Never understood Brad's love affair with him I would start Pritchard, not losing that Cleveland game and ending up with Smart instead of Gordan set the franchise back, in hindsight they should of taken Randle
I would bet money Pritchard would get eaten alive as a starter.....
I remember some years back during our rebuild, when we had guys like Keeyon Dooling, Marquese Daniels and Mikael Pietrus starting, with Avery Bradley as our "#1 guy".
That team was outmatched on talent almost every time they stepped on the court, but you know what? I was kinda OK with it because no matter what I knew that every single night every one of those guys would go out there on the court and they would leave absolutely everything they had on the floor. And even though they would be outmatched on talent, they won games simply by playing as a team and just out-hustling every team they came up against, and I respected the crap out of that.
We might have glorious young talents like Brown and Tatum, but there hasn't been a single game ive seen this year (and not many last year) where I watched this team play and felt even the slightest semblance of pride that I felt when I watched those old teams full of scrubs go out there and compete every night.
So at this point I honestly don't care if Pritchard gets outplayed every night, and if every opponent scores 30 on him. If he goes out there and plays with maximum effort then I'll take it.
I'm sick and tired of watching these prissy, entitled Gen Z prima-donnas go out there acting like merely being present and putting on their jersey is enough to justify their multi million dollar paychecks...like hard work, sacrifice and dedication are merely 'inconveniences'.
Maybe it's time to find another team to cheer on then if you feel such disdain and disgust not only about our players but what you think they are as people too.
I don't know. I like Brown, Tatum, Horford, Timelord, Pritchard, Nesmith and Schroder. I sure as heck like them better as players like Bradley, Daniels, Puetrus and Fooling, that's for sure. I think they will turn things around and be a helluva team. And since I know none of them, I'm not going to make judgments of them as people.
I didn't say a thing about Horford, Timelord, Pritchard, Nesmith or Schroeder. I have no problem with any of those guys.
I don't have an issue with the talent level of Tatum or Brown either.
What I do have a problem with is that is seems very clear Tatum and Brown have allowed their egos to grow to the point where their personal egos seem to far exceed their contributions to the win column. They both play far too much hero ball, show far too little effort on the defensive end (despite demonstrating in the past that both are very capable defensively when they want to be) and both have shown seriously questionable energy / attitude when on the court.
Tatum at times has looked like he's just going through the motions, while Brown's energy has been so inconsistent that his own coach had to publicly call him out for it.
I wouldnt be so concerned about any of this if it was unique to this season - I'd assume that it will just work itself out. But we saw the same thing all of last year. Kemba, Danny and Brad were made the scapegoats for that, but Kemba and Danny are gone now, Brad is no longer coach, we swapped half the team out for pure energy guys, and still nothing at all has changed so far.
It's not that the team is losing, it's the way they have been losing. Routinely getting blown out by 15+ points bu bottom of the barrel lottery teams.
Building 20 points leads only to blow them and lose by 15. Take one look at the reactions from Horford and the coach and it's not hard to see that they feel the very same frustrations. They both seem to be wondering the same thing that I've been wondering for over a year now - why is effort (of all things) the thing that's in question here? This is the Celtics. It's a franchise that's built a historical reputation for being a team of toughness, hustle and resilience. What we're seeing lately - this is not Celtics basketball.
Again making assumptions about them as people. Saying their egos are affecting their play. You do not know them and in no interview I have even seen has either shown massive egos. You see a style of play and project your feeling upon them as people.
The Jays are now forced to carry this team offensively, like last year because there is no longer an IT, Kyrie, Hayward and healthy Kemba to help support them. It definitely affects the energy they have to expend on defense
And both guys have had Covid and the recovery affected their play. Ime mentioned Brown's inconsistency but knew he was working on his stamina due to Covid with the medical staff. That was idiotic by the new coach.
I could go on about recency bias but I won't. It's not worth it. You don't like the Jays and until they bring home a title, you probably never will.
Funny - you accuse me of making assumptions about their personalities, and then you go on to make assumptions about me having a bias and not liking them.
If you saw posts I've made over the past 1-2 years you would see that I have been defending these guys (especially Tatum) non-stop. I'm always standing up for them. I'm always saying "these guys are young, we need to give them time to learn how to become leaders". "We need to be patient". "They will learn in time".
The more I watch this team over this past year and a bit, the more I grow tired of constantly making excuses for the way these guys play. You can think of me what you want, I really don't care.
Both Tatum and Brown have demonstrated a clear lack of trust in their teammates, as demonstrated by the fact that they are constantly throwing up forced, contested shots when other guys have better shots available. They have demonstrated a clear lack of energy based on the frequent times we see them give up on defensive plays.
Al Horford specifically was quoted saying (about the Jays) that "they don't need to like each other, they just need to respect each other" - quote that strongly implies that these guys don't get along all that well.
We have a team that has consistently performed well below it's talent level this year and last, with Tatum, Brown and Smart being about the only 3 major pieces that have consistently been around in both cases.
I actually love Tatum and Brown - their talent and ability for their age group is phenomenal. Their raw potential is through the roof. But they both spend far to much time playing hero ball even after the coach has made it VERY clear that he's been pushing them to do less of that and to move the ball more and to emphasise making other guys better. I've seen no indication of them even TRYING to do that so far this season. Maybe that will change, and I hope it does...but the start I've seen so far doesn't fill me with a huge amount of confidence.
Much like the Simmons / Embiid situation in Philly there is only so long you can continue making excuses for a team that routinely performs below expectations. I think we are rapidly approaching the threshold of that with Tatum and Brown, and if they don't make it click within the next 10 games or so then I wouldn't be at all shocked if Brad starts actively listening to trade offers from opposing teams.
You may not like my evaluation, and that's fine. I hardly think I'm alone in it though.
Topic: Bench Smart / Marcus Calls Out The Jays (Read 34010 times)