One thing I've learned is the position we use to describe a player is a loose tag at best in many cases. We need to not get so wrapped up in how a player fills the role we assign to them with a label and focus more on how the unit that's out there works. I'll use Green to illustrate. I was livid with him during the Heat game. The dude wasn't distributing the ball well. Since then, I've come to realize that while he's the guy that gets us across half court without a penalty, he's not the guy who's running the show. Rather, he makes a decision on whether to score or whether to give the ball to a 2 or 3, let's say. They then do something else. There were stretches with lots of passes going on, but none were classic assists. Lots of guys had to put it on the floor and do a little dance. Nevertheless, that unit performed. Maybe he's not as `pointy' as Chris, but he's doing what he needs to do, which is be 1/5 of a unit that doesn't consistently dig a 10 point hole. I've been guilty of wanting the second unit to just be a shadows of the first unit, but really it's probably better to have a unit with a distinct personality to help keep the bad guys on their toes, to help us dictate terms to them. Too many times last year we had pace dictated to us and rammed down out little insect gullets. I'm sick of that. Attacking a weaker version of our starters may have been a contributor to that. Living and dying by the 3 didn't help either. Willie, Monty, I'm sorry. All apologies. This doesn't make Willie a good `point' guard, mind you. He is a good `go do this specific thing with those other fellas' guard. Me asking him to do something he's not good at is a bad idea. Me designing a system to use the players I have for the foreseeable future is a good idea. And by me, I mean Monty. As for as Thornton goes, this dude went from LSU to the Hornets with CP3, to without, to with, to without, to a new coach . . . from the bench, to starting, to the bench . . . from score score score to `points don't count unless you get a stop'. The little dude's head and heart have to be screaming at the changes. He'll get right. Whether he'll stay with us remains to be seen, but he'll get right. I don't see him leaving unless it's as part of a deal that is a CP3-keeping-type move, as opposed to a I-wonder-how-Jason-Smith-is-doing-I-think-I'll-trade-for-him-and-see-type move.
CityBrow
In Demps We Trust