Ive said this before, the basis of all my arguments with Bargnani is, if the raptors decide to keep him. And ive said numerous times before, i dont mind him being traded and im actually for him being traded, BUT, if the raptors do decide to keep him then its on them. Theyve seen how Bargnani was for the past 5 years, if they decide to keep him and still not do everything in their power to help him improve, then whats the point in keeping him.
I think a good indicator is that - he's still with the team. If theyve already felt that theyve done everything to expand his defense and rebounding, then why is BC only now calling him out? Why havent they traded him after the 3rd year? 4th year? Why did they give him the extension? Why didnt they call him out a lot sooner? And no matter how far off it is, there is still a chance for him to improve, till the day he retires.
Then trade him. But they havent done that. Coz theyre still clinging to the fact that maybe, he can improve. I really dont see any other reason why. And time and resources is not an issue, IMO. If they truly believe that they want this guy to carry their label, then why give him anything but the best?
Well, when he was drafted, Sam Mitchell was the coach and Jay Triano was an assistant coach. And eventually Jay replaced Sam. He's played for 2 coaches who came from the same system. So could there be a possibility that he'll improve in Casey's system? Maybe. Its an entirely different coach using a new system with new assistant coaches to boot.
I know what you mean, Tim W. has hammered this point at me a trillion times. But nobody can change my mind that there is still a possibility that he might change. Be it 80% or .00001%. Fact of the matter is as long as he is playing, he has the chance to improve.
Again, if the Raptors feel like theyre just throwing money away by keeping him on the team, then by all means, trade him. But if they decide to keep him, then expand his game. You cant not play him and watch your $10mil rot.
Up until they trade him or till he retires as a Raptor. Coz when they trade him, i could care less what he does. But until then, he's still a Raptor, so they need to give him what he needs.
To be honest, i was never a Bargnani fan and will never be. My main issue is he's being thrown under the bus for something that, IMO, wasnt entirely his doing in the 1st place. They plucked this kid from Europe knowing full well he's a scoring bigman who doesnt have a taste for defense. And yet they wanted to turn him into a defensive presence in the middle. If he was never defensively capable as some people are saying, why did they wait this long to call him out? He is partly to blame too because he didnt have the initiative to further his game, but I blame the Raptors more for giving him an extension and waiting this long to even realize that he needs to expand his defensive skills.
ezz_bee wrote:
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The other thing to consider, is that every human being only has a finite amount of time a day. All time spent with Bargnani is time that could potentially spent coaching/improving other players. You can always pay more human beings but then you are investing even more energy and funds into a single player who is currently not living up to his salary.
I agree with Tim and some other posters who have noticed that every year there seem to be more arguments about "bargnani needs this..." or "bargnani would work with the right player/coach".
My perspective is after 5 years, although there may be possible scenarios where bargnani improves or that he may even improve out of his own initiative or that he may suddenly "get it" (whatever that means). There is no way to can predict with certainty the behaviour of other human beings. However, the most reliable indication of future behaviour, is PAST behaviour. To expect anything other than VERY modest changes in bargnani's game is betting on long odds.
Ultimately my only real problem with your line of reasoning is that, to me, we can never be certain when the criteria of "pushing him to the limit" is fulfilled, and the longer we take trying different alchemical equations we are paying him more and more money, meaning that his overall value and most likely his perceived value lowers and lowers.
Assuming we don't see any significant changes in his game, at what point will you be satisfied that the raptors have done everything they can do to get more out of him, and that he is either, not going to change, or that he is the one responsible for any change or the lack their of? To me it is a VERY subjective and everyone gets to choose their own point to draw the line.
Not to be condescending, but wanting to avoid coming across as hypocritical, I used to make similar arguments about him not being used the right way, or needing more time to develop. For me the point where I "gave up" on bargs was early in bosh's last season with the raps. I just didn't see any progress from the year before which would indicate that he was going to start doing things he hasn't done the entire time he'd been in the league.
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