Quote:
Originally Posted by Usually Lurkin
I personally would rather have seen Dirk produce for the first few minutes of the quarter, then completely disappear from exhaustion than to watch him come back in after the scrubs completely lose control of the game, only to do pretty much nothing anyway.
Would I have much rather seen Dampier pick up his final foul 2 minutes into the 4th by busting Nene in the chops? Yeah. But we watched 12 minutes of Dirk's basketball life get flushed down the toilet rather than watching 6 minutes.
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Sure, but that's hindsight bias. At the time, Rick's decision wasn't, "Do I rest Dirk for two minutes and face the
certainty of being down 15+ by the time he comes back (and it won't matter anymore), or do I keep him out there despite his request?" He didn't know for certain we'd get down big, he just knew there was a chance. So, the decision was, "Do I rest Dirk for two minutes and
risk us getting down 15+ or do I keep him out there despite his request?" He gambled and decided the risk was worth giving his star the rest.
Now clearly some people think the risk of leaving Dirk out for 2 minutes was too great to even chance it, and that's fine. I obviously don't agree. But the point it wasn't a certainty at the time, so Rick's decision can't be evaluated in that way. You may still think it was the wrong decision, given the risk, but that's all it was at the time--a risk.