I think part of it is that our guys aren't playing free. We're trying to force a bunch of guys who are terrible defensive players to play good defense, and that takes them out of their comfort zone. That's not to say that defense is a bad thing. It's a great thing, and something that will allow us to be a sustainable winning team. But they haven't had much time to really get used to it.
The other thing is that we're trying to change the culture of the team without changing the players. It's the same for any organization - culture change is going to happen a lot faster by simply replacing or adding members that fit the culture compared to changing it from the ground up. It makes little sense to me that an organization and coach preaching defense and a hate-to-lose mentality continues to play guys like Marcus Thornton and John Salmons, who in his many seasons with us has only been a loser, has never helped us win very much, particularly in his second stint.
I understand that the FO doesn't exactly have a queue of GMs lining up to offer valuable pieces for Thornton and Salmons and the like. That being said it's up to them to assess whether keeping these guys around is ever going to bring us more value than whatever we can get for them now. It's a tough call to make, but sometimes a bunch of scrubs eager to win can help your team more than "proven" players, and they might just accelerate that culture you're trying to establish as well. Take N'Diaye for example - some would argue that in his limited minutes he's helped us a lot more than Chuck Hayes has.
