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Maybe english turn but not belle chasse
"I don't know if people know — I dislocated my pinkie finger. And [Tyreke] told me, 'You wanna go home or you wanna be here?' I want to be here. And he said, 'All right, then go tape it up and let's play. Let's go. We not stoppin' at no stores. Straight gas. That's what we do, just keep going.'"
http://thebasketbawlblog.com/
My thoughts exactly. I never want the team to lose, but we have the face the brutal truth this year. A fully healthy, back-in-playing shape EG might put the Hornets over the top in a couple of tight ones, but there are too many holes for him to transform it completely. Maybe Gordon helps the Hornets edge Cleveland and Washington in the final standings, but that will still have us all glued to our TVs when those ping ping balls are tumbling.
Old fan. Tired fan. I want to believe.
I keep hearing this argument that Gordon himself won't solve all of the Hornets' problems. And there's definitely truth to that. But good players are very good at hiding holes on a team. The entire dynamic of the team will change if Eric Gordon comes back and is healthy/good on a consistent basis. Now a player like Rivers, who is a questionable starter, can get minutes from the bench, which may help him. Now he can watch EG in practice and learn how to get to the hoop better. Now we don't have to worry as much about guard penetration past our slow guards, which leads to countless 3 pointers. Now we don't have stretches like tonight in the 3rd quarter, where we went several minutes without a basket or even a good look. Now Anthony Davis learns what it's like to benefit from a player who can drive past defenders and kick. Now Monty has someone he trusts on offense and doesn't have to throw rotations at a wall to see if it sticks.
In a game where only 5 players are on the court, one player can change everything. I'm not saying Gordon will help us make a historic late push, but I do think that the team improves vastly from his mere presence.
The only time one player can make that kind of difference (turning a bad team into a playoff contender) is when he is a top 10 (maybe top 5) talent in the league. The type of centers the NBA had 20 years ago (Shaq, D-Rob, Hakeem) were those type of players. Their presence changed the way the opponent attacked the basket and they each drew the kind of attention on offense which immediately gave more good looks from the rest of the team.
Can EG make that kind of difference on both ends of the court night after night? He's good, but not that good. He'll make the O much more efficient once he gets his game legs back, which might take a few games, but I don't see him helping the rebounding and defensive deficiencies enough to turn this into a .500 team.
Rebounding may still be a problem. But I think most if not all of our defensive problems start at the guard spot. We're too slow to guard penetration, which leads to open looks either down low or out at the 3 because people rotate to stop the ballhandler. Vasquez, Rivers, Mason, and Roberts are terrible at keeping their man in front of them, and what little I've seen of Gordon shows he can front his man. I think with Gordon guarding the quicker guards and Vasquez checking 2 guards, it may be easier for the defense to hold tight and not have to break down every play because the PG is in the paint.
Teams will probably still be able to attack us inside, but we should fare much better on 3 point defense, which has been abysmal thus far.
He's definitely going to give all of our players easier looks at the bucket.
This is true esp when a team is designed around said played. As I posted above, the Cavs were built around Lebron's abilities. They had a PG that could shoot the 3, who wasn't a ball handler or an offense initiator; a 2 that was primarily a defender and could hit a 3; a Stretch 4; and a hustle 5. W Lebron it was great because he could draw the defense to get them good shots.
This can be somewhat true for us, esp since we plan on letting gordon initiate and run a lot of offense, as well as cover some of the better offensive players on the opposing team. You take the engine (the dynamic playmaker) out of the car and you just have a bunch of spare parts. AD is clearly not ready (to n fault of him) to be able to do this yet.
Cleveland was a .450 team when Lebron didn't play in his seven seasons there. The Bulls are a .600+ team without the guy their whole team is built around. The Lakers are a .604 team without Kobe.
We can keep thinking that we are a .185 win team without Gordon and a .500-.600 team with him, but that would be almost unprecedented
Last edited by MichaelMcNamara; 12-23-2012 at 11:44 AM.
@mcnamara247
I think we are a .350 win team with Gordon, this team is still young
New Orleans Pelicans-Seattle Seahawks-Atlanta Braves-Anaheim Ducks
RIP HunnyB
This fits HunnyB/FlyGirl so well- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyzTiSEfM00
I was mad at Gordon for maybe a few weeks...But in reality, I don't blame the dude for rehabbing. I mean of all things that he needs, it's his knees. We let him get strong and we can fire up the tank.
"On the court, the 2010–11 season was a stark contrast from the previous season. They went from 61 wins in 2009-10 to just 19, the biggest single-season drop in NBA history. The Cavaliers were also the conference
worst. This season also saw the Cavs lose 63, including losing 26 games in a row, which set an NBA record."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clevela...les_and_Infamy
I for one have said we may be a .500 team at best with Gordon returning. Keep on trying.
Last edited by BallSoHard; 12-23-2012 at 12:33 PM.
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