Yeah, this season, regardless of how good we played at the start, has been a losing season, and an overall disappointing one. the only bright spot in my opinion, has been Tyreke Evans. Thank heavens for this man. I don't think we would have won 12 games this year without him. Other than him, the talent is just not there for this team. Spencer, JT, Donte, these guys show signs of being able to play, but they can't be your core group. You can just watch them play to realize that even with more years of experience, they will never be what kings fans are making them up to be. Hopefully GP and the maloofs realize that this offseason.
So you just want to throw in the towel on Donte, JT, and Hawes. You think players just come into this league and just step right in and pick up where they left off in college. Donte showed tremendous improvement his year. Why would you think he wouldn't continue to improve? JT has finally started playing the way I thought he should since he came back. I think watching Landry and being around him has helped him. Hawes is the one I'm concerned about the most. He needs to get stronger. But that means he'll carry more weight. And that means more stress on his knee. He's a guy that you want to be more physical. But there's the worry that more physical play will lead to more injuries. So I'm not sure what the answer is there.
I'm not sure what your definition of a core group is? I think Thompson can average 15 and 10 once he's a finished product. And I think thats being realistic. Those would be good averages for a PF or a center in the league. No, there not all star averages, but every player on a good team isn't an all star. So I guess it comes down to what people really expect from players. And are those expectations realistic. Would I like Hawes and Thompson to be 20 and 10 guys with 1.5 blocks a game? Well sure I would. But is that realistic. What is your realistic idea of core guys. Here are some from around the league to compare with JT.
Jason Thompson: 2nd year - 12.5 PPG - 8.3 RPG - 1.0 BPG
Anderson Varejao: 6th year - 8.7 PPG - 7.8 RPG - 0.9 BPG
Udonis Haslem: 7th year - 9.7 PPG - 8.1 RPG - 0.3 BPG
Michael Beasley: 2nd year - 14.9 PPG - 6.4 RPG - 0.5 BPG
Marc Gasol: 2nd year - 14.6 PPG - 9.3 RPG - 1.6 BPG
LaMarcus Aldridge: 4th year - 17.6 PPG - 8.0 RPG - 0.6 BPG
Tyrus Thomas: 4th year - 9.8 PPG - 6.2 RPG - 1.6 BPG
Al Holford: 3rd year - 14.3 PPG - 9.7 RPG - 1.1 BPG
Nene Hilario: 8th year - 14.1 PPG - 7.7 RPG - 1.0 BPG
Joakim Noah: 3rd year - 10.3 PPG - 10.7 RPG - 1.5 BPG
David West: 7th year - 19.0 PPG - 7.4 RPG - 0.7 BPG
Emeka Okafor: 6th year - 10.3 PPG - 9.1 RPG - 1.6 BPG
Now I could do more, but I think you get my point. The majority of these players would be considered core players and JT's stats are certainly in the mix. The last five games he has averaged 15.8 PPG and 8.2 RPG. In January, his worse month in just about every catagory he averaged 4.2 fouls per game. In Feburary it went down to 3.6 fouls per game and in March it went down again to 3.3 fouls per game.
Now this isn't about me trying to make JT or Donte or even Hawes out to be stars. Its about improvement. Improvement in the team and improvement in the young players. In JT's and especially in Donte's case, I see improvement. Hawes worries me, because of his inconsistancy, and possibly being injury prone. But he is still young. At worse, he could be a decent to good backup off the bench.