Eric, he's being used as a jumpshooter and out of the flow of the game. That's not his strength. He's much better at creating, then shooting--and of course he's spectacular when the game is on the line, which obviously it never is during preseason.
Simply making him a jumpshooter will not work. 3 games and counting and all 3 have proven that point.
Nice post, Chap.
Early Jameer Nelson (before his injury) era, Calderon era and now Nash era. All three were ball dominant play makers, slashers and Hedo has struggled (and will continue to struggle) in all that periods (In other words not used on his strengths). Actually only period he has been used as a facilitator was 2009 season and it was due to circumstances. It worked great there, he gained his reputation and they reached to the finals. (his current contract was given to him for his point forward performance, not his shooting performance)
I think the main issue is that Hedo is not as strong as other valuable Point Forwards who take ball control from above average pg'ies hands. (He is somehow similar to Kukoc class, definetly not Pippen/Lebron class). In last two years he experienced both the top and the bottom of the league respectively. During last off-season I think he passed from crucial gate for himself after he request his trade and decided to go chemically better team with relatively smaller role instead of the team which might give him more of a facilitator role.
From his point of view, He has to adapt the role given to him no matter what the conditions are. If he asked just hustle on defense and just shoot well on offense, he should better do this to complete final period of his NBA career on this team (note: Even if he does that he is expensive contract for that role). Last year he kinda refused to do that and turned out to fiasco for himself. From Suns point of view, if Gentry and Nash want to be finals again, they should create more depth on Suns game by using his strengths, at least sometimes.
