I understand why you would feel that way, but until Nurk returns Collins is also our 2nd best center option. I would rather see him off the bench splitting his minutes between the 4 & 5.
Different playstyles maybe? CJ is more of a Brandon Roy kind of shooting guard who likes to have the ball in his hands (which is why he loved Steve Blake so much). Trent is more of a spot up shooter, no? Not a lot of assists if you're spotting up on the perimeter and you're wide open when you shoot.
Is Dame intimating that CJ isn't the kind of player who can figure out how to be his best self without taking away from what others do?
No. I think that's reading into it a bit too much. I think CJ sits back and is more complacent with Dame around. This is Dame telling him to be more aggressive all the time.
On the one hand, Trent is excelling . On the other hand, CJ has more responsibility than Trent. In my big-picture-non-statistical analysis.... Trent is a $1.5 mil/year player playing like a $12+ mil/year player. CJ is a $28 mil/year player playing like an $18- mil/year player Trent is not near his ceiling. CJ is.
interesting way to put up just a fyi....including this season, CJ's contracts make him a 31.4M/year player, for 5 years
The Terry quotes and CJ quotes were even more telling. Terry is imploring CJ both now and in the long term to do more than score. While CJ is resistant to the idea that he needs to change what he's doing, he acknowledged that the coaching staff probably learned that he could do more. CJ is obviously not going to give up the quotes that easily, but I really like this development. Mike Richman said on his pod that those three sat down at shoot around to discuss how to get the most out of CJ.
I think i framed that quote wrong. It was more that CJ thinks that he is fine in the role he's given. He said he has always known that he could do more, but specifically said that he thought the coaching staff learned that he could as well.
Now that I had a chance to here all of Stotts, Dames, and CJ quotes, I'm even more convinced that CJ needs to be moved. Some of us have thought for years that the Dame/CJ pairing is less than ideal. They've been working at this for 5-6 years now, with minimal to no improvement with their on-court synergy. It's time to move on...
CJ - "I'm making 100+ million and I know I can do more to help the team win, but I'm happy with the way things are."
You don't understand his intention. This is like Chris Bosh saying he could do more in Miami (like he did in Toronto) or Ray Allen saying he could do more in Boston (like he did in Seattle). He's playing the role he thinks his team needs him to play. Maybe he doesn't want to step on Dame's toes. That's why i blame Stotts for this. Our offense is ugly as fuck, there's no guiding in hand in place.
Also, you guys need to chill with that 28 million crap. It's not ideal to pay a non-superstar this much money, but this franchise just finished paying 28 million a year for a timid Center who was afraid to shoot and a forward who averaged two points in the playoffs (Turner).
