25 games into the Season...

[VF21]

Don't get me wrong -- I'm very hopeful about the future and I've never really come down on the Theus era either way, but this season we've had a mixed bag of positive signs (team playing a more entertaining style, seems to be on the upswing) and ominous signs (a whooooole lot more public griping from the players, Theus calling out players in the media).

I call shenanigans on this... Ominous signs as in a "whoooooooole lot more public griping"? Moore vented some frustration after not doing as well as he hoped in front of the New Jersey crowd. AND he apologized the next day. What other public griping, especially recently, am I missing?

You're missing a LOT by not seeing the games. The whole team dynamic is completely different. Theus may have done what you think of as "calling out players" but the players themselves have seemed to view it more as a challenge by their new coach to step up and do their absolute best. And the proof is in the pudding, so to speak. They're doing exactly that...

 

[swisshh]

The fact that Moore apologized is important. He just had a career game recently and it hasn't been the same player stepping up each game since the KMart injury. The fact he owned up to it and didn't continue a grudge is good.

There has been anger about Theus' decisions and I think sometimes the coach has overdone it. I just hope he realizes when he does it and apologizes as well. If there is that continuity of owning up to mistakes between coach AND players then it makes things much better chemistry wise.

 

[kupman]

I do find it ironic that throughout the summer and at the beginning of the season I heard how we were going to be one of the poorest teams in the league and Houston was going to be great. Yet, here were are with almost identical records.

Similairly, I have heard for at leat 2 years now how Chicago and Charlotte are great models on how to build a team for a title run, yet they are not doing any better than us at this point.

 

[nbrans]

I call shenanigans on this... Ominous signs as in a "whoooooooole lot more public griping"? Moore vented some frustration after not doing as well as he hoped in front of the New Jersey crowd. AND he apologized the next day. What other public griping, especially recently, am I missing?

You're missing a LOT by not seeing the games. The whole team dynamic is completely different. Theus may have done what you think of as "calling out players" but the players themselves have seemed to view it more as a challenge by their new coach to step up and do their absolute best. And the proof is in the pudding, so to speak. They're doing exactly that...

I already admitted that I haven't seen the games and that I'm not seeing the vibe on the court. But you're taking this too far. Already so far this season there have been very public questioning in the media of Theus and of Theus against the players. Just read the papers. There have been public spats involving Salmons and Moore -- sure, everyone made nice, maybe you could even say these are good signs since Theus is trying to hold people accountable. But it's still more public than last year, where things were at least nominally kept under wraps, and I still think it's a potentially troubling sign that people are even doing it in the first place.

Look, I'm not trying to trash your boy. So far things are impressive. The team is overachieving. All I'm saying is that it takes more than 25 games to say for sure that things are going to work. Even the worst coaches can keep things together for 25 games. If all of this public bickering is just a sign that the players care, great. If the bickering is a sign that the players are chafing and are going to get fed up after 75 games, well, we'll see down the road.

I'm just saying it's way too soon to jump to conclusions one way or another. 25 games is the blink of an eye. And let's check back in on this should we go on a long losing streak. Things will start looking a lot different.