like every other basketball fan... your suffering from spurs itish........ with these roles and hitting open shots... you need to erase that from your mind.... and potential is what wins... who has been the best player on the west for the last 15 years... kobe... if you open your eyes he is what ben mac was early in his career... the perfect ex. of potential... not sayn he will be kobe.. but thats what wins finding those types of players and pushing them to reach there potential.... nik mayb a fan fav... becuz u knw ( he is white and ppl especially in the Sacramento region love to see those players do well) but he will be average at best... and average doesn't cut it in the nba
outside of the racial stuff, you obviously have no idea what young Kobe looked like. He was special from the first time he stepped on the floor. Inefficient, overaggressive, but an absolute eye opening killer even as a kid. As a rookie he wanted a piece of Michael Jordan. He would have taken young Ben outside, ripped his heart out, stomped on it, then went inside to try to gun up the winning basket.
And no, you are misunderstanding the potential rule anyway. Many fans do. Having the "potential" to be a good bench player, to be a low level starter = crap. Who cares? You can sign those same players every year in free agency. The only players with "potential" who really matter are the potential stars, and maybe potential interior shotblockers. The rare guys who cost $10mil+ to get on the open market. You see a guy like that, you wait on it. Everyone else is replaceable and you don't lose games waiting on them to grow into their mediocrity. Once you have your core, you are ready to go.
But of course the most important thing about Ben is that he is incompetent in absolutely the one (and possibly 2 or 3) areas that we absolutely need out of that position now. We are desperate for ballhandling, passing, and shooting from that spot. Even if he improves Ben will be lucky to ever be mediocre as a ballhandler, and indeed his game is if anything a drain on your offense. He needs people to create his shots for him. Given his dreadful NBA debut there is no real evidence at all he'll be a better shooter than Stauskas (Stauskas was better from 3pt land in college, but Ben was a better FT shooter). The "talent" on this team is Demarcus Cousins and Rudy Gay. And what any good team WILL tell you, is after you have your talent, then its all about fit. Everybody else should support and complement your stars. Nik does, or at least appears to have the traits to do so. Ben was an absolutely terrible fit last year. It is he, not Nik, who has everything to prove about being a complementary player this year. And we can't afford to go around throwing away games coddling him to find out. We are not the Sixers.
