What happened to Gabe?

[ScoobyDoo]

I realise he had a couple of games where he played pretty badly but...

I thought one of the main reasons for our very strong 12 game surge was that Gabe was coming off the bench at the point. This allowed Eddie to play the off guard position and just run off picks and try to get open to score.

Eddie became, during that stretch, a key offensive score for our second unit which really helped the team dominate. He solved probably our bench's biggest problem which is they struggle massively to score consistently...

Gabe has a bad game, TAllen comes back, Eddie goes back to the point, and we once again look very awkward and inefficient on offense with the second unit.

I mean, I understand Gabe had a couple bad games, but he also did some very good things during the stretch as well, especially on defense.

The rela factor though was Eddie was allowed to paly the way he should...

Anyone else notice this?

 

[billysan]

Several long threads and a nice frontpage fanpost by Nickagneta discussing this at length. Definitely noticed and discussed at great length, I and a few others agree with your observation.

[Bankshot]

Gabe did allow Eddie to play off the ball and Eddie played well in that role, but Gabe himself hasn't played well enough to take minutes from Tony Allen.  Gabe has been unimpressive.

[ScoobyDoo]

Oh, missed the other thread.

Bankshot, I don't think TAllen or Gabe a re particulalry "impressive" either. Each has his strengths and weaknesses.

But the one thing Gabe did was allow Eddie to be an off guard and I thought that had a much bigger and better impact on the team, especially the second unit, than what Tony Allen brings.

Eddie was on fire during that stretch.

[Scalablob990]

I don't look at Gabe's offense much since I know he can hit the shot if he needs to. He impresses me ALOT on defense, the kid is a great defender. If I was Doc I would split TA's mins with Gabe's.

[Hoops]

With almost any team, defense is the thing that keeps young players off the court. NBA defensive schemes have become thoroughly complex. Being a great on-ball defender doesn't necessarily mean you're going to be an effective defender within the team's defensive scheme.

The only other major thing keeping a young guy from getting PT is if he plays the point and is turnover prone or doesn't understand the offense.

So, with Pruitt, I don't seem him having problems with TOs - he seems to handle ball pressure just fine. I don't think he's a master with running the offense, but he's probably not a liability in that department either. And while he appears to have the makings of a quality defender, I can only conclude that team defense is the biggest reason you don't see more of him on the court. But I haven't watched for it in great detail, to be honest. It's relatively easy to see when a big man doesn't rotate to meet a guy at the rim, but sometimes it's a little harder to spot missed defensive rotations on the perimeter, especially at the top of the key where the PG usually plays.

[Fafnir]

With almost any team, defense is the thing that keeps young players off the court. NBA defensive schemes have become thoroughly complex. Being a great on-ball defender doesn't necessarily mean you're going to be an effective defender within the team's defensive scheme.

The only other major thing keeping a young guy from getting PT is if he plays the point and is turnover prone or doesn't understand the offense.

Sadly the C's play a pretty simple scheme. But it requires a lot of effort and most Rookies struggle with adjust to the NBA. Especially if they aren't force fed minutes on a lottery team.