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Message: [QUOTE="billsin01, post: 5434999, member: 837"] I wanted to respond to the original post ... even though I'm very late here. I always appreciate people willing to defend players under any circumstance because I think we, as fans/fanatics, often have outsized expectations and then hold it against the Scoop Jardines (or fill in any other player who isn't Carmelo) of the world when they don't turn into Chris Paul or something. But, I'll also quibble with the post a bit because I would say the truth of JJ lies somewhere between the criticism and your defense of his play. In terms of defending JJ, I'll grant a few things: [LIST] [*]This hasn't been a great coaching situation, nor a great roster situation. I'd extend this to everyone who's been here the past two years. I don't think it was wise to invest that much in Lampkin, but he played pretty hard and wasn't in a great situation. Same for Jaquan Carlos -- he really struggled, for sure, but we were asking of ton of him. Judah -- I know people didn't like certain aspects of his game -- but the same holds true for him. It's tough to parse out what we're trying to do on either end of the floor in terms of a system. That's not a great spot for any player. [*]The kid plays hard and seems like a good kid, at least from the outside. The first part is incredibly important, the latter point is often overlooked but counts, IMO. [*]He has really nice athleticism and he does have an ability to get hot in bursts and be a really effective scorer -- his game against Carolina in Year 1 was outstanding. He's had plenty of others like it and that is a skill. [/LIST] But, the issue I always seem to come back to with JJ is this -- does he do enough stuff to help you win games? You point out in the post that he improved on defense but even if we call him a net zero defender by the numbers, it's clearly not a strength. He improved his assist numbers but 2.8 apg in 35 mpg with a 30% usage rate is not particularly impressive. He generates very little in terms of opportunities for teammates offensively. His shooting from deep is under 30 for his college career -- and we're talking about a pretty large sample (365 attempts). It's not that he's necessarily as bad as he looked at times last year (<27%) but his career 68% from the line doesn't give me at on of hope that he's going to come back as a 35% shooter from three this year. His rebounding is solid and he hustles for loose balls on that end, but it's not like we're talking MCW-level, difference-making rebounding from a guard here. At the end of the day, to me JJ does some nice things and he can absolutely get hot and carry your offense for a half or a game or, to be honest, a few games in a row. He has that ability. But it's those stretches where he's struggling to score efficiently that I think can really be difficult to overcome because he just doesn't do a lot outside of put the ball in the basket. Just one man's opinion at the end of the day. Hope he goes out and proves me wrong -- I'm rooting for the kid. [/QUOTE]

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