As far as I'm concerned, both Larry Brown and Skiles deserve to have sarcastic "Yeah, I'm pretty sure Larry and Scott both invented the game" comments made about them. These guys are just crazy with their rotations. Pick your best lineup and play it as many minutes as you can. Sheesh.
What makes it unacceptable in Skiles's situation is that it's not like he doesn't know what his players are capable of. Sure, there are some new faces. But for Gordon and Deng to not be featured players at this point doesn't make a lot of sense, nor does having Chandler on the pine for most of Q4.
I am also very concerned about our two Dukies. I thought that Duhon would have a breakout season shooting the ball this year. He had achieved a nice rythym on threes in the second half last year. But his confidence is shattered again. He simply doesn't trust himself anymore, and I'm not sure how you fix that. If he's going to be that anemic offensively, he has to play a perfect floor game and defend like a bear trap. Well, tonight he was getting flat-out smoked by Telfair and making a lot of dumb decisions.
And Deng I'm concerned about in terms of the bigger picture. I've thought for a while that he had the best chance of all our current players of developing into an All-NBA team type talent. With each passing game, I see that as being less and less likely. I know he's still rehabbing, and I know he's being asked to accept a tough role in coming off the bench, but I just don't think he's going to be as good as I hoped. The basketball IQ isn't sky-high and though he's a better athlete than he's given credit for, he's nothing special. Hopefully I'm wrong about his future prospects.
