[Captain Disaster]

Actually, there are some hopeful signs coming out of Male's original observations about the team. What we are seeing is a team that badly wants to win, number one. Secondly, we are also witnessing the sacrifices that all the players are making to try to make it work (Jamison's facial expressions, Nash's fewer shots, Dirk's struggling defensively as a center, Walker showing signs of tailoring his game to this team, Finley learning to pick his moments, Howard outright scrambling for everything, etc...). Finally (Remember that the jury's still ultimately out on the dismantling of last year's team), we need to give this group a year or more to get going (IMO) because I think that most of the frustration that we often feel towards the team is related to the bar being elevated to the ultimate level last year (we could see that we really were a true contender), and the obvious flashes of brilliance we've seen so far from this group (and the flashes of confusion). At this point, it looks like Nellie just needs to continue to go with the tight rotation to get players used to what each can & will do in every situation, & to separate the main guns from the role players in everyone's mind; AND to develop a solid bench (we may have to sign additional or different players for this one). I am concerned about whether or not we keep Jamison. Just because he is a defensive liability, he sure can score quickly.