Re: Why Antoine deserves more credit and less criticism:

["Nathan A." <nja13@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Why is this seen as a selfless act that AW should be lauded for? You have 
the coach basically telling a player: "We want the ball in your hands and 
you can shoot it whenever you want from wherever you want." Who is going to 
turn that request down? He's basically been given permission to be that 
ball-hogging player at the Y that you always hate to get stuck with. Did 
you expect Walker to say: "No coach, I want to focus on my rebounding more 
and battle for inside position and depend on other people to get me the 
ball rather than launching 3's after one pass"?

Nathan A.

>Imagine a coach going to any power forward in the league and this
conversation occurs:
>COACH: "Look, we don't have a real point guard. As a result, I'm going to
place a lot of the ball handling duties in your hand. Very often, I want you
to bring the ball up the court, start the offense and set up shots for our
all-star guard. Also, I'm very big on using the three-point shot, so
whenever you're open, take it--and because most power forwards aren't used
to perimeter defense, you're going to have a lot of opportunities to shoot
the three. I still expect you to rebound and drive to the hoop as well.
Finally, I don't have a competent backup for you, so you're probably going
to be among the league leaders in minutes played."
>PLAYER: "No problem coach, whatever you want."