Number 1 and 2 are basically the same thing. The complaints about his defense are also entirely overblown. Westbrook, Harden and Irving have all been getting lit up for years and we decide to give them a free pass for god knows what reason.
Because they have the tools to rise to the occasion whenever it matters (Westbrook is 6'3'', Harden is 6' 5" and Kyrie is 6'3"). IT will always be a defensive liability no matter how hard he tries.
If he takes such horrible shots how is he such an efficient scorer? He shot 46% from the field and 38% from 3...
One does not exclude the other. He is efficient cause he is obviously an elite ISO shot creator (imo top 3 in the league alongside/behind Kyrie and Harden). I guess we both agree that Harden is taking tons of horrible shots, yet IT and Harden have almost identical career averages in terms of FG% and 3P%.
Harden has a career average of 44.2% from the field and 36.4% from 3.
IT has a career average of 44.3% from the field and 36.7% from 3.
Finally the idea that we need him less cause we have other players that score seems to show a fundamental misunderstanding of how offense and basketball works. IT will make life easier for Hayward and Tatum. You want to have multiple scoring opens to keep the defense spread out and make it easier to attack the rim. Thomas will be even more efficient playing alongside 1 and eventually 2 scoring threats. You don't want to dump Thomas to go back to having one player that can really create offense.. that would be asinine and make singing Hayward completely pointless.
My point was that last year he was our only consistent scoring option while this year we added Hayward and Tatum. All I'm saying is, IT is not indispensable for us any more.
He makes 6 million dollars. He makes less than Andrew Nicholson makes to eat cheerios on his couch. He makes less than Vince Carter does celebrating his 41st birthday. He makes less than Boban Marjanović stretching out gloves on the Pistons bench. He made less than Tyler Zeller did last year trying to figure out how to walk and chew gum at the same time.
Agreed. Having said that, none of what you wrote will still be applicable when IT signs his new contract next season.
You know what? He could have asked for a contract extension or redo THIS offseason and really screwed the team over and/or pouted. He hasn't done any of that and makes a silly joke about getting paid on Instagram in the second offseason in a row where he watched the rest of the players in the league get showered with cash.
He could have asked for whatever he wanted. Bottom line is he wouldn't have gotten an extension this year cause everybody knew we wanted the cap space to go after Hayward.
Topic: IT posts a pic of his new "Brinks truck" sandals (UPDATE: ainge responds lol!) (Read 7918 times)