fishercob wrote:Chocolate City Jordanaire wrote:fisher, I'm the one who said he was breaking down and I don't mean it as a faux bold announcement.
I'm sick of Gilbert. Sick of believing in my heart from day one that he would miss a ton of games and that the contract was a huge mistake. Now, I'm sick of the feeling that guy's holding everybody hostage.
He looked real under control distributing 20 assists with only 1 turnover, regardless of whether he had any explosive movement or not. What I'm really upset about is that the Wizards once let folks come to Verizon and pay expecting to see Arenas play and he didn't. Tonight, after several days rest and with him traveling to Cleveland he once again does not play. But "the knee is fine".
I'm really think that he's a prima donna and I'm sick of his act.
I've been a fan of this team 35 years and I liked them last season without Gilbert.
CCJ, first let me just say that I love you.
I see two issues in your post above: one is that you don't like Gilbert (sick of him, his act, think he's a prima donna). The second is that his contract was a mistake because he wont stay healthy enough to earn it.
On the first issue, I don't know what to tell you. You're entitled to your opinion and certainly don't have to like the guy. But the 20/1 A/TO ratio you reference doesn't strike me as a guy who doesn't get it.
Tapps said so yesterday; the knee is fine, but coming back full bore after a long layoff is taxing on the whole body. When I read between the lines, I see that this is a guy who has missed most of two years, came back and played brilliantly (despite the rust). So what's the payoff in overplaying him when you're 18 and 60 or whatever? They acknowledge that this is a hyper-cautious approach. But given how much they have invested in the guy (and what happened this season) I don't blame them -- and I certainly don't blame Gil, nor do I think it's a function of him being a prima donna.
As to his injuries, I don't subscribe to the notion that Gil's breaking down. He's had two injuries during his career -- the deep ab strain and the knee. In both cases he hurt himself by trying to come back too soon and overworking himself. I don't think that makes him injury prone. I think much like D-Wade, Gil 2.0 is going to shock people with how good he is.
I love you, too, fishercob.
fisher, that 20-1 assist ratio made me really, really happy. Thus my "starting to roof for him again" comment. Gil could come on the court with a cane and be better than a lot of PGs. Letting the game come to him was a terrific sign.
As for the hyper-cautious approach, I just wish they'd have announced it before the game at Verizon and yesterday's game in Cleveland. If the Wizards said after that Cleveland win, "He's shutting it down because there's still risk involved, especially after he began to limp after getting fatigued", then NOBODY questions them. Gil looks good and so do EG and E Tap. But they don't do that. Makes it look like Gil's got everybody anticipating what will he do next--OR the Wizards are just stringing people along. I really don't know.
As for his injuries, time will tell, but the guy he reminds me of is Grant Hill. Hill didn't come out of a playoff series and played through the first foot/ankle injury. Took a lot of medical procedures. Not sure if he came back too soon, but each time he needed more procedures.
I'm just concerned that at the PG position, and being a player that needs great lateral movement to be the dynamic player he was--I just don't know about Gil.
I will try to not be such a hater about the contract. What's done is done and Arenas certainly didn't choose to be injured nor did he hold a gun on Pollin and Grunfeld at contract time.