I'm finding it awfully hard to care about much this season ... I wonder if LaMarcus feels the same way? He's probably intimately aware of just how awful the depth on this team really is and just how many minutes he's going to have to play with not a lot of payoff on the line. It sounds sort of bad, but I kind of hope he does conserve himself and tries primarily to stay healthy in this rebuilding year.
I think LMA is feeling like he doesn't want to put a shit-ton of stress on his surgically repaired hip by banging some jackass with his butt 40 minutes a night until he feels more confident in his hip's ability to handle the strain. In other words, LMA (a traditionally slow starter) is a little behind on his off-season conditioning, and a bit skittish about his hip being 100%. See also Zach Randolph post surgery.
This is veering a little off the LaMarshmallow topic, but I'm perfectly fine with how this season is likely to play out. It is what it is. The team is asking the starters to play like starters. They are doing that. It's fun more often than not. They are working in a new offense and some new teammates, including a rookie point guard. They are progressing fine. They are developing the bench rookies (Leonard, Freeland, Barton, Claver) I'm going to assume at their proper pace. I'm fine with that. They've been cautious with expirings to give us as much $$ as possible to go after reinforcement(s) this summer. All the while everyone knows the bench scrubs can't beat a YMCA team, so the end result will be ping pong balls (metaphorically speaking). OK. That's a good shot at two quality reinforcements this summer and hopefully a better class of scrub next year. As for LaMarcus, I don't like how Stotts is using him, but I'm just as happy that he doesn't kill himself getting banged up over a lost season. Let Lillard, Batum, Wes and Hickson do the heavy lifting. LaMarcus will get his 18, 6, and 4 assists a game by the end of the season just by showing up. Edit: In Stott's defense, Hickson is such a one-trick pony and Leonard isn't ready, so as much as I'd rather see LaMarcus playing the center position, it's probably not a great fit right now. Once Leonard develops, it won't matter.
Excuse after excuse, year after year, for why his lack of rebounds is only temporary. I admit that he's playing harder under the new coaches, but--he will never be a good rebounder.
Very solid and plausible opinion. Perhaps the hip is still even not 100%, he and the team won't let anyone know, and he's pissed because reporters and fans keep questioning his toughness.
Neither does playing alongside a rebounding machine like Hickson/Przybilla/Camby/Oden(for a few games, anyway). I'd be curious to see how many of his boards LaMarcus gets while JJ is on the floor as opposed to how many he gets with JJ on the bench...
