Wow, I don't know how you could get much more wrong.
Miami was fronting Al all game. What happened in the 4th was we stopped using Hi-Lo to beat it. Why, I don't know, guys probably were just reverting under pressure. But Al was definitely being physical with LBJ, getting plenty of space from the rim for a lob or entry from the top of the key. Saying Al was responsible for not getting the ball due to being passive is beyond ridiculous. Perhaps you should watch it again.
Also, these nominal improvements represent steps toward a much more complete game. We have definitely seen, this year, flashes of very good defensive rotations from Al. It's a big deal to see he can do it, and he will get more and more consistent as he works at it. Same goes with his passing, 2 years ago he didn't see any need to do anything but try to score once the ball was in his hands. Last year he started passing out of doubles and finding open shooters from time to time, this year we are seeing that sweet hook pass into the lane, a lot more interior passing between all the bigs and Al is passing directly out of his shooting motion with accuracy to outside shooters.
It's really odd I feel like the only person who was wowed with Al opening himself up to that high pass against the fronting defender, and shielding the incoming ball. Last year Corbin specifically talked about this and implied Al didn't even get what he was talking about. If Al can do this he can also open himself up rolling to the basket after a screen. These plays result in fouls called a lot more often than his typical shake n bake push shots. Also if he can get this going a lot more of the court will be useful to him. Do you see how this stuff sort of all comes together?
Nerd, you and others do a wonderful job of supporting your statements with statistics and I don't want to discredit that too much, but in a way this stuff is a bit of a smokescreen in that there seems to be an implication that the player is a finished product. Maybe to you he is, or you want him to be since his best attribute alone is not good enough to build a team around. But it isn't so. These additions to his game do matter and do help make the team better, and the things he added in the past continue to improve. Altogether it represents a commitment to hard work that Al gets not only no credit for, but actually is accused of the opposite.
Obviously I don't expect to change anybody's mind around here, so clearly I'm a little crazy to keep chewing on this argument. But I'm excited to see what happens next with him. IMO he is going to be really, really good coming on down the stretch this year, we are going to start seeing strings of games where he is averaging over 3 assists and 5 FTs.
When that happens the FO is going to have to think really hard before committing to moving on without him.
