Londonking said:
Is that really the common-held concern regarding Peja, by the majority of Kings fans? I thought justifyable criticisms were (in no particular order)...he didnt show up at clutch time, wasnt physical enough and could sometimes tend to 'go missing' on court.
Maybe 'trying' is tied up with those specifics, but from what i remember of the last game vs Sonics we couldnt have asked him to try any harder...he did all he could.
Perhaps we have to add 'inconsistency' to the list!
For once.
I really don't want to make it seem like I'm knocking Peja just because I don't like him. If you were here last summer, you'd remember me defending him when others were saying that he chokes every year in the playoffs. But that's neither here nor there. And allow me to apologize in advance for the length of this post.
The point is that he often disappears for long stretches at a time, when you don't even notice him on the court. To be fair, this is not his fault alone. For instance, in the second half of the first game of the playoffs (maybe the second, I'm not quite sure) he didn't touch the ball at all on the offensive end for more than half of the third quarter. That's unacceptable because once he did touch the rock, he drained a jumpshot. As a team, we should be looking for our most potent offensive weapon. BUT, as a player (especially a player as talented as he is), he should be putting himself in situations where we can't help but get him the ball so that he can perform. He should be demanding the ball and making it happen. While the team failed to get him involved for some reason, he's just as much to blame for not making himself known.
And these are the things that I'm talking about. When Peja isn't scoring and isn't involved offensively, he's not involved period. I'm blanketing, but as a rule, it's the truth. There have been games when he finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds, but very few. And that's another thing, is that we know that he has the ability to do more than score, but he doesn't apply himself more than once every ten games.
Peja should be a matchup nightmare. He's big and strong (I'd kill to be 6'10", 235lbs, and I'd be a superstar), can shoot as well as anyone ever, has the ability - it's rarely displayed, but we've all seen it - to put the ball on the floor and go to the hoop, has the tools to be able to murder any smaller defender if he just fought for position and developed a go-to move, and he has the type of team that will find a way to get him involved. So what's the problem?
More often than not, it's that Peja doesn't give 100%. And that's all that pisses me off about him. I wouldn't care if it was Game 7 of the Finals and he had 3 points, 3 rebounds and 1 assist, as long as when I watched the game I saw him working his *** off, chasing loose balls, boxing out, crashing boards, fighting to get open, trying to keep his man from scoring, and all the other things that Peja is NOT known for doing.
And the reality of it is that if Peja played like that on a regular basis, he'd be a top ten player in the NBA, easily. 25 points every night, 8 or 9 rebounds, 2 steals, and an A+ in Bricklayer's post game grades, night in/night out. A max player.
But that's not a description of Peja's game. And it could be. That's what frustrates me. Not that his game is inconsistent, but that his effort is.
