08-02-2023, 01:44 PM
(08-02-2023, 12:26 PM)mvossman Wrote: I think the biggest issues with both KP and Wood were of the locker room variety. The team got a noticeable lift after sending away KP (with some surprising player comments made regarding that) and the lack of Wood interest by Mavs or any other NBA team screams locker room red flags. In fact in both cases I would suggest that it was those players who had too high expectations of what they were and rankled from not getting their touches or minutes.
I think there is some truth to your second point, but you can also go the other way. Players can have fairly wild swings in their performance from year to year for various reasons. Its generally not a smooth curve. So when you project future performance you can make the mistake of being too swayed by recency bias.
If you have known any professional athletes, your first point applies to 95%. Even the least among professional athletes have been told how special and valuable they are from an early age. But to your point, you have temper that in regards to your equals and betters. IMO that applies to KP, not wanting to play with the most gifted ball handler since Lebron. That was just foolishness, immaturity, and youth. It doesn't mark him for life as many elites grow out of that (eg Penny/N.Anderson, Kobe/Shaq, Kidd/J.Jackson). There's simply no smoke that that was the issue with Wood in Dallas. He thought he should have a bigger role, and anyone with a bball IQ above room temperature would agree, but that was between him and the coaching staff, not teammates.
I agree with your second point, as it pertains to younger players. You hit late 20s, however, you are who you are. At that point the curve (season to season) is pretty smooth. The example I'll use is Capela; what he did in HOU doesn't matter; you have to project out his current decline curve. This applies to players who had an act II to their careers like G.Hill and D.Rose. You don't assess them for their earlier MVP value; you assess them for their current role-playing value.