*cough*
I wonder how many still feel that way this morning?
I do.
I still feel he'd be at his best being the primary scorer off the bench with a player with a more well-rounded PG starting the game. sadly, we don't have that player on the roster.
I have to think you're just attempting to save face here. He single-handedly won our most important game of the season thus far last night.
You must mean "In the most ideal situation, IT would be the 6th man and leading scorer for the most ideal team in the NBA." Sure, he'd play that role in GS, for example, really well. But the fact of the matter is, there are very few guys in the world that can drop 44 on 16 shots against the best defense in the NBA. Especially while everyone else was playing horribly. Once he got going, everyone else followed suit.
I promise you the vast majority of posters would not be watching the games if IT was not on this team / starting. An important fact that also being missed here is that a glutton of greater scorers in this league either can't or choose not to play defense.
I'm not going to have a knee-jerk reaction to one great game (or poor games in the past) nor do I just look at his scoring when considering what he does on the court.
the guy is a gifted scorer, no question. His D is average at best and is mainly due to his size, not his effort. go back and watch the playoff games he played for us. smart opposing coaches picked on him when their team was on offense-->opposing PGs are able to just take him down low and go right over him. his passing is average at best. last night was a textbook example of his constant need/tendency to jump and pass as opposed to keeping his feet on the floor when passing. that's a flaw that I don't want in my starting PG.
in an ideal situation, we'd have 5 well-rounded starters that were better than solid on both sides of the ball. we don't have that unfortunately but just because we don't it doesn't mean we should 'settle' for someone who isn't providing us with everything we need. the league may have a number of players that can score and don't play D but for many of the players that fit that category, it's usually a case of effort being the reason, not necessarily their capability on D. I've never doubted IT's desire or effort on D but that should raise a concern that if he's giving a full effort on D and what we're seeing out there is his best, he's got no to little room for improvement. for me, I want someone that starts who isn't a defensive liability on the court no matter how much effort they play with. we do have PGs in Smart and Rozier who fit that skill set but the rest of their games aren't good enough to justify moving IT to the bench at this time (or even likely by the time IT's contract is up).
as for who watches the games, who cares? seriously. if someone doesn't want to watch the C's for whatever reason, who cares? I don't. I watch them regardless of whether they're good or bad.
Topic: I'm finally on board.. Thomas should come off the bench (Read 18529 times)