12-18-2020, 09:29 AM
Regardless of what anyone thinks of Powell, he's coming off of a major injury. We watched KP take like 40 games last year to work himself back into a comfortable rhythm. On this roster, Powell has endured the longest stretch of not playing, I think, so some of this is learning to trust his foot and leg again, and some of it is simple rust.
Knee jerking from "he won't be able to move right" to "he's moving great, but I'm upset because he doesn't look like the best version of himself immediately" seems kind of ridiculous.
As for his playing time, well, the team has a lot invested in him. It would be silly not to give him every chance to play himself back into rhythm. We know that the team values him - that's nothing new. We also know that Carlisle is aware that he's holding the first team back right now, due to the fact that he didn't finish the first half with the first team...or their final stint in the 3rd quarter, I don't think.
Finally, we have NO idea how the rotation is going to work. Not only does the preseason not reveal too much, but even the first 20 games are likely to be all over the map with unexpected choices. This is what Carlisle does. He experiments during the first half of the season and sees what the analytics shake out for him.
Everybody needs to relax. On a night when Luka wasn't great, they would've won the game by like 10-15 if the result had mattered.
Knee jerking from "he won't be able to move right" to "he's moving great, but I'm upset because he doesn't look like the best version of himself immediately" seems kind of ridiculous.
As for his playing time, well, the team has a lot invested in him. It would be silly not to give him every chance to play himself back into rhythm. We know that the team values him - that's nothing new. We also know that Carlisle is aware that he's holding the first team back right now, due to the fact that he didn't finish the first half with the first team...or their final stint in the 3rd quarter, I don't think.
Finally, we have NO idea how the rotation is going to work. Not only does the preseason not reveal too much, but even the first 20 games are likely to be all over the map with unexpected choices. This is what Carlisle does. He experiments during the first half of the season and sees what the analytics shake out for him.
Everybody needs to relax. On a night when Luka wasn't great, they would've won the game by like 10-15 if the result had mattered.