It's always "..but..bb.but Jason Kidd!" when someone bring ups Rubio. Tired of hearing that crap. He gets a pass because a Hall of Famer in Jason Kidd existed.
I wouldn't call pekovic and love soft. Even barea is not soft. So who are these soft white players you are talking about. Martin is soft and he is not white. Being soft is not a race thing.
Love is not a superstar, he is the ultimate stat stuffer, he's a better Chris bosh, nothing more. A team will never win anything with him as the main guy. He also doesn't play much defense along with Kevin Martin who plays even less defense and is the softest playeronnthe planet. Peso if is underrated defensively however. He isn't a shot blocker but he is crazy strong and a pretty decent man defender. Definitely not a negative, just not an anchor
Most of you have not even watch the Wolves play, Love is the only reason they have this many wins. The rest of the team is trash. Pek is actually boss on Offense, but his D is garbage. Rubio regressed...alot and Kmart started hot but has been a downer lately. They have a non-existent bench until Bud comes back. Love is doing everything he can, but the rest of the team is a mirror image of the Milwaukee Bucks
Actually, the team's current rotation has only two white players: Kevin Love and Robbie Hummel. Of the other guys, Brewer, Martin and Cunningham are black. Mbah A Mute is African. Pekovic, Shved and Rubio are Euros. Barea is Puerto Rican.
Euros aren't white? Isn't Europe where most whites come from? And, fairly or not, white Euros are kind of blamed for bringing the soft, flopping game to the US (eg, Divac, the Gasols, Dirk, etc). Probably comes from soccer er football.
Euros are typically more skilled and more floppy than whites. Whites, as typified by Kirk Hinrich and Nick Collison, mostly rely on their grit and high motor and making the most out of the least.
So which white players are soft for the wolves. You cannot be talking about pekovic. There is a difference imho between flopping and being soft. At this moment cp3 is one of the worst flopper much worse than any european player.
I hate when people hate on soccer players for faking injuries. Like imagine if the NBA had 45 minute halfs, could you imagine how much Harden would fake injuries to get some rest. Sorry thats the end of my tangent.
Love is soft. He intimidates no one and is one of the weakest defending forwards in the league. Rubio looks like he's about 15 and has that floppy Euro look. Same with Shved. Barea is an annoying little gnat and a well known flopper himself. Their whole team is full of wimpy white dudes. And Harden is a much worse flopper than CP3. He flops every single time he drives to the basket. So let's not go there.
Ok apparently we have very different definitions of being soft. For me a soft player is a player who avoids contact, and does not play physically. You and WNBA said white players are soft. Love: Bad defender Yes, but not soft. Rubio: what does how he looks have to do with whether he is soft or not? Shved: the same what does his looks have to do with how soft he plays? Barea: Yes he is a annoying little gnat, yes he is not physically imposing, but he does not play soft. Again flopping for me is something different than playing soft. Also i was not saying Paul flops more than Harden, that is a different discussion. I agree that Hardens flops a lot, but since I was arguing that there are many non-white players who flop that does not disprove my point. I dislike the flopping Harden en Paul do. Apparently you believe how a player looks determines if they are soft players. A player apparently has to look scary in order to be non-soft. That is one of the strangest (basketball related) argument I have heard on this board.
When I think "soft", it mostly just comes down to perception (how a player looks) and, fair or not, white Euro guys generally look a lot less intimidating than their peers. I mean, basketball is essentially a non-contact sport so it's not like there is a huge tangible difference between a "soft" player and a "hard" one. Every once in a while you'll get a guy like Karl Malone who comes around and beats everyone up, but he's the exception rather than the norm. I mean, Bledsoe & Dragic have very similar aggressive, driving styles but I'm sure the perception is that Dragic is "softer" because he looks like a choir boy. And Harden probably is perceived as tougher than he is because he looks like a homeless guy, when in truth he's very cerebral and exploits the rules more than anyone in the league. So basically because Minny has a bunch of white guys, they seem soft.
A helpful color refence for the light skinned NBA player: Euro: George Muresan, Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol, Darko Milicic (The Human Victory Cigar) Asian: Lin, Yao, and the guy who was supposed to the 'next Yao' drafted by the Nets (yeah, how did that work out?) Canadian: Steve Nash White: Chandlar Parson, Jerry West (The Logo), Bill Walton, Pistol Pete... Look I am just trying to put the greatest white player in with Parsons Alien: Chris Anderson, Scot Pollard (one 't' in scott, total alien thing to do) Clear: Larry Bird (Space Jam refence, *takes a bow*) Hope this helps
Fair enough, if that is how you define the word soft I cannot argue with you. I have another definition of the word softI do disagree that the wolves are losing because they do not lok intimidating enough. IMHO they are a flawed team who do not use their strengths correctly. If you make a distinction between White American players (like Love) and Euro players (like Nowitzki) than you have to make the same distinction between Yao and Jeremy Lin.
The Wolves are not soft. That is what your eye test tells you. They allow 0.89 PPP on defense and score 0.91 PPP on offense. Both are 17th best in the league marks. The Wolves are just an average team stuck in the beastly WC. Pretty much end of story.
Some of you guys are just ridiculous. Wolves are playing bad? Let's blame it on the guy who's averaging 25/14/4. Have you even watched a Wolves game this season? Their problem is their bench. It's actually pretty simple. They are 28th in the NBA in bench scoring. Barea and Cunningham as your first two options off the bench is just not good enough.
