Lee- Do you ever worry about team chemistry and what adding to many young players too soon can do to a team? Young teams historically have losing records because they make too many mistakes.

Best case scenerio we are looking at with young players PT is getting Stucky and Johnson regular mins. Flip would impress the heck out me if he could at least do that.

I worry a whole lot about what it does to team chemistry when a vet, who can't play the game, is given minutes. Guys like Mohammed who causes others around him to have to cover for him, and Flip Murray who continually misses his defensive rotations, kill team morale. As far as young players, if they can play, most of the team cheers that player on. The vet who is being sat in favor of the young player might not like it, but the rest of the team appreciates having more talent on the floor with them.

Mohamed did win a championship while playing around 20 MPG. Was his dissapointing 1st season with the Pistons all his fault? Yes there were some chemistry issues but could the other Pistons bear some of the responsibility? When you have a new teammate its productive to try and work him in rather than doing your own thing and counting on him to catch on. Many times last year the other starters would change plays on the fly and assume Mohamed would catch on. Most times he did not and they kept doing it.

Rookies are a different story. Someone like Samb is going to be so raw that I don't know.

Max, you got something right-Mohammed never caught on-ever. A lot is made of the fact that Mohammed was part of a Championship, but you must remember that the next season he fell out of the rotation for SA by the end of the season. Back to him not catching on-that was an excuse. Remember, I break down film for a hobby. There is no basketball player who has any excuse for the many times Mohammed decided to stay home, and let someone just lay the ball in uncontested. Protesting that the moment called for him to stay home is plain silly. If a defensive play breaks down, you got to recognize it and adlib a bit. Mohammed, as far as I am concerned, just has lazy feet and finds excuses not to move.

I certainly do not want to be in the position of defending Mohamed. Unlike Murry I do agree that Nazir did not bring much to the table last season. But I do remain open to the fact that it may not have entirely been his fault.

Getting back to PT time for rookies or players on rookie contracts. It is a fine line between developing them, having the patience to let them make mistakes and risking them overloading the team chemistry. If you are not winning then you are not generating enough revenue or enough interest to retain all these guys and you risk becoming a farm system for the rest of the league to pick from.

Your first paragraph might be summed up in one word: ostracized.

Your second paragraph, concerning the question of not knowing, might end up in the D-League (and he can count himself lucky for this good stroke of luck).

It makes a huge difference if you know what play is being run. In Lee's analysis describing Mohamed as slow footed and not getting there in time. If he thinks one play is being run and the Sheed or whoever changes it up and doesn't tell him about it then its going to be that much harder.

I agree.

Let this group realize, it was not Murray or Naz that choked during the playoffs. The marginals are easy fodder. Transferring your hopes (unrealistically) to another form (of untested youngsters) is another form of personalized ( "feel better about my choices") delusional transferences.

The Doctor is in.




PEP Web - Anna Freud's Adult Psychoanalytic Technique: A Defence Of Classical Analysis

My use of Anna Freud in relationship to the subject of "transference" has nothing to do any presumption of gender of forum member Pass99, but rather because she was a leading psychoanalyst in her own right.

A haunting picture...showing the depth of her humility and humanity, just like her father.