firstrounder

There was already a game thread for this game for the past 2 days...how many threads did you start last night? Wow.

firstrounder

Sounds like it was a tough game to watch...glad I went to bed early last night!

ballocks

i've always wondered why it seems that every player on this team is struggling to fit in and improve as much now as ever before. it's like the puzzle doesn't fit for any of these guys- and the longer we stay together, the worse it gets.

at the moment, you might have two exceptions: rasho and parker. but imo, even parker looks like he's finally taken it upon himself to go in another direction than what's being taught. that's not a bad thing, either, it just seems like he's had enough of the system. maybe. hopefully.

the rest of the team has either plateaued or been even less effective than they were before. for some reason we can't improve, neither individually nor as a team. we can't get better- the irony being that all we talked about in the preseason was improving and getting better; the second irony being that we're admittedly 'young' and the one thing we should be doing is improving and getting better. so what gives?

i raise this now not because the thought occurred to me last night, but rather because it's been this way all season (if not longer), through the goods and bads, and maybe we can finally fess up to it in light of the debacle out west.

even when we win, we look more confused than normal and like we don't know what our teammates are doing or going to do. we often look like we're playing together for the first time, have no idea what works and what doesn't, how to take advantage of our strengths or how to limit the strengths of our opponents through execution. what's the problem?

i think our habit of using excuses has finally come around to bite us. we've been insecure (i'm looking at the top) for so long that instead of acknowledging our weaknesses and finding a way to improve on them, we've been caught in the trap of denying that they're even there. we're finally at the point now where we can't deny it anymore but why did we waste all that time in the first place? should've had some foresight, imo.

i believe we'll go off on a good run now but i'm so frustrated by the short-term outlook this team has employed since the beginning (caused by an inferiority complex of some sort) that i can't say i'm very excited about it. this has been a long time coming. virtually all of our failures have been predictable (preventable?). it would help if this team were more proactive than reactive, but it's not. i really don't know how we expect to reach the elite should it remain the way it is now.

i like the anger. i like the controversy. i like the fire. i like the spats between our players. i just wish it had been here before (like vs new jersey last spring, which is to date a series loss that we should have never accepted). the complacency appears to be making an exit- but again, why did it take this long? is it the reason for our failure to improve?

peace