franco12 wrote:xavier wrote:franco12 wrote:Did Austin Rivers like insult Thibs or something? Because watching him light things up here early in this game, thinking we sure as hell could have used him right about now.
Let's not exaggerate. Rivers was brought in here for a role that was later given to Rose. After we traded for Rose, it was clear that Rivers was leaving. That pro flashes here and there, doesn’t mean he would be the solution to our problems. We still have Rose, Burks and IQ who are better than him in guard positions, and Payton would definitely be ahead of him when he's starting ahead of everyone else. It should not be forgotten that Rivers gets minutes in the Nuggets because most of their guards are injured.
No one is exaggerating. Payton is garbage. Rivers put up 9 points- most early when Denver got out to a hot start- in 20 minutes. We’ll be lucky if Payton scores 9 points in the play offs or plays 20 minutes.
We could use Rivers right now.
We may not have understood each other well, it is not at all disputed that Rivers offensively can contribute more than Payton. But I want to say that Rivers signed a relatively team friendly contract with the Knicks and in return he should have gotten a lot of chances from the bench. But that was before it became clear that IQ could very well contribute this season as well, and before Rose was brought in. After that, it was clear that Rivers no longer had a serious place in the rotation and a solution was being sought for him given that it was obviously such an arrangement. Of course it was more elegant that we simply cut Payton, but it was clear that's not going to happen.
Also, what I want to say is that Rivers wouldn't be of much help to us at this moment, because he's not a defender, he's not a PG, he's more of a SG, and he's a very inconsistent shooter. He’s kind of poor man’s Burks.
