Dwight shoots a high percentage of free throw during practice. I think it was 80%. So I guess short of filling the stadium with fans how is he supposed to practice for in game free throw shooting.
Mental fatigue and declining skills. I think Dwight and Josh (apart from not really having very high BBIQ to begin with) are getting bored/weary of the game. 10 years of playing and not winning big, physical skills regressing, getting tons of criticism, can be a rough patch in anyone's career. They are faced with the reality of re-inventing themselves. McHale is a good coach for that--being honest with them while encouraging them. He's like a sports psychologist. (Look at Ariza--never has McHale told him to stop shooting 3s even when he was slumping.) Didn't McHale tell Josh that he wants him to rediscover enjoyment of the game? For Dwight, it's finding energy from the fans. As long as they bring it in the game. So Dwight rebounds when McHale tells him we need you to rebound (Cavalier game). Josh is refraining from taking a lot of long twos, and actually cringes when he commits TOs. (I agree he may be nursing injuries; he's not moving fluidly on court. That last TO in the Knicks game before he was taken out, he couldn't twist his body to make a proper pass.)
What's most disappointing is it seems like DMO has picked up alot more from Hakeem in practice than Dwight ever will......
yeah despite the tanking by the knicks, the garden was PACKED and full of celebrities. thats the thing about us knicks fans, we remain loyal. it was a sell out and as loud as ever. this is why dolan does what he does - he knows he will always make money from new yorkers. i can remain loyal but i dont have to watch the garbage team. the only reason i went was my fiancee surprised me for my birthday. she knew i dont watch the knicks anymore and she also observed that ive been watching more of the rockets on the NBA league pass PS who is "OP"?
OP refers to your Original Post or the Original Poster of the thread(thread creator) depending on the context.
practice more until you reach 100%...go to other baketball events and practice during halftimes and pasuses between quarters...
I wish Dwight would cut a lot of that goofing around out. But that's his personality. Good post OP and welcome to the GARM
I scored a bag of Mary in Harlem a few years ago... high quality. :grin: Dwight plays around too much, but gotta respect the fact he balled hard in the playoffs.
The Garden will always fill up. There's like 15 million people competing for 20,000 seats. It's not loyalty, it's just numbers and entertainment. City people don't have much to do outside.
FWIW, you could look at almost every guy on every team during pregame and pull out things that show that they either are or are not taking things seriously enough. I am a season ticket holder, and I like getting to the games really early for warmups (and pop-a-shot of course), so I see them all doing their thing pretty often. Harden, for example, spends time before almost every game shooting half court shots. If we focus on just that then he clearly is not taking his preparation seriously. The whole team turns their layup lines into a dunk contest half the time. Does this mean that they aren't ready to play? I'm just saying that there are moments both positive and negative (based on outside perception) for all of these guys in their pregame routines. Dwight likes to goof around, but he does other things that demonstrate a more serious attitude. Don't forget of course that this was a Knicks game. The team threw the ball away a million times in the first quarter, watched NY bank a three in, and still were ahead by (IIRC) 7. No offense to OP, but this Knicks team is a total joke right now, so of course you would expect to see the team not taking things seriously. The Knicks aren't even taking themselves seriously right now.
I got to sit pretty close to the court at the wizards game and I observed the same thing pertaining to Dwight. He's a good player, but it kind of pissed me off to see him taking not just three pointers but three point hook shots for an extended period of time. Obviously he works on other parts of his game, and those shots are in alignment with his goofy personality, but I'd prefer to see one of the "leaders" of the team a little more dialed in
I agree with alot of criticism about Dwight, but most of you must be seriously unhealthy and out of shape to think Dwight's on decline cause he's 29.
Brewer looks like a starved and abused potential 7 footer growing up. His parents didn't feed/nurture him enough and he ended up a chicken legged 6'7 guy but I guess that serves another purpose. Great 3 pt shooter with great speed for steals, rebounding and playmaking.
Ive actually noticed this as well. I'm a big fan of international basketball and i follow most of the tournaments, euros, olympics and the WC. Every time coach K takes a young team and gets them to the gold, when they come back to the nba they take their game to another level. davis, curry, thompson, harden this year. Then if you can remember the first time durant and rose played for team USA they came back after the summer and absolutely dominated. Rose won his MVP after his summer with team USA. So yea playing for coach K is definitely beneficial.
Wow that's pretty surprising about Dwight, what a ****ing joke for a player. You can be a fun, positive guy who smiles a lot, but that is no excuse to have this weak ****ing lazy approach to the game. Watching the Hornets crushing the Knicks, how in the world did we only manage to put them away in the 3rd? Dwight's numbers were very unimpressive to say the least.. Good to hear about the others though! Good response from Harden
Could not disagree more. We are talking about professionals who are highly paid to play at their highest level every game. Fortunately, Harden's post-game interview completely debunked this notion that the team should not (or did not) take them or any team lightly.
Yes, Howard loves to shoot 3s in the shoot around, at home also. When he's in form he misses 2%. And he fools around a lot. Harden is always a class act, unless he's desperate. Then his self confidence goes down, and you have to put him out of the game for a while. But the worst was not the Rockets game, it was todays Nicks game against Charlotte . This would have been the landmark blowout, if the 4th wouldn't have happened. Tanking really sucks. And esp. the interviews.
I agree that no team should be taken lightly, and I also agree that you will almost never hear a team verbalize that they are taking it easy. But 82 games is a long season and these professionals know which nights they are able to dial it back a bit.
