IT was horrible tonight, and I'm glad the streak ended, because the way he was chasing it was dangerous, but the number of people killing him is ridiculous. Harden has bad games. Westbrook has bad games. Isaiah has bad games. It's okay; he's human. We're nowhere without Isaiah, and we should remember that.
No, we're probably not a playoff team without Isaiah, but where would he be without the Celtics?
He's gotten to this point not only due to his talent but also due to this offense and playing within this system. He's been playing selfishly and it's hurt the team at times. He has to get back to playing more team-oriented ball.
Pretty much this. Let's not pretend that this system hasn't elevated his offense to this point by giving him all the freedom, touches, and shots he wants. But he's went overboard with that freedom lately, and Brad has to reign him in.
And let's also not forget the fact that IT is a MAJOR negative on the defensive end of the floor, so he's actually significantly hurting us on both ends of the floor when he has off offensive nights and forces up crap possessions all night long. If he wants a max contract, then he has to be better.
Max mentioned Russ and Harden, but neither of them are the major defensive negative that IT is due to his historically small size. They also do other things in the offense and rebound much more than IT, so they're not as limited to scoring as IT is.
If he wants a max contract, then these types of nights just can't happen for him. He's too incomplete of a player to do so. Missing 17 shots and having 7 TOs is just inexcusable, and it goes way beyond him just having a bad shooting night and gets into him forcing shots trying to get his. That's selfish basketball and has no place on our team.