01-29-2024, 02:46 PM
(01-29-2024, 01:00 PM)KillerLeft Wrote: 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.
All of this is fair, the only thing I'd say in terms of the team wanting him to shoot those shots is that while that could be true, the fact that it is true may also show a failure on the coaching staff to reign him in when it calls for that but you kind of touch on that anyway.
The other thing I'd say is that Hardaway is different than the KP and McGee situation. I'm on your side in terms of Hardaway being a positive NBA player and he's playing to his contract so I think there's less of a desire to just dump him and rather get some value out him because they think they can but it is clear they feel he has the best combination of expendability and true value to other teams.
Agree on the difference between Rick and Kidd. Rick used Hardaway and Kidd let Hardaway use every skill that he *thinks* he has which can lead to some cringe worthy shot attempts. Mavs fans aren't the only ones seeing this, opposing broadcasts have been funny watching him lately, specifically the end of the Knicks game and the Hawks game (a broadcast team that acknowledged what everyone here says, he goes supernova or is just ice cold all game, there's no in between).
I'm all for having a chucker on the roster, teams need a chucker or two. I just think Hardaway tends to skew towards the extreme of the chucking. I think Curry and Hardaway are basically asked to play the same role but are on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to aggressiveness. If Curry was willing to take more contested shots or Hardy had taken a leap forward then I would argue that Hardaway is plenty expendable but neither of those two options seem to be the case (might be forced to find out if we trade Hardaway) so until something changes we should take Hardaway for what he is BUT (in my opinion) it's ok to criticize his hubris out there and some of the shot selection. It gets way out of control at times and he's the one dude on the team (maybe Hardy too) who when he gets the ball I have zero expectation of that ball moving again. That's the stuff people here see and get frustrated by. It's easy to feel him kill momentum by taking shots that aren't needed or trying to make plays he's incapable of. I want him to be aggressive so I'll take the bad with the good but I think the frustration on the board is fair because I know there's plenty of times I want to just grab him and shake him and be like yo please just....stop for a second.