Again, he was the weak link. Go back and look at the box scores and the game tape and tell me otherwise...
His deal is an overpay but that’s where we, and the market, are at present. In any light he’s an upgrade for us on the court.
Yeah, that was even worse than our overpay for Crowder and rivaled perhaps only by the contract the Hornets gave Heyward.
OK. 1. who in the hell is going to guard Giannis and be successful every play? 2. is that Ayton's man?
I'm looking at the box scores and Giannis was way below his numbers from the regular season. He averaged 29.5 points on 55% shooting with 5.5 assists in the regular season and averaged 22/5 on 50% in the Miami series. Seems to not support your argument too well does it?...
Except at least half of the time, Crowder was on Middleton, who played like a Hall of Famer in that series.
After letting it settle, I am really happy with this signing, as long as we keep Saric. We needed a 3-4 defender that can shoot. That's what Jae is. He is also a strong player, smart, experienced. He does look slow footed recently, but he has always looked that way. He found a way to be effective throughout the playoffs last year. We do not have a star and a backup at pf. We have two journeymen. At least we have players that can effectively man the position.
Middleton averaged 25 points, but shot only 41% from the field and 33% from 3. Both of those shooting numbers are well below his regular season average. Neither guy played particularly well (especially compared to how they played in the regular season) and somehow that is a knock on Crowder? Seems like a positive, not a negative to me. Also find it funny that now your basically saying "well okay he locked up Giannis, but he didn't lock up their whole team, just look"...
I think these are the key statements from your post. And his slow-footedness means he can't defend effectively, no matter how hard he tries, and unfortunately he can't shoot, either. He does bring strength, smarts and experience, but what we needed more than anything else were talent and athletic ability, and he brings neither to the table. What we have is a team full of smart, gritty hard working players who are going to be abused by more talented opponents (and there are a lot of them now). James Jones's roster construction is reminding me frighteningly of when Kevin Towers and Kirk Gibson overemphasized "grit" in constructing the Diamondbacks roster. We all know how that worked out...
He's an upgrade in terms of depth. But I would still make Cam the starter most nights. It's really sad this guy is the best we could do with our MLE. Pretty much shows Paul does not have much juice.
