I love how this is such a popular topic with star players every year and yet it rarely happens that they play under those minutes. Dames probably going to have to play 38-40 a game many games this season. But it really would be nice if he could play less and win.
Unless this team is contending for home court, what would be the point of having Dame play 38-40 minutes in any games, let alone many of them?
Same reason most stars get those extra minutes. Close games in the 4th quarter. Need one of those years where we are the team who closes out our opponents. Until then…
Maybe? It’s truly hard for me to take any stats seriously from last year. Great players make clutch shots on the road. Average to good players struggle with high pressure shots on the road. Last year there were no high pressure shots or even games except trying to lose a few more than the next guy?
ok? You were the one saying he faltered on the road. For his whole career that's just not been the case statistically.
I think you missed the point of the question. If we're a PIT-level team, then there's really nothing to be gained by playing Dame 40 minutes to try to pull out close games.
But your saying statistically and what I meant was clutch. Not so much numbers. I'll rephrase it if you wish. Players get numbers during games. I have yet to see Simons come up big or even carry the team to a win on the road. My point is lets all hope he has improved enough to be that guy at times.
Assuming the western conference is as close as it has been the last handful of seasons, the incentive to play Dame heavy minutes will be to avoid being a PIT or (hopefully not) make sure we are a PIT. In an 82 Game Season that = being up by 4 against the pistons at the end of the 3rd. At which point you hope the team can close it out and you can sit Dame at the end of the 4th.
If the West is close and we're trying to avoid dropping into the PIT, that would suggest that we're contending for home court, which was the condition I named in my first post. If we're fighting to win games to get into the PIT, then I'll continue to argue that we shouldn't be playing Dame big minutes to reach that status.
Last season, I remember laughing about the notion of teams "falling into the PIT", and to me its just so good it needs to be a thing.
My buddy at U of O used to pick me up in Corvallis and we used to drive down to Mac Court and play hoops.
My son saw the last Duck game played there......I saw Dylan in concert there and the sound was horrible. Rattled like crazy
