Is Condition/knee surgery why we didn’t see Point Zion earlier?

My best guess is with the injury and then COVID, the time to implement some of that stuff was probably limited.

Also, that's a much more complex thing to ask of Zion, and given the above, maybe they just wanted him to get a good feel for the game before unleashing it.

Obviously, those are just guesses.

SVG mentioned at one point that the previous staff had Point Zion as a goal, but with the injury and then the suspension of play, they never got him to that point.

So, Gentry was also planning to use Zion at the point, but it never happened because of the injury and the pandemic.

It’s good for a big, but not so good for a Point. He does lose his handle 2-3 times a game even when no one is around him. Luckily it doesn’t matter much because his man is usually sagging 20 feet away from him under the rim.

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His handle is not bad anymore.

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Eh, I still see him create "unforced errors" if you will 2-3 times per game where he just loses the handle on the ball. We usually don't lose the ball entirely but it messes up his drive, and he has to dribble out and reset and usually passes out of it.

That's not good.


But again, I almost view that as a plus because I have no doubt he'll fix it which means his handle will get better.

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The team and particularly Zion and BI are still having to work to hard to score in half court, and they’re both elite finishers.

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I feel Like part of that is because we have spacing issues.

The Celtics were collapsing 2 guys on Zion in the paint because they were fine leaving Melli open and fine trying to recover on other guys if the defender has to scramble back to help out.

Point Zion has been getting guys really open looks and we’re still not a lights out team. Even if you’re recovering getting a hand in a guys face throws them off.

I’ve noticed his handle has drastically improved over the last 5 games or so.

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Still think some of the coaching decisions with both Gentry and Stan were motivated in part by Griffin wanting to showcase some players to try and move them

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Possibly.

But I do think in general fans don’t take into account the influence internal politics has in affecting on the court decisions.

For instance, I would bet money that SVG was not the driving voice behind playing Hayes as much and as long as we did to start the season.

I would bet that if Bledsoe was just some guy, and not the second most expensive contract on the team and acquired by Griff to be a lead-by-example vet, you wouldn’t be starting him still given his lethargic play.

I mean I don’t personally think either of them are toxic locker room guys, by all accounts Hayes is a great guy and supportive teammate, and word has been Bledsoe has really been a strong mentor to Kira thanks to the Alabama connection, and as you say, he was jumping up and down during the Celtics win. I just don’t know that Hayes has “it” mentally and if Bledsoe can force himself to want to be here enough to be a meaningful contributor, which so far I haven’t see .

Since I do think Bledsoe often looks like he is spending most of his time on the court thinking about what other team he would like to be on, and even some national guys in separate shows were joking about the stark difference in his court demeanor with the lack of energy and aloofness this season vs prior ones.