Q12543 wrote:Nice rant SJM, but you are off the mark pretty badly as Cam mentioned. Here are a few other rebuttals:
1. I find it funny that last season you were so quick to judge the rookie Robbie Hummel in spot minutes as someone not fit to play in this league, yet somehow Anthony Bennett - who has played about 400 more minutes than Robbie so far in his career - needs even more minutes for us to truly understand who he is as a player. Please help reconcile why you could judge Robbie with so few minutes on the court, yet with AB it's impossible for us to understand who he is without more minutes?
2. Psssst....Not sure if anyone told you this, but Bennett isn't a rookie.
3. Bennett's two five-man lineups that he has played the most minutes with are the following:
Bennett-Brewer-Wiggins-Dieng-Mo Williams (-23.8 points per 100 possessions)
Bennett-Budinger-Wiggins-Dieng-Mo Williams (-44.7 points per 100 possessions)
Young has played with those two four-man combinations as well. Let's see how that panned out:
Young-Brewer-Wiggins-Dieng-Mo Williams (-4.5 per 100 possessions)
Young-Budinger-Wiggins-Dieng-Mo Williams (-8.5 per 100 possessions)
That's a massive difference with only one variable changing - Young in place of Bennett.
And when you look across all the minutes and lineups played, Bennett is a -17.4 and Young is a -6.6. And keep in mind that Young played a very large stretch of minutes with two 19-year olds starting next to him in LaVine and Wiggins. Bennett was often coming off the bench paired with the more experienced Mo Williams.
4. As Cam mentioned, have you even watched when Bennett has posted up? He's simply not comfortable. He either kicks the ball out or takes a really tough fadeaway. Don't you think the coaches see this in practice? What will 5-10 more minutes per game do to help his post game? Was this even a strength of his in college?
5. There is more to defense than hard hedges on pick and rolls.
6A. Why is it around here that the only acceptable form of development is to play someone as many minutes as humanly possible? It's perfectly normal for young players to grow and develop as backups to more experienced players.
6B. In what other realm of learning and development is the theory of "give more to someone not qualified or who hasn't earned it" even valid? If I'm an entry level accountant, my boss isn't going to hand me the Citigroup account on Day 1. This applies to sports too. Yet we insist that the only way a Zach LaVine or Anthony Bennett will ever develop is if they get over this magical 20 minute per game threshhold that Kahns pulled out of thin air. Then, voila!, all our problems are solved and now we really know what we've got in these players, nevermind that the coaches watch them everyday in practice!
As I said in my prior post, I actually would be in favor of keeping AB and being patient with him, but man, that's a lot of money invested in someone that might take years to develop. I don't think playing him 20 MPG vs. his current 16 MPG is going to change the calculus on what we do about him moving forward.
1. Simply because Robbie will never weigh 245lbs. Can't increase his overhead reach. Won't increase his vertical jump by 6 inches. Robbie hustles his ass off, but that doesn't make up for his lack of athleticism, and most importantly Robbie is 4 years older which likely means we won't see significant improvement from him.
2. Did I say he was a rookie? He has only played slightly more than a season worth of games, and did miss one of the two training camps and summer leagues though.
3. So you judged Bennett over a 58 minute span. You do realize in that sample size the difference could have been the game we lost by 40 some points right?
edit: In reference to the playing with the less experience guys, Young played over 200 minutes more with Williams and Rubio as his PG, while Bennett played 54. Young played 179 minutes with Rubio, while Bennett played 13. Bennett was a +12 in 13 minutes with Rubio, Martin, Wiggins, and Pek, while Young was a +31 in 125 minutes. The only difference in those lineups is Bennett.
4. Many young players are uncomfortable, that is why you GET THEM MINUTES. He is shooting 70% within 3ft, and I'm guessing they aren't all dunks. Is kicking the ball out a negative somehow?
5. There is more to defense than hard hedges, but he seems to be the only big who understands how to guard them. WHy isn't our more experienced guy making any kind of effort at all? Why isn't Young gettting pulled when waves his hand as the defender rolls by to the hoop? What part of D is Thad good at?
6A. It isn't the only form, but the alternative isn't working. Why are we playing Young 30 plus minutes when he is a below average player. If it was Blake Griffin in front of Bennett I could understand it, but it is Thad freakin Young.
6B. You might want to bone up, because if your boss's other accountant is a complete fuck up half way through his career, you might be moving up. Once again, my argument isn't that Bennett is a good player (yet), but that the reason he isn't getting minute is because another lousy player is getting minutes he isn't earning either, and Bennett is the one that is more likely to be here down the road of the two.
I fail to see how a guy making 60 cents on the dollar compared to the guy in front of him, but has performed at a similar level overall is a problem. Take years to develop? How many years is it going to take Young to develop at 9 plus mil a year? Please tell me what we gain by playing Young 35 minutes a game or more.
Abe, why don't you go make some more shit up about how many FT's wiggins needs to start scoring the 4 or 5 more points that he is already posting. Or tell me again how he would be an anomaly if he could do exactly what he has been doing for the last month and a half.