks are bad, and their head coach does not have a plan or solution for anything other than full, futile steam ahead.
I can only think of two players: Steve Nash. He made a couple of all star teams before 30 with the Mavs but it was after 30 as a Sun where he became a HoFer. Kyle Lowry. Late 20s was when he started his ascension from solid complementary player to All-Star
If Lebron and the Lakers care about winning more championships while LeBron is still in town (every indication says they are) they should trade AD this offseason. There's no question that AD would be a top 5 player in this league if he stays on the floor but he's been unable to do that. That bubble season was a blessing in disguise for LA because that break during the season gave Davis plenty of time to rest and get healthy.
Not just elevation but Hakeem did play great beyond 30, especially in the Playoffs. But him and Shaq both declined after age 34.
