Everyone giving Gortat a free pass seems to your latest mantra. Its certainly true that he doesn't draw criticism like Lopez does, but, lets face it - bad for Gortat is nowhere near bad for Lopez. At his worst Marcin is about as good as Robin at his best. Heck, if you want to show that Gortat is due more criticism why not give some specifics of his play that merit criticism, instead of vague complaints about 'everyone else' giving him a free pass.
Over the years I've challenged you to do that for various players and I've yet to see you respond to it.
I agree - bad for Gortat is nowhere near as bad for Lopez. But that does NOT give Gortat a free pass from criticism. We've lost leads with him in the game, that's just a fact. But not giving him any responsibility isn't fair. I am not a Lopez fan right now, just like I'm not a Vince Carter fan right now. But us having bad first quarters isn't JUST Lopez's fault. Similarly, later in the game when we lose leads, Gortat is in the game and deserves some of the fault for losing those leads. Not all of it of course, we have bigger problems like our guard play. But as an example, Dalembert ate him up in the Kings game, leading to the monumental collapse.
Recently you were going on and on about how lousy Grant Hill had played in a particular game, giving no specifics, as always. I'd recorded the game and watched it after reading your remarks - expecting to see Grant defending like Warrick and a shot selection ala Peitrus. Nothing stood out at all - I've certainly seen him play better but I didn't see him dragging down the level of play so as to be the main culprit in the loss. I suppose it was the Kings games but I don't remember, offhand.
Yes, it was the Kings game. His defense was horrible and he couldn't get going offensively. I normally love Grant Hill and it stood out to me in that game that he wasn't playing well. If you disagree, that's fine. It just stood out for me and I went the whole game waiting for him to wake up and he didn't.
When you respond to a post you often pick one little detail to rail about... is that what happens in a basketball game - you pick out one thing a guy does wrong and ignore everything else. You can say you don't but prove it - give a reasonably thorough analysis of some players performance in a whole game. Pick anyone you want but Gortat would be my choice.
What are you talking about? I was reacting to the general feeling here that Gortat can do no wrong. I still like the guy, but he's not a superstar like everyone here likes to think he is. He's a great piece, but he's not THE piece, although you wouldn't know it talking to people here. He's got ok but not great hands, his set jumpshot from about 10 feet is very nice, he works well on the pick-and-roll with Nash, he rebounds great and he seems to hit free throws well. However, he has no back-to-the-basket game, an issue we've had for years from that position. I would even venture to go as far as say that Channing Frye has a better post game than Gortat.
The good thing is, no matter how much we argue about these pointless things, between Gortat, Lopez, Frye and Warrick, right now we can afford to look at where our REAL problem is: Shooting Guard.
