To be the leader of this team not just in the regular season, but in the playoffs. To get his teammates involved. To make free throws when the game is on the line. To not turn the ball over in high pressure situations. To make the right decisions in big games.
Personally, I don?t. It feels like Marcus Smart all over again. I dont feel that way with JT or D-White. Didn?t feel that way with Jrue. I just don?t trust JB to lead this team to a championship.
I'm curious about this take because it's shared by a few people here. Is there anything you can point to statistically that caused you to arrive at this conclusion? Or is it just a gut feel?
I'm trying to understand if it's statistics, or his demeanor, or what it is about him that makes people feel this way. Human nature being what it is, we remember the bad things a player did more than the good things, which are quickly forgotten as we move to the next play. But a turnover in a bad moment? A missed free throw? Those stick in the memory.
I'm tempted to do a deep dive into JB's stats to see if there is data behind these things, and if so, how bad is really is. Was he the cause of us giving up a 3-1 lead? Or was it the folks who shot 50% from 3 in the 3 games we won and shot 25% in the games we lost?
I honestly don't know at this point. What I do know is he's constantly been criticized in this forum, especially when he signed his supermax, then at the start of the season when everyone expected us to be trash, then now in the playoffs. We all have our favorites, but he gets a lot more hate than others.