jimmie wrote:
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The same is true for OG - going with Norm would undeniably be worse. Miles can’t start, he’s a terrible defender. Starting FVV makes you too small to start and screws with your bench rotation. Same for Wright - he’s a more capable defender but is still really small to defend wings. Starting Pascal not only hurts your starters’ spacing and breaks up your bench unit, but also puts your only two PF’s playing beside each other which really makes rotations hard. Then you are left with, what, Miller? I like Miller, but I want no part of a) trusting him in the playoffs nor b) him defending big wings. So even if the team was struggling with OG in the starting lineup, I don’t see an obvious answer to that hypothetical problem.
And that’s ignores the biggest thing here - the team is NOT struggling with him out there, in spite of his shooting hesitancy and defensive miscues of late. They are having nearly as much success as a starting unit as they were earlier in the year, and this in a crunched schedule that’s left Ibaka a shell of his former self.
So, there’s no good change to make, no reason to make a change, and all the upside in the world to just riding it out and seeing if he can turn it around, exactly the choice they made early in the season (which paid off in spades).
As for the confidence - young players are young. You can’t expect hardened veteranship from OG just yet. Even a guy like Norm who seemed to break the confidence mold over the past two seasons has proven vulnerable. And it’s not benching him that would be the issue. It’s benching him for worse options, which is all we have.
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