The reason they bash Donovan is not to just beat up on someone but because he is obviously the most important player for the offense at the end of games, and he is sucking at a historic level. It is also his choice to play that way at the end of games. There is no eternal maxim that All Games Shall Revert to Hero Ball In The Waning Minutes. You nailed it, the game asks for a different level of EXECUTION. That is the primary problem for us at the end of games, we stop executing, almost entirely, and on both ends.
We all know the defensive woes, we have gone at that ad nauseum on here, and the FO did nothing to address it, but even still, if we execute, we are incredibly hard to beat. We literally beat ourselves (get your mind out of the gutter
@Keefe ) in these games. Losing a 25 point lead is not getting beat, it is just plain giving the game up.
The reason Donovan carries a heavy portion of this is that he is the one more often than not dictating what happens on the floor, and it is a pretty solidly documented fact that when our offense is flowing, our defense runs better. We are different from most other teams in that regard. Most teams jumpstart their offense by getting some stops. More often than not we slow down on offense and then lose all focus on defense. It is a self-defeating cycle. And, right wrong or indifferent, more often than not it is Mitchell with the ball in his hands when things stall out.
We stop moving and passing and start forcing things, we turn the ball over multiple times, then we start losing any semblance of defensive unity, and it all just collapses. And as unfortunate as it might be, that often starts with Mitchell and what he decides to do in those moments. It isn't a coincidence that in a lot of these games our bench players helped us build the lead, then when we bring Mitchell and Royce back from their rest at the end of the 3rd or into the 4th, we start the downhill slide.
I am not saying every single problem we have is 100% on Mitchell, obviously the core problems with team construction, our biggest problems, are on the FO, and how we use the assets we have, or misuse them, is on Quin, and I think that is the lion's share of our issues. But to ignore the fact that Mitchell is the primary catalyst when games are on the line is being willfully ignorant. Of course he isn't the only one to "blame", but he definitely carries his fair share of it, especially in blowing these tight games at the end, where he is historically bad this season.
And frankly, if we are moving one guy, we need to move the guy that has put up terrible crunch-time numbers and not the multiple DPOY winner. That is just a no-brainer.
