He's looking a bit lost this season. Is the new system no good for him? Was he padding his stats playing backup PG last year and now he's playing pretty much exclusively with Damian, is he being squeezed out?
@Boob-No-More used to talk about how CJ was our best first-quarter scorer, which would suggest that he was operating quite effectively with the starters. However, I think a lot of the first quarter focus has now gone to getting Nurkic going early, which may have had the unintended result of denying CJ the early rhythm he has historically needed to be effective. I wonder if he would benefit from what some people have been calling for over the past couple years; moving out of the starting lineup into a Ginobili-esque role, so that he could come in and begin gunning from the first instant.
Last season I wanted to see him pass more. After seeing his passes last night, I'd rather he didn't. I'm sure CJ will step up and play better, and when he does I would still like to see him moved for a better defender. If we face Holiday in the playoffs, I'd like to have someone who can defend him.
That's what he WAS doing last year. And now our bench is a bazillion times better with him NOT doing it.
Maybe it's like a law of the universe: you can have Evan Turner playing well or you can have CJ playing well, but you can't have both.
I was more thinking of him and Stauskas basically trading places, with Turner retaining his role as the primary ball-handler, but with CJ staying around to 28-30 mpg, rather than CJ running the offense like he used to.
ON THE OTHER HAND: he does have the third best total +/- on the team. (Guess the two people ahead of him.)
I think he and Turner can't co-exist because they both need the ball to be effective. I think CJ is struggling to adapt to our new faster pace because you're supposed to either move the ball or shoot in about 2 seconds, and he likes to take his time dribbling and surveying the scene.
I like CJ and have always been worried if we trade him for someone, we would only be replacing him, not actually getting better or much better. With the emergence of Sauce and Curry and the bench in general, I wouldn't feel as worried trading CJ for a talented player we need, but don't want to do it.
That matches what my eyes are seeing in-game. The further the player is above the line, the better. Further below the line is a bad thing. - Dame & Zach are by far our best players. - Nick, Nurk, and ET are playing well. I've been pleasantly surprised with Nick & ET play. - Aminu & CJ are hurting the team more than helping.
I'm not too worried about the slump either. My concern is more how his style of play doesn't fit with the rest of the team. At his most effective, CJ has the ball and it's not moving as quickly as with everyone else. I still think he would be quite good running his own team....but as Batman, that doesn't suit him as well.
