FanPost

Playing With Heart - Adapted from Chakroot



I was reading the comments about the Quinton Ross/Mario West replacement - and halfway thru I read this comment from Chakroot which I think is worth discussing....


thats the problem with saying things like...

“the season is already over for us” and “the remaining games are meaningless”

there are a ton of guys that are still trying earn spots on this team… guys like humphries are going to be playing their hearts out down the stretch even though its a foregone conclusion. some of these guys will never get the chance to play with the caliber PG they have right now

The "guys like humphries are going to be playing their hearts out down the stretch even though its a forgeone conclusion..." describes to a T the type of guys that you want to build a team around.

I am unabashedly one of the biggest Hump (perhaps the biggest) Hump supporters on this site, and have probably written hundreds of comments and fan posts arguing how important Hump is to this team and how he should be resigned ASAP and sharpied in as our starting PF for the next 5 years. There are a lot of detractors on this site who want to argue that we should offer big money to guys like Zach Randolph, David West, Tyson Chandler, etc....

I have argued about the importance of a salary cap and how the production of Hump vs the production of Randolph or West does not justify the salary differential between Hump and them. I have argued about the importance of rebounding, and people will either say that he "steals" rebounds from other teammates or that he has empty rebounds (never understood what is an empty rebound as if you don't get the ball your opponent will), and that he is only performing this way because it is a contract year, yada yada yada etc.

Look the fact of the matter is that aside from being a talented scorer or a strong rebounder or possessing a high basketball IQ - the guys that are going to lead you to the playoffs and ultimately a championship are warriors and are going to fight all season long.

On this team we have Hump, DWill, Morrow and perhaps James (as he was this player in college but has been hurt most of his rookie year). Anyone who thinks that the salary cap differential is irrelevant when replacing Hump with Randolph, etc fails to understand a) building a team with a salary cap and b) the need for players with heart who are warriors on a playoff team. Think back to our Finals run - we had K-Mart, JKidd, RJ and role players like Jason Collins who always played hard (guy took more charges than anyone in the league i think). You will not succeed without those types of players........I would go so far as saying that our front office and coaching staff should watch every guy on this team - anyone not playing hard day in/day out in practice and in games is expendable and should be shipped out. And this should be as much of our focus in free agency and the draft as a player's stats, size, athleticism and position.

Put a team of warriors on the floor who have heart - and even if they are less skilled than the other team - they will find a way to win 70% of the time.