Trade & FA 2023-24: Stein-Ingram Trade Inevitable| LAL Want Lebron Back On Any Terms

[KillerLeft]

The JET convo was WAY different than the Hardaway conversation in my opinion.  The conversation around JET was always is he good enough to be the second best player next to Dirk although I acknowledge there was certainly a lot of hate thrown his way.  I also think you're doing him a great disservice saying he wasn't nearly as creative as Hardaway.  The guy was our starting PG the first year we went to the finals, just imagine asking Hardaway to fill in for any time at PG, it would be a complete disaster.

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I also find it odd that you always talk about having an offense where everyone touches the ball but continuingly defend the biggest ball stopper on the team.  Hardaway has his moments and I feel the skill set of taking and making contested shots is vital but he is easily the most selfish player on our team offensively, even when he doesn't have it going.  He wins us game but he also shoots us out of a lot of games because HE, NOT LUKA, plays too selfishly at times (now that definitely sounds like a JET conversation).

There's some valid stuff here. Thanks!

I acknowledge that you're probably correct in that overall, Terry is a tier or two above and the comparison is a stretch. JET is one of my all-time favorite Mavs (possibly why this THJ thing rankles me so much - I still have baggage from defending Terry). However, I think you're only remembering SOME of the Terry hate. There was a "2nd best" debate, yes, but trust me - there were people literally saying having him in the rotation meant the Mavericks could never be a good team. It reached the worst point about a season before the title. Without calling anyone out, there are a few people who still post here to this day who wrote posts so scathing about Terry that I believe if I could find them, post them here but with "JET" replaced by "THJ," they would fit right in. 

I don't agree with the "selfish" thing. Never have. You guys all seem to think the entire team is rolling their eyes every time he shoots, like 80% of this board does. Actually THINK about that. There's a 0% chance the team doesn't WANT him taking those shots. ZERO PERCENT. I'm sure there are possessions here and there they talk to him about (just like Green and OMG, Grant Williams, when he drives) but if they thought he was playing selfishly, they would have done something about it long, long ago. 

They wanted Porzingis gone so much they sold him for two smaller bad contracts just to get the ball rolling. That was basically a season after telling him (a way bigger star than Hardaway) to "stand in the corner." They wanted McGee gone so badly they freaking STRETCH WAIVED him one year after signing him. And you guys all think...what, that they're too scared to discipline Hardaway for taking a ton of shots they don't like? That they're in administrative meetings saying to each other "Damn, no matter what we do, Tim won't stop taking all those shots! We've got to trade him and put an end to this nightmare!" You all realize his contract ended and they chose to re-sign him willingly, right? Do they ever even try to stop playing him, or are his minutes basically entrenched in the top 5, year after year? OF COURSE they want him to shoot. A LOT. That is WHY he is out there. 

I do agree that some of his drives seem ineffectual after the fact, but to be honest there's a lot of that going around. It's crystal clear that one of the differences between Carlise and Kidd is that Carlisle limited his players to what they did routinely well in context of the system, while Kidd seems to expect that everyone should have a little freedom to freelance out there. I'm honestly not sure I like that about Kidd, but then again, there are times when players seem like the experience is helping them add to their usable skill set. And for me, Hardaway has actually been one of the beneficiaries. I'll say again, while there are some bad drives, shots and passes, I have seen the number of GOOD and SUPRISING drives, layups, passes off the dribble, midrange pull-up jumpers off the dribble increase this season. I think THJ is playing a more complete offensive game these days than ever before.