<div class="quote_poster">Quoting huevonkiller:</div><div class="quote_post">He doesn't initiate the offense enough, that is one thing, but I fail to see how that makes him a complete hog. His efficiency speaks for itself, even if he dominates the ball, he is still a useful offensive player.</div> Mike James went through his ups and downs as a raptor. He had his moment where he was extremely effective, defenders weren't adjusted to his game and he drove to the basket hard consistently, which was great. Later on he became the guy everyone describes as a shot chucking self-interested individual. Defenses started to catch onto his game a little more and they forced him to take poor shots and constantly brought the 2nd man when he started to turn the corner on his drives which created a fair amount of turnovers. If the Mike James that shows up for the T-wolves is the guy we saw play in the 1st half of the season you got a good deal, if it's the 2nd half Mike James you'll probably want to kill yourself. At his worst, Mike James is the player everyone hates because he takes away from the performances of the best players on your team. During the second half of the season he consistently dribbled the ball out in front of his defender without even a notion of passing the ball. Following that was usually a cross over and a contested 3 pointer from 5 feet behind the line. I think a lot of that has to do with the coach, maybe someone else besides Mitchell can get a better handle on James and make him a play a little more within the team concept. If you manage to get mike James playing effectively he'll add scoring and a few clutch shots which is nice.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> He's an irritating, fine player then. Oh well. </div> What? Of all of my arguements I said, you use that I said that he's a fine player against me? Obviously he's a fine player, but that doesn't mean he's not irritating. I think Stephon Marbury is a "fine" player but he irritates the hell out of me and I don't like him. Same goes for Mike James. I think he is being severely overrated throughout this whole arguement...it may seem like we're underrating him but when the majority of Raptor fans are arguing with you that he's not as good as his stats make him seem, that should tell you something. You're going by stats, we're going by what we see. As I said before, stats don't always tell the story.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Junoon:</div><div class="quote_post">What? Of all of my arguements I said, you use that I said that he's a fine player against me? Obviously he's a fine player, but that doesn't mean he's not irritating. I think Stephon Marbury is a "fine" player but he irritates the hell out of me and I don't like him. Same goes for Mike James. I think he is being severely overrated throughout this whole arguement...it may seem like we're underrating him but when the majority of Raptor fans are arguing with you that he's not as good as his stats make him seem, that should tell you something. You're going by stats, we're going by what we see. As I said before, stats don't always tell the story.</div> You sure made a lot of fuss over eight words. I was simply restating what you said. I agreed that he might be irritating at times, so I don't understand your problem. I don't only go by stats, but most intangibles are dubious/exagerrated perceptions of players, so it's important to take stats into account. Now if he did not play to the standard of Raptor fans in the second half of the season (as a13x alluded to), that is a different arguement. I'm going by what he did the entire season.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting huevonkiller:</div><div class="quote_post">You sure made a lot of fuss over eight words. I was simply restating what you said. I agreed that he might be irritating at times, so I don't understand your problem.</div> I guess I misinterpreted what you meant. The whole italics thing made it seem like you were mocking what I said. I apologize.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting huevonkiller:</div><div class="quote_post">but is he really a hog?</div> Yes he is. His stats are very decieving, he dominates the ball.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Bobcats:</div><div class="quote_post">Yes he is. His stats are very decieving, he dominates the ball.</div> Nah he's just inconsistent then.
I think you said it yourself. He's a very efficient scorer. But he plays the point guard position and, seeing as he'll never be the best player on a team, the offense becomes too stagnant when he's in for too long. I still think he'd one of the best 6th men in the league, but James is too stubborn to accept that role.
