probably my #3 frustration in every game (after the static offense and the lack of help D from the bigs) is foye's absolutely laughable perimeter D. so i get that foye has his weaknesses.
but foye finds ways to contribute. carroll, who has maybe a third the talent that burks has, finds ways to contribute. marvin and gordon find ways to contribute. if burks played with that mentality -- i don't know if i'll get shots but i know what i CAN do to make the team better tonight -- he'd be playing. corbin gave him a 4-game run in the rotation to prove he's ready, but a coach can't wait around 20 minutes for you to get into a groove. take memphis - he gets 7 valuable minutes in a winnable road game against a western playoff team, and he's so invisible (0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0/2 shooting) that corbin COULDN'T go back to him in the second half. how long do you think corbin should have waited on him that night? 8 minutes? 10? 20? yet despite how bad he was that night, corbin still gave him MORE minutes in the next three games to give him a shot. the return on that investment: 7 points on 13 shots, and a guy who was either going head-down into a sea of defenders OR just standing passively around the perimeter.
i'm not worried about burks. we have him under contract through 2014 (with the option to extend thru '15) and he's got time to grow up. but giving a guy minutes he hasn't earned can hurt him developmentally just as much as not giving him minutes at all. and right now... BURKS. HAS. NOT. EARNED. IT.