Lol: "The Media Could not be Played." ET has absolutely sucked, but he's definitely trending up. Honestly, I don't care about individual things ET can do, or things he can't do. Our team's defense and +/- are atrocious. It's a team problem. ET needs to be part of the solution, and in the last couple of games he has been.
Which makes the organization look like some bush league franchise that has an adversarial relationship with their own fan base (aka: paying customers). BNM
Still not sold on him. When I looked at his highlight tapes after we first signed him, he had most of the highlights in one or two games; it seems like he is a guy who has great games sometimes and mediocre or poor games a lot. I really hope he can be more consistent.
I think from November 20th, he has played very well. He is giving us something we lack, someone with handles who can take his man off the dribble, get into the lane and score over his man. Maybe forces a few bad passes, but pretty much every player is guilty of that. But his overall game off the bench, is as good as anyone we have had in years. If you want to argue that he gets paid too much.....then fine. Add him to the soon to be very long list of NBA players. But other than that I think he is a keeper. He is a great utility player off the bench IMO. At the very least he has proved he is a good asset in a trade.... for the right team. I prefer to keep him though.
Turner is the least of my worries (not really even a worry anymore) between he Crabbe, Leonard and (surprisingly) Ed. I sure hope we find a good deal for Leonard. 8.0 PER. Ouch.
As someone who watched moneyball on the extra cheap with the Bulls, a team like ours is going to win by someone besides Dame and CJ having big games. Just who that someone else is will vary from game to game. Some games it will be Crabbe, others Turner, and others Aminu. And so on. What matters is we have enough guys who can step up.
Turner still seems like an Eastern Conference player - as in, he's a lot better against weaker talent but can't quite cut it against tougher talent in the West. With that said, I do agree that I'm not as bothered with him as I am Crabbe, Meyers, Aminu, and Ed. I'd love to trade all four of those players, but am mostly ambivalent towards Turner.
I agree. However, it's not his fault Neil panicked and threw insane amounts of money at him. Neil was the silent guy at the end of the auction who didn't win any of his bids during the whole thing so he raised his hand during the last boring auction yelling 16 MILLION DOLLARS! and everybody were looking at him like
Well, I guess we are getting about what we should expect. Actually, his fg %. 3 pt. % and FT % are all above his career averages and he is getting more steals and blocks in less minutes. And his turnovers are down. He is down in assists and rebounds, and it actually seems that at least with the Blazers he is more effective as a scorer than a distributor and so he should focus on that. But overall having an average Turner year. So I guess I'll turn my negative attention to Crabbe next (I'm not even gonna bother with Leonard anymore).
IMO both Crabbe and Turner are doing as well statistically as anyone should have expected. They're both rather limited in many ways and fall into the "good role layer for the right price" category. The problem is the price tag. I don't think it was fair though to expect either guy to make some stratospheric leap in production just because they're now getting paid a buttload. They are who they are.
Crabbe's problem, as evidenced by his play the last couple games is his defensive effort. He has all the skills to be a talented 3 & D player, but he only plays D when he starts and feels like it. When he's brought off the bench is defense is awful...he refuses to communicate, lazy coverage and going around screens, loses his man far to often. When he starts, he plays with some effort and is much closer to the player Olshey and the franchise envisioned. This season was about keeping assets. By the end of the year, everyone's opinions about most of our guys will be back to where they were before the season and these "horrible" contracts will be much more tradeable and will not look as bad with a year off of them. The only person I am truly concerned about is Ed. His FG% is below what it was last year and he just hasn't looked like the same player. He was a big part of why were such a good rebounding team last year and I really hope he comes around.
Yes he struggled against SA but played well in his last games against the Warriors, OKC, and the Clippers. He is adapting. I am sure there are certain matchups he will struggle with, as most players do, but looking at his game logs........the conferences don't seem to have anything to do with it. He is just seems more and more comfortable each game. The three games he was hurt....he was missed IMO.
