The team IS good. They've shown they can even be "elite". But lack of depth is killing us. Our starting 5 is just having to do too much. Most of the offensive rebounds and careless turnovers we gave up late in that Indy game . . . you could just see the fatigue. I liked the T-Rob deal when we got him. So much potential, but who knew we'd be fighting for HCA? Long term I still think he might be decent, but there are a lot of nights where his inexperience kills us. So we have to bring LA back in early, and next thing you know he ends up playing 38-40 min. How nice would it be to have the Kurt Thomas or J. Howard from a couple years ago? Nice steady, but unspectacular presence. Of course T-Rob has a higher ceiling, but you can rack up losses while you're waiting for him to play through mistakes. And it actually hurts to watch Meyers. He may be alright too someday, but he's brutal now. Same for Barton. We just have too many guys that are extremely unsteady off the bench. Not just lack of physical ability, but guys that look like they don't know how to play (mental errors/lapses, bad positioning, bad fundamentals). On top of that they have limited trade value, so it's tough to make a deal. We're in a tough spot, and could be an injury or 2 to starters from a complete tailspin. CJ and Freeland have looked solid for the most part. Everyone else has been either wildly inconsistent or mostly awful.
Nothing wrong with posting your true feelings and opinions. And it is frustrating that the team has seemed to lose some of its late-game mojo. There is lots of arguing here about whether it's possible for professional basketball players to get tired giving max effort during the grueling regular season with the travel and the four games in five night trips, etc. I believe they do get physically, and worse, mentally worn out. I think the best coach in basketball, Greg Popovich, clearly agrees considering how often he strategically rests his players. I believe our guys gave it everything they had mentally and physically to achieve one of the best records in the league, and now they are in need of some R&R. I think part of the problem is that as great as our starter are, our bench has severely underperformed. Starters need a rest and more help.
