Quote:
Originally Posted by markus1234
ignore-worthy ?
If a 17ppg scorer goes down (Mayo, Duncan, Dirk... whatever), it does NOT mean that the team scores 17points less. Other players step up and fill the void. Where you really feel the difference is crunch time.
And so far Mayo makes us worse in that regard. He is a solid 6th man but not a go to guy. 4th quarter is what seperates "stars" from "players" and not just a nice stat line... The same goes for Kaman btw. He is pretty much like Mayo.
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You're confusing two different ideas here with your argument.
A lot of people like to state that "only the last 5 minutes of an NBA game matter". That's a bunch of horse crap.
What is legitimate is this: It's harder to execute in crunch time. The best players are on the court, the focus of all players is ratcheted up, and the game is generally reffed differently.
So it's fair to say that Mayo won't truly establish himself as a go-to player until he can consistently execute in crunch time. It's NOT fair to say that Mayo's excellent floor game is irrelevant because he didn't play well in crunch time.
And it's not at all accurate to say "if he doesn't produce that line, someone else will". Yes, obviously if Mayo doesn't score a point, other players pickup some of that weight and the Mavs don't just lose 17 points. But the odds of that slack being picked up completely, and at the same level of efficiency, are very low.