His shot selection plus timing of his turnovers were just deflating, no matter how you slice it. Some if his passing seemed out of rhythm, even if it didn’t directly result in a TO. It still broke the flow of the play. He’s not really an effective point forward (IMO). With ( much more) practice, he might envelop that skill but it’s not working.
I feel bad for Coleman on some level. He’s being asked to do too much, I think, but he’s also not getting a ton of help out there. I don’t know how it’s always him that winds up with the ball and five seconds on the shot clock, but he’s had to take so many bailout threes this year I’ve lost count. And he forces a lot of passes but it also seems like guys aren’t ready for what he’s doing a lot of the time. Might be that he’s not attacking from the spots he should be, but that forced pass in the second half to Dain that got picked off, Dain didn’t make any effort to go get the ball. It was just too easy to reach over him and poke it away.
I don’t know how much of that is Coleman freelancing and how much of it is him not being put in a position to succeed, but in large part I think he looks so bad because the team as a whole looks bad and he happens to have the ball quite a bit. But there are guys out there who won’t even look at each other, and you can’t play that way.
The only message I can think of that might land with Mayer, Shannon, and Hawkins is that it’s tough to play your way on to the draft board but really, really easy to play your way off of it. There are a ton of guys out there with fringe first round talent, and I’m pretty sure showing that you’re not engaged, can’t play your role, and aren’t liked by anyone in the locker room isn’t gonna put you over the top. They don’t care about the team and it’s too late to make them care. They just have to understand that playing for the name on the front and playing for the name on the back is actually the same thing.
