Observations from the Smoothie Center (Game Report)

[SameOldNudityDrew]

Pek sucked last night, but Mo with 13 and 8 and Martin with 34 efficient points. And LaVine and Wiggins drop 4 and 5 points respectively while adding little else. LaVine with 1 assist in his last two starts as our PG.

This is why I think we need to be careful about making generalizations about one group and another after a few games. Honestly, I think LaVine and Wiggins will be fine in the long run but it's going to be awhile for LaVine in particular, and our vets will be up and down. But picking one one group over the other at this point oversimplifies thing IMO. I'm all for the youth movement, but we also need some vets and shouldn't dismiss their contributions with a small sample size.

I think even though some guys are playing better than others, it's up and down for even the guys playing well, and more importantly, this team as a whole is playing like cr@p right now, and everybody is responsible for that, including vets, young guys, and Flip. We're quickly becoming the doormat for opposing offenses to wipe their feet on--again.

[SameOldNudityDrew]

Again, anybody who slammed the vets (Williams and Martin) in this thread and others a few days ago want to chime in here? 14 and 13 efficiently for Mo. 37 efficiently for Martin last night. They'll have off games for sure. That's the type of players they are. But trashing the vets after a few bad games is short sighted and games like last night offer the reminder of why. This team needs youth and vets both.

[Bayou Wolf [enjin:6635650]]

This team needs leadership from its vets, which was clearly not in evidence in New Orleans. Further, leadership is about more than production.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Again, anybody who slammed the vets (Williams and Martin) in this thread and others a few days ago want to chime in here? 14 and 13 efficiently for Mo. 37 efficiently for Martin last night. They'll have off games for sure. That's the type of players they are. But trashing the vets after a few bad games is short sighted and games like last night offer the reminder of why. This team needs youth and vets both.

I'll chime in, because I definitely ripped Martin in this thread...he deserved it. I generally won't rip a guy just because he had a bad night, but I will rip a guy when I feel he is coasting, and anybody that watched Martin in this game knew he was coasting. Jeez, Martin himself has said he has "gotten away with stuff" in the past. As I said in my post, after the first two offensive series in which he stood around rather than moving without the ball to get open (which he does as effectively as anybody in the game if he wants to), I knew we were going to get nothing from him on offense or defense. That is rippable, and many of us went after him for it.

Last night was different, and within five minutes of the opening tap I knew he had come to play. He loafed early on defense when he didn't even get his hands up to contest an easy Shumpert three, and I saw Mitchell get on him as he came down on offense...after that Shumpert didn't score the rest of the night. But it was offensively that he really shined...he was poetry in motion. His angles as he worked around screens to get open were perfect, and he also had an extraordinary night in creating his own shot. Shumpert and Hardaway had no chance against him. He was that good last night.

Martin's up and down performances are maddening, because they seem to me to be much more about his own drive than other factors. I get that Zach isn't a real NBA PG yet and that Martin prefers having Mo out there (Kevin made this crystal clear in his perhaps overly frank postgame comments, but that's no excuse for Kevin to loaf when Flip plays Zach at PG. He is the one player on this team who could be better than he is if he was just able to give a consistent effort every night. I still like Martin and have never had a problem with his contract (we're paying him a couple million less than we are paying Thad Young, and $5 million less than we are paying Pek) and I am going to continue to praise brilliant nights like he had against the Knicks. But I'm also going to continue to rip him on those inevitable nights when he decides to mail it in, especially because he is the only guy on the current roster who does this.

[Carlos Danger]

Again, anybody who slammed the vets (Williams and Martin) in this thread and others a few days ago want to chime in here? 14 and 13 efficiently for Mo. 37 efficiently for Martin last night. They'll have off games for sure. That's the type of players they are. But trashing the vets after a few bad games is short sighted and games like last night offer the reminder of why. This team needs youth and vets both.

Williams and Martin were ripped for their poor effort during a blow out loss. It's really that simple. Coaches want vet players on their team to lead when the chips are down - not quit. Both players have rebounded since that game - so good for them. Perhaps they were embarrassed after watching film of that game or Flip let them know it was unacceptable. If you were happy with their performances during that blow out - good for you. But many people including myself were not and commented accordingly. Their lack of effort was obvious to many who watched that blowout.

[Monster]

The body language I saw particularly from Martin in those bad games was more of frustration and befuddlment and getting down cause he couldn't get going and neither could the team. Its a different look than just giving up its when you have one of those gamnes when you just shake your head cause nothing goes right and yeah you want it to be over. Guys like Brewer will just keep playing no matter what and that's a heck of a quality to have. I don't care how you saw the way Martin and Williams acted they played bad and deserved being ripped just sharing the way I saw it. I ripped on Williams defense in particular after that Dallas game. It will be interesting to see what kind of fight the team puts up against the Spurs Friday. Parker might put up 40 on us if we can't defend the PG and the paint.