re: Dell Likes Our Core . . . No Worries

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As long as Tommy sees what we see in Monty, we will be good

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Could all of this just be GM speak? Yes, I really wouldn't have expected Demps to say anything other than what he said. But there also are reasons to think he's being 100% honest.

1) Tommy just gave Monty a 4 year extension. Have we really seen anything different from Monty this season? Most of us are ready to move on because we feel like not enough has changed. If not enough has changed maybe Benson feels the same way he did when he extended him?

2) The injuries and youth are definite factors that people ready to fire Monty aren't even entertaining. If this was year 1 or 2 instead of year 4, he'd probably be getting a lot more leniency from the fans. We are tired of giving out grades of Incomplete to Monty, we feel we've done 2 maybe 3 times already if you count CP3 + Mike Malone as making it hard to evaluate what was Monty. Benson has only been around for 1 grade of incomplete, which he felt good enough about to give a 4 year extension.

3) Part of why many of us are ready to move on is that we see George Karl as a viable alternative. But his age is a definite issue because it is likely that even if he does a great job, you will have to switch coaches at the very delicate time between Anthony Davis' 2nd and 3rd contract. If you pick wrong there you could chase the franchise player away. So maybe Karl isn't a viable alternative, and if he's not then maybe Monty is safer than we think.

4) Is Monty down with the tank? Having no emotion over the obvious Rivers foul got me wondering. The talking point after that was Monty "never" argues with the refs which is absurd. He's constantly arguing for calls from the bench, so it's pretty peculiar that he wasn't going crazy in this situation. I didn't think him looking like he was ready to leave was normal at all, I was expecting him to at least react like David Wesley reacted. If Monty's down with the tank, then he has to think he has job security.

I'm officially ready to give another coach a try, but long term all that really matters this year and next year is Anthony Davis' development and finding most of his major sidekicks going forward. Even if everything the Monty haters say is true about him, Monty staying the next year or 2 is not the end of the franchise. Just keep that in mind before going off the deep end if Monty doesn't get fired this year.