WXHOOPS

Funny you mention Baron Davis, Marbury, and Francis, all who aren't winners. Meanwhile, Parker and Bibby have won and will continue to win. Either you want Arenas to go for 25+ and lose, or you want him to go for 18pts 8ast 6reb 2stl and win. He will have to sacrifice some, in order for the team to win. Isn't that what Jamison was talking about ?

jazzy1

You really believe in Arenas.

I think you're missing the boat big time. Parker and Bibby help make winning plays with less to's.

I don't know if you know it but the to's got us beat last year more than any problem we had. You can't win in the NBA turning the ball over.

You mention March when Arenas was scoring all those points but it just so happened we lost a majority of those games.

I have no doubt that Arenas CAN score but he is never gonna be among the elite in the league as a pg unless he curbs his to's. And if he continues to play recklessly he won't curb them at all and we won't win.

I disagree with whose closer to the Allstar game. I think Jamison is the closest. And Kwame playing the pf/C is closer also because of the lack of quality pf/C depth in the eastern conference.

And that has nothing to do with who's the best player on the team is because those things don't matter anyway.

We're gonna be no better than Francis was in Houston pre Yao if Arenas keeps jacking up shots getting to's and angering teammates.

Whats so wrong with playing like Bibby, keeping his teammates involved, keeping to's low and coming through in the clutch there's nothing wrong with that.

I'm more interested in winning than having Arenas glorified as a superstar because those things don't add up to victory.

I'm a realist though and Arenas will probably get 20+ so will Jamsion, Hughes will get 18, Kwame around 10 and teammates will grumble and mumble we'll be amongst the top scoring teams and rebounding but also amongst the worst defensively and T'O wise. And then by allstar game Kwame could get traded because he'll be the main one complaining about the selfishness and the unwillingness for the team to go inside. So kwame goes and could blow being option 1 on a team where his good shooting won't be spoiled by selfish guards that don't undertsnd sacrifice and winning.

Thats whats real but I'm hopeful nonetheless.

Shanghai Kid

Jazzy, I'm not saying that Arenas should play recklessly. If anything have Kwame and Jamison will open things for Arenas and he'll be able to get better looks at the baskets. My whole point is, Arenas can score 20 points pretty easily in the course of a game. He doesn't have to force shots to score 20, I think your sleeping on his offensive talent, I think Arenas could easily put up Iverson scoring numbers if moved to the 2 guard. Scoring is essential to Arenas's play It adds another dimension to his game. He can score, pass, and rebound. As he develops his PG skills the fact that he can score at will is going to make him a hell of a dangerous player. We're talking about a 20/5/5 player who hasn't even scratched the surface of what he's capable of. The best teams have an inside/outside game. Jamison and Kwame take care of the inside, and Arenas is the outside. Best case scenario is that the offense eventually runs through Kwame, we'll see if he's ready for that pretty soon, but the only way for this team to eventually go somewhere is for both Kwame and Arenas to max their potential, and I guess I believe Gil's max potential is alot higher than you do. I'm thinking sooner than later he's going to lead the league in tripple doubles, be known as one of the most clutch players in the NBA, and put up scoring/rebounding/assist numbers that make him one of the best all around guards in the NBA.


Gil had this team at .500 before he went down with an injury. And the fact is Jamison himself doesn't win games as a #1 option. All the Golden State fans I have talked too say that Arenas was cleary the best player on that team and almost every Golden State fan would of preferred to build the team around Gilbert and not Jamison. Their were articles pointing out how Gil was the only go to guy Golden State had had in the last 5-7 years.

Arenas is being undervalued and looked past because he had some injuries this year and because nobody cares about Washington. I still look at him as good and with as much potential if not more than Wade, except he doesn't have the exposure that Wade has had. Gil is going to be a franchise guard, not a Tony Parker type roleplayer. We paid that much money for him because somebody in the organization thought this kid was going to become one of the best guards in the league. It's irrelivant whether Marbury/B Diddy/Francis have won a title, none of them have had a dominant big man and that's what we're hoping Kwame becomes. Even then, this team isn't going to contend for a title unless Kwame and Gil both become huge stars. Gil is already close. He's a tripple double machine

Did you know that Gilbert was the 3rd best 21 year old PG statistically in NBA history behind Isiah and Magic Johnson? He's a clutch gym rat who plays with a chip on his shoulder, he has tons of improvement left to make. Him and Kwame can hopefully develop a deadly inside/out game. Jamison will get his touches for the next few years, but he doesn't get impact points and he's not going to take this team far, Arenas/Kwame are.

Edit to add: I did some research on Golden States push for the playoffs. After the All-Star break Arenas put up 23ppg on 46% shooting. During this period Jamison put up 20ppg on 48% shooting. The teams record was 16-12 during this period as Golden State just missed the playoffs by 5 games. The team couldn't get a .500 record in the first half of the season when Jamison put up 24ppg and Arenas put up 15ppg.

__________________


SCREWED like Bret Hart!

jazzy1

I dispute your claims that he can score at will. He can score when given tons of shots and freedom to alienate teammates.

Arenas isn't AI not as quick not as good in the mid range not as good passing not as good playing defense.

When he had us at .500 we had played what 15 games or so . He's played complete seasons where none his teams have succeeded no need reaching for a small sampling we have enough evidence to see what kind of talent he is.

I'm not saying that Jamison is our answer either. I had reservations about the trade if you remember. The fact that yoiu have questions about him make sense but he's done more in his career than Arenas has and he's played on a winning team. He was the 6th man of the year so he's learned of sacrifice and what it takes to win.

It doesn't take Arenas and Jamison heaving up a ton of shots and not playing defense and creating to's.

I'm not sleeping on Arenas's game at all I'm just seeing it realistically. I've seen his type players before many times over.

Arenas needs to focus on the little things. He's always to preoccupied with getting points and forcing the action. He's never focused on playing defense where he is absolutely dreadful instead he looks to jump the passing lanes for steals and easy buckets.

He needs to do the little things that a pg can do to help his team win, Cut off penetration by the other teams pg, not gambling on high risk passes, controlling the offense by means other than shooting and keeping others involved. By knowing when to milk a matchup advantage by other teammates.

I'm not suggesting that Arenas not shoot and not be part of the offense but he doesn't have to play as if he's the only one capable of contributing for a win.

I just advocate a Jamison/Kwame 1st approach to the offense.


MJ couldn't carry us to the playoffs he averaged more ppg and had a higher fg%. Arenas knows less about the game and has less talent then even an old MJ.

We made a huge mistake if Arenas can't run a team without taking a ton of shots and creating a ton of to's. Thats just not efficient.

We can't have Arenas playing the 2 with a small pg like Blake. Arenas already struggles against pg's he'd get eaten alive at the 2.

Arenas/Boykins didn't get them to the playoffs why make our line-up smaller by playing that way. Grunfeld got Jamison to give us more size wouldn't make sense then to create a mismatch in the back-court.

I just don't see why you feel Arenas jacking up shots and leading us in scoring while shooting horrible makes us a better team.

He can make us better blending in with the rest of our capable offense and making everyone play better.

He'll never be a great player unless he makes those around him better thats what great players do and right now Arenas is along ways away from that. He only seems to anger teammates and let them down with his antics.