Manu also happens to play for the best organization of the past 20 years, and a perennial playoff/championship contender. IT plays on one of the biggest jokes/mediocre franchises of the past decade.
Wasn't IT the one organizing player mini camps before last season, and in general tries to be a leader for this "team"? Thats the thing we have no TEAM, over the past 5 years we've been the posterchild of mediocrity. We need an identity, we need stability, we need wins. This "team" has been nothing but a bunch of individuals putting on the same uniform and playing pick up ball out there for the last 5 years(last year was a bit of an improvement). If you want to hear IT say that, than I want to hear Cousins say and play like that(not complaining to the refs every other play, or trotting back on defense because he's complaining, pass the ball when you get tripled in the paint instead of throwing up some junk). How about Rudy Gay, prove your a team player too, earn your 19 million.
I haven't posted much, but here's my take. It seems like you feel like IT is the best Kings player on the floor. I think that in a one-on-one tournament, you
might be right. Dude can flat out score.
However, as others have said, that's not enough at the PG position in the NBA. Scoring is okay, but you have to get everyone else involved, especially with talents like Rudy and DMC on the team. It's as important to give them the ball as it is to score yourself...and some would argue that it's more important. It's even good to pass the ball to other people (Ben, JT, whoever) so that they can score a bit, too. The best point guards try to get everyone involved, then hit their shots when the team needs it. Isaiah worries about his points first, and passes the ball if he gets into trouble.
San Antonio's philosophy is that the ball should never stick in one place. It's a cliché, but "when everyone touches the ball, the team does well."
I honestly don't think IT sees it that way. I think his primary goal every time down the court is to figure out how he can score. He gets assists, sure, but I personally think that's because he has the ball in his hands so much. He's not
looking to pass. I'm not advocating a pass-first point guard, because that draws out the whole "OMG Grievis-look-how-well-that-worked-out" thing, but we also don't benefit from a PG who is always looking to shoot.
There's a happy medium in there somewhere. IT doesn't appear to be it. Maybe he can learn to become someone who passes more readily, I don't know. I personally think that he's one of those guys who looks at his stats during the game and if he doesn't have enough points, he's shooting the ball no matter what that does to the team's chances of winning. Rudy even practically called him out on it after one game last year...he said something like "he'll figure it out, he's young."
As others have said, an awesome 6th man...maybe
the ideal 6th man, in fact. But he's made it clear, at least to me, that it's very important to him that he starts. Big chip on his shoulder, hero, proving it to the world, whatever you want to call it. If he can't get around that somehow, OR become a much more willing distributor, then he needs to go. Addition by subtraction. He's NOT the best Kings player for the
team as a whole. He's not the hero we need, even if he wants to be.
Someone like DC might make the team better just by distributing the ball more, even though he's clearly not as talented. We don't need "talent"...we need the ball to move around more.