<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Dumpy @ Feb 20 2008, 05:02 PM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (pegs @ Feb 20 2008, 04:39 PM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Plus, there's something you don't see in the statline: His level of effort, and his defense. Both have to come in question. I mean, some nights, you'll see him trying hard, and other nights, he'll just sit on the perimeter and watch until they give him the ball to throw up an ugly shot (which sucks for him. I actually feel bad that he has to deal with this offensively shitty team on some nights).
While I wouldn't completely discount the fact that he has been injured, and have to give him some recognition for what he does on some nights, he's just not consistent. He doesn't give his all every night, and it gets annoying to see him throwing up bricks when he could be attacking. I just gotta say, he's not looking like a player who really deserved all of that 60 million. In my eyes, at least.</div>
I can't disagree with that. My point (mostly) is that, coming off of last year, you can't really argue that he didn't deserve $13 million dollars THIS year. Last year, especially down the stretch, he was giving effort every night. Whether he doesn't have any incentive; he wasn't being pushed by Kidd; injured; distracted by something in his personal life; or some combination of them, this year is clearly different. It seemed like he was dogging it to start the season--remember RJ took some shots at him for "finally joining us in the season?"--but just when he was untracked, he got hurt, and I'm not surprised that the effects have lasted this long. However, a half-assed Vince is still a decent player.
Part of the problem with the criticisms is that, had Vince not played for three weeks or a month until his ankle was better, he would have been criticised. He toughed it out the best he could, and his performance suffered (if you believe, as I do, that the injury was the sole cause of his poor play, which could easily be wrong). It seems to me that anyone who would have ripped him for not playing for a month has no right to rip him for playing poorly for the last month.
However, he appears to be improving, and the week off can only have helped. If you compare his stats on zero days rest to his stats on one or more days rest, you see a trend--he is definitely better with at least one day off between games, which could suggest that the injury is a factor. Get this: Since January 1, in the second game of the seven back-to-backs, Vince is averaging just 16.7 points on 42% shooting . . . and he is just 6-20 TOTAL on three-pointers. [that inlcudes one 29-point game on 10-17 shooting]. However, when he has one or two days off, he has produced much better. Just check the game logs. six of his seven games of 25 or more points were with at least one day off. All ten of the games that he took at least 18 shots were with at least one day off. Hopefully, he is getting better. Let's see how he ends the season.
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I'd say I believe the injury is affecting Vince - or at least I would really like to. Still, why the hell did we re-sign him if we knew he had an injury problem during the playoffs? Was the FO foolish enough to believe that a 30 year old player with injury problems the previous season would suddenly become completely healthy?
I mean, we saw a similar thing with Jason Collins. He got injured one season, and we expected him to come back the next season all good and healthy, because of rest in the offseason. He comes back, and what happens? More injuries. Same thing happens the next season, and we're all in for disappointment.
So you'd think, from the JC experience, we wouldn't go and re-sign a player with very recent injury problems to a really long contract, right? Nope. We give an injury-prone player, in Vince, a contract that he technically shouldn't ever get, because of his injury problems, he's an aging player, and he has little upside in the future. Add that to the fact that he's not exactly propelling us to wins, and that's why I'm pissed he has that contract, and that's why I believe he doesn't deserve it.
