Going through motions

[jazznik]

Most of our young players - Keyonte, Kessler, Ace, Brice, Flip, Harkless - play with intensity and energy. It is clear that they really care. And then there are Cody, Hendricks, Collier and Clayton. They just consistently look like they are simply going through the motions: no fire, no edge, not being excited or upset. Why?

That is especially strange because Collier and Hendricks looked very different on the court last season and WCJ played with the obvious intensity and excitement in his very first games, just a month ago.

All of them are young players, the minutes are wide open and the team is ready to experiment but these guys look like they would rather be somewhere else.

 

[slc]

Very difficult to sustain intensity and energy every minute a player is on the court
Personal issues, distractions, sickness, personality, etc
Only a very few can do it like Karl Malone, LeBron, etc

 

[Tremendous Upside]

On defense, they all play without any fire or pride. Take Keyonte for example – his offense has leveled up, but on the other side of the ball, he still quits on plays, avoids contact, melodramatically dies on screens and loses his guy.

I don't buy the excuse that he simply doesn't have a lot of "defensive talent". Key has shown (on offense) that he understands basketball and how people move on the court. That's all the "talent" you need to be a good defensive player. The rest is about effort.

 

[seattlejazzfan]

Most of our young players - Keyonte, Kessler, Ace, Brice, Flip, Harkless - play with intensity and energy. It is clear that they really care. And then there are Cody, Hendricks, Collier and Clayton. They just consistently look like they are simply going through the motions: no fire, no edge, not being excited or upset. Why?

That is especially strange because Collier and Hendricks looked very different on the court last season and WCJ played with the obvious intensity and excitement in his very first games, just a month ago.

All of them are young players, the minutes are wide open and the team is ready to experiment but these guys look like they would rather be somewhere else.

interesting you lumped collier in with that group. he has his deficiencies, but the dude plays with fire. just the other day he got in a little dust up over who got to hold the basketball during a break in play.

 

[KqWIN]

I don’t actually think effort is as big of an issue as skill. Defense takes skill and talent. The quicker we acknowledge it the better.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

It's hard to play hard defense when your centers are Nurkic/Love/Filipowski.

 

[str8line]

I don't know man, Keyonte seems like a changed man. I would have never bet on it but I'm happy to eat crow. This year he seems to be giving much more effort on D. And he's crushing the O.

 

[Miggs]

Very difficult to sustain intensity and energy every minute a player is on the court
Personal issues, distractions, sickness, personality, etc
Only a very few can do it like Karl Malone, LeBron, etc

Lebron lmao okay

 

[Ferguson_Mellochill]

Collier plays with intensity. WCJ is still figuring out how to play in the NBA. Cody is low-key, but he's playing fairly hard on defense. Taylor is coming back from the injury.

 

[slc]

Lebron lmao okay

ok just karl

 

[fishonjazz]

ok just karl

Of course, if karl was playing LeBron level minutes at LeBron age then we would have to take him off the list as well.

 

[Tanktastic]

What you're describing sounds a lot more like personality, not play.

Had Markkanen not broken out MIP style and become a star, I'm sure many would think he's "no fire, no edge, not being excited or upset."

People are different. And for example someone like Collier I don't think we need more fire, we need more control and stableness.