05-09-2026, 12:27 PM
(05-09-2026, 12:03 PM)F Gump Wrote: FIFY.
Even his rookie season, he was greatly limited in availabiity. That was his "good" year, and he only played in 2/3 of the games, and less than 1300 minutes (of the ~4000 minutes in a season). That year he had 4 separate multi-game stretches of being out, of 4, 5, 7, and 8. It got worse in year 2 (3, 4, and 37 game stretches missed). And even more limited this past season, where he barely played at all the whole season (only 115 minutes stretched over 7 games).
The fact that Lively is a plus player when available doesn't really do anything for the team, when he's so unavailable. You (and everyone else who is seeing him as the answer to depend on) are indeed NOT basing that on what he is actually doing, but on what he in theory could do - if he played. It's the Oden thing all over again. We like the idea of what Lively can do, but are ignoring the reality of how infrequently he really does it.
Your analysis of his first season is ignoring the fact that he played 21 out of 22 playoff games, the most important time to be healthy.
You do realize that "I'm not giving up on him yet" and "seeing him as the answer to depend on" are two different things, right?
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