Quote:
Originally Posted by Wade Mulroy
The effort truly is perplexing. Having this much talent and being 5 games under .500 in the West should light a fire under those guys to treat each game like their season depends on it.
I wouldn't be shocked to see them get up and put together a really good performance against Heat on prime-time nationally televised TV.
There isn't a soul here that would point the finger at Zion as being responsible for the unsteady season thus far, but Oldgoldy made a valid point last night. Zion taking ONE SHOT for almost a 24 minute stretch after dominating the 1st period is unacceptable. SVG and the crew deserve their fair share of the blame, but Zion needs to know when to assert himself on offense when things get stagnant.
He has the ability to simply put the team on his back for stretches of time and singlehandedly get buckets and draw fouls. For whatever reason, he seems to disappear for stretches, especially when defenses switch to a zone.
After watching the JJ Redick podcast yesterday, I get the sense that Zion still feels a bit like a rookie and it's not his role to assert himself above his teammates at this point in his career. I love that he has a huge amount of humility that carries over into his game, but at some point you have to be okay with being a bit selfish when things aren't going well for your teammates.
I still really, really like the pieces this team has and their ability to be a problem for every other team in the NBA, but everything is just disjointed right now.
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I'd still love to see Zion take a couple wide open 3's a game. The team was abysmal shooting last night.
I'm also still not sure why Bledsoe is getting so much PT and Kira Lewis and/or NAW didn't get in. More so Kira. He would have probably brought similar energy as Jaxson Hayes.
Oh, wait. Yes, I know why. Stan Van Dummy.