I've watched a lot of basketball for a lot of years and I can't remember anything like the Shane Larkin phenomenon: A player who consistently doesn't get into the game until playing crucial minutes in the fourth quarter.
There have been plenty of garbage time players who only play in the fourth quarter of blowouts, but Larkin usually sits all game long until Stevens inexplicably sticks him into the lineup -- in a horrific combination with Smart and Rozier -- late in the third quarter or at the start of the fourth in a competitive game. Can anyone else remember a player who was used this way? For any team, at any level?
I've seen numerous players who only played a few minutes at the start of the game and the start of the second half, but nothing like Larkin's prime-time only usage. I know it worked in a couple of games, but lately it's been excruciating, and Larkin is actually shooting worse than even Smart: a slick 25 percent from the floor and from three.
Take away that glorious 16-point explosion against Charlotte and he's 1-for-18 over his last six games. Please make it stop.