I don’t doubt that mentoring a player to get insight into what options were available that he may have missed is beneficial, but I think you have to get to the point where everyone knows their basic roles within multiple sets first. This is a brand new organization. There is no way they are ready to compete on a serious level. From appearances, they are still struggling to run through the basics, and nowhere near playing intuitively enough to get into good flows. If VDN is good and the players don’t put up silly resistance, I’d look for decent ball to be played in March or April. That’s when the IQ part of it will begin to come into play. For now, it’s basic training. Hell, if you followed Jackson’s years, it would take all season long to incorporate a PROVEN veteran into an ESTABLISHED team, because his offense was sophisticated. A lot never got it, the good ones would become useful by playoff time; Rodman was the only player I ever saw get it rightt out of the box.
   One would hope that the staff has already determined where they’re going with the team, and this first few months is laying the foundation and determining which of these players is going to work out. I understood what Vinnie meant when he said he didn’t have a problem with TT’s 2-17. We were going to lose that game 95% of the time if he went 17-17; the point is, did he get to the spot he was supposed to, and was he supposed to take that shot. He’s not a 12% shooter; those will fall later when he’s not having to think about every step on every play. That’s the big temptation to play the veterans who pick up the x’s and o’s quicker, and I’m glad that so far, VDN seems content to balance playing a watchable game tonight with getting some PT for the players he has to make a judgment on this year.