07-22-2024, 01:28 PM
(07-22-2024, 01:18 PM)DallasMaverick Wrote: My impression has been that Hardy is too willing to "force" stuff. Shots, drives, passes. My eye test says that he has a lot of turnovers that way.
It was even worse during summer league last year. I think the coaches were trying to figure out whether he could be a point guard or not. So they put the ball in his hands as the distributor, and oodles of turnovers and bad decisions resulted.
During the regular season, they mostly played him as the SG. He didn't have to bring the ball up the court under pressure, he wasn't expected to be a distributor. And he did much better.
He was, indeed, better at putting the ball on the floor than THJ, which is why Kidd elevated him off the bench during the playoffs.
Dinwiddie? Equally bad at defense, except he's a little bigger and stronger than Hardy. Offensively, more adept at penetration without turnovers, probably better judgment with the ball. Not as prone to hunt bad shots, maybe?
31 years old, so right in his prime.
Yes, I think he'll steal minutes from Hardy.
I think it was a good move.
I don't think you're understanding my points, or at least not fully, which is probably the result of me not articulating them with adequate clarity. In particular, you've missed my point re THJ completely. It's ok, because I've got to leave the house now and have lost the life force to argue about this, anyway. Here's a couple of topsoil-level responses I'll leave you with:
He'll VERY OBVIOUSLY steal minutes from Hardy - that's not even worth discussing, and you absolutely have the right of it.
I agree with your first paragraph about Hardy's mistakes. Those are obvious, too, but he was showing significant improvement, and really, we're just talking about him learning not to drive all the way into the paint when 2-3 defenders are waiting there. I have all the confidence in the world he can figure that out with playing time, but sadly, that time will now probably not come this season. His mid-range creation game is not only not RAW, but it's ADVANCED for his age - much better than Dinwiddie's, imho. But, Dinwiddie didn't come here NOT to play, so it's easy to see where this is going.
The emboldened is a false equivalency. Dinwiddie has been BAD since leaving here. Maybe he does better this season, but I don't think it has much to do with his age, as in you can't just say "he's only 31." I worry that the '22 playoff run was for Dinwiddie what the 2011 playoff run was for DeShawn Stevenson. Not sure about that, but it's a worry, and I KNOW that Hardy's best days are ahead of him.
Long story short: this signing is a solution to a problem that I don't believe existed.