I rejoin.
1) Does anyone remember the history of Mr Rivers? not discovering Gomes when Gomes was the all-time scoring leader at Prov College? I am not making an argument that Gomes is LeBron James. I argue that Rivers can't see what is front of him.
2) I am a proponent of the attrition theory of basketball. Six very hard
fouls by Big Baby vs Le Bron and LeBron's less likely to make that crazy scoop shot in quarter 4. Nobody believes Perkins is out there because he's a finesse player.
3) Is it better to run a substitute horse with fresh legs or run worn out or injured ones risking permanent injury? Out of breath vs fresh? Which? Out of breath hasn't a prayer. Need I repeat the ages of Garnett, R.Allen and Pierce?
4) See last..LeBron v Pierce. Pierce was pathetic...your NBA finals MVP
7 mos ago. Is he injured? He ain't gonna heal playing 35 minutes a game.
I saw three passes by Pierce that put him below D league. He's never been that tough. Check him out when they're not calling so many fouls. The foul calling in last year's finals was lop-sided. Many ,many many noticed. I digree.
5) Inexperienced guys? The draft represents the world at that moment entering the NBA. Ainge said Giddens, top 30 in the world (assesing OUR NEEDS). Put your mouth where your money is baby! These guys have been playing ball since they were babies!
Inexperienced?! Or is someone's system too complicated? A poor teacher? Auerbach was quoted," Get a forearm into his chest, your ass against his..and don't let him get the ball!" It was only good for 7 or so championships.
6) And Pruitt ought to be playing as well.
7) Different opponents have different strenghts. One can mix one's starters to match them.
8 ) Panic? Heck no, it's clearer than that. Either we find 2 helpful players somewhere or this team will be ground to paste. It's kind of sad because these players deserve better from management.
How are the starters playing too many minutes when Garnett, Pierce and Allen are playing 0.1, 0.8, and 0.7 minutes more per game than they did last year? Heck at this time last year all three were playing more minutes per game than they are right now through the same number of games. These three are actually playing less now than they did last year, not more.
Remember that in April of last year Doc played the big three somewhere about 4-5 minutes per game less than their season average for the entire month and gave them a couple days off. That lowered their season average to where it was which is only seconds less than they are currently playing.
I agree that they are tired but I don't think it has anything to do with the amount of minutes played I think it has to do with the frantic early season schedule the league gave them and the fact that they might have done a bit more celebrating than training in the off season which was two months shorter than they were used to.
As for Rivers' history with young players you have to coach completely differently when you are a coach who's main goal is to develop players than when you are a coach who has to win a world title. Yes Rivers sat Rondo and Gomes and it appeared to the layman's eyes that he just didn't have a handle on their talent level or preferred vets. Or it could have been as young pros the coach felt certain lessons needed to be learned and so he sat them for internal reasons that we will never know.
There's so much that happens in the day to day running of this club that we never know about and yet we all, myself included jump to conclusions based solely on who is playing and who isn't. But does it occur to those that criticize Doc's handling of young players that he knows what he is doing and that his exact handling of them while not on the court is the reason they eventually do succeed when they hit the court?
His track record for developing talent is extraordinary and that's in both organizations he's been with. Al Jefferson, Kendrick Perkins, Rajon Rondo, Ryan Gomes, Leon Powe, Ben Wallace, Pat Garrity, Matt Harpring, Mike Miller, Drew Gooden, and Tracy McGrady are all young players that Doc coached very early in their careers that have been become good to great NBA players. Early career development is essential for players to go from unproven to productive grizzled vet and has succeeded in doing just that for many a youngster.
It's for those reasons that I put my trust in his decision making as to who should and should not make it on the floor on a nightly basis. I think more of us should trust his judgment. He did assist in getting us a championship after all and he is going no place fast.
Topic: O'Bryant, Walker Giddens must play (Read 20745 times)