SickGame

Over the past two seasons, we have seen alot of T.J. bashing on these boards. Continous uproar about his wild play, his supposed selfish ball-hogging during stretches of the game combined with the stable and spread out game of Calderon made fans continously ask for a T.J. trade or Calderon starting and some sighing at the extent of T.J's contract/the possibility that we chose the wrong point guard.

Now T.J. has been out for a few weeks and now the team has been anything but unspectacular. They lose games they should be winning, they get blown out by the contenders when at a time, during T.J.'s presence, games were close. The San Antonio steal wasn't quite notable consider their x-factor, Ginobli, was missing.

It has just come to visible attention how much T.J. Ford's presence changes the game, gives this team an identity and wills the team to wins. He is, in definition, a winner. During stretches of the game when the team is cold and doubles are being run at Bosh, T.J. is the team's sole creator due to his athleticism, quickness and I.Q. Don't get me wrong, Calderon has a few positive attributes over T.J., but Calderon isn't the player that can play 30+ minutes and make this team win on a continous basis (like a Chris Paul) through his ability to create and break a defense down.

On a sidenote, this post came to be inspired by the latest murmurs that Milwaukee is being blown up. There is a team that gave up on T.J., and the team has achieved close to nothing with a pretty talented line-up since Ford left, who had taken that team to the playoffs.

I, for one, cannot wait for T.J.'s return and firmly believe that this team will only reach higher pastures with his presence in the line-up as a starter with major minutes, and not through Calderon, who is a solid point-guard but not the guy you want running the team for 30+ minutes.