Not my best night, I was referring to the guy who went last year, the workout warrior who got drafted early and stunk... It was not McRoberts at all. DD
The guys know it is the end of the season, the veterans are not going to give effort every night. They are just playing out the string, let the young guys play they will want to prove something. DD
He made a gamble. We didn't know how it was going to work out either until he started to play for us. I just pray the whole "agreement" that he should always start was just a one-year, see-how-it-goes, type of thing and not something we're going to be bound to next year as well.
You're absolutely right. Of course, you can't have the players say, "Hey, it's no big deal." And, of course, Adelman's going to say all the right things, too, such as, "It was very disappointing...we can't continue to play like that...etc." First of all, we know and he knows that it's really not that disappointing, but he can't say that. Second, I seriously doubt that they would play that bad when they're playing for actual stakes, with the occasional stinker game thrown in there. So the coaches and players can say all they want, but what is Coach going to do?? Bench them at the start of next season for playing poorly these last 6 games? No. They'll say all the right things, as they're supposed to do, and it will all be completely forgotten about next year. Props to them for going as far as they did. Western Conference Finals 2011 or Bust!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just you wait, next year:
RA critical about his starters in this game. Then why did he play them so many minutes? He already saw Kevin was rusty and Trevor was impatient. He should have played those who were ready to play. The game management is on him; he needs to own responsibility. Wins such as the one vs. Boston take so much out of the players, it is difficult to carry over to the next game.
Now that you mentioned Martin, does he do anything else besides shoot the ball? Martin mentioned that he intends to put up 11 lbs of muscle this summer. I would hope so because I think he will be asked to play some d too.
I am sorry, but a cerebral guy like Morey does not gamble +30M dollar contracts on a player. I think CD would do it, but not Morey. Morey ran Ariza's numbers through his computers and liked what he saw. That's Morey MO.
I guess he didn't take into account(or pay enough attention to) the difficulty that Ariza could have fitting in on a weaker team. He isn't that bad,but playing with Kobe obviously made him look better than what he is. DM is a good GM,but crunching numbers has it's limits.
He gets to the line quite easily which is somewhat surprising considering his average ballhandling skills.
I agree with all of that, and I could see how the ability to drawn and make (hi Ariza) free throws would be important in a tight playoff game. I just worry about Martin's defensive intensity. So far, it appears to be lacking. Overall, I am happy to have him on our team, but I would say C-Bud plays better defense than Martin now. ps. I disagree with DD's take on Ariza, but he is right about one thing: C-Bud is a stud in the making. Give the guy significant minutes, and C-Bud has shown he a real NBA baller.
