malpearl31
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What puzzles me (and I think a few others around here) is why there's so much negativity around Buddy and Joe whether we win or we lose / whether they play well or play poorly. After a game like last night's, when all three of Joe/Buddy/Kadary played well (and played together! - a lineup we really hadn't seen much of before) and we won by 26 - I'm just surprised at how many people are complaining. If you didn't watch the game, you'd think we lost by 15 and that Buddy and Joe combined to go 1-20 from the floor from reading some of these posts.I guess where we disagree is that I don't think Buddy warrants the amount of minutes he gets to "get hot". Again, if anything, JGIII has started to decrease his volume shooting and improve his D metrics, basically what we all were asking for and could be argued that he should start.
In fact, I have hard time seeing how Buddy should start and, plainly, I think if his name was John Doe, he wouldn't, or at least would have a much shorter leash.
To me, the players that have warranted starting/most minutes are: Q, AG (even tho he is auditioning for the NBA no doubt) and KR.
Buddy was shot-hunting in the 2H when the game was over. Something AG usually does if he doesn't get enough touches (or at least in his own head).
I don't know. To me, Buddy can get 30+ when he's on fire. But he has done nothing that warrants the offense to allow him to be the guy that shoots the most on this team. That's outrageous. Any other team/coach, there would be a lot more scrutiny on it.
So, yes, play the best players. Buddy is not one of our best players.
I can obviously speak only for myself - for the most part, I don't really care who plays and how many minutes each guy gets. When Joe sat for the final 19 minutes against Buffalo while Kadary played (and played really well), I was happy that we got the W. When Joe played the bulk of the minutes 2 games later against Georgetown (and played really well), I was thrilled that we beat the Hoyas. (I hate those guys.) When all 3 guys played together (and played really well) in the blowout win last night - I was on Cloud 9 watching the game and seeing us get back on track.
You may well be right - that if Buddy wasn't JB's son, his role on the team would be much different. But he is JB's son... and JB thinks that his offensive abilities outweigh his defensive shortcomings. We can complain all we want about that (some of us here are better at doing that than others) but none of us here can change that, and the reality is we're probably gonna see Buddy on the court for 30+ minutes more often than not through March 2022 (and maybe beyond). So I choose to hope that Buddy catches fire going forward, and helps us win a bunch of games.
And to be clear, I'm not calling you out for being critical or telling anybody who doesn't share my opinion to shut up. I think some of your posts in recent weeks have been great - I'm a big fan of advanced stats, and you've done a great job sharing some stuff recently that highlight Joe's and Buddy's offensive struggles. Keep it coming and Let's Go Orange!