I never thought he would overtake KO, but he didn't need to for a rotation spot. Same could be said for Simone tbh....but you bring up a good point about what we thought about Simone. It was said that Simone was only getting minutes out of charity and because Hardy has a good heart. If that's what we actually thought about Simone, why would it not cause alarms if TH was stashed behind him? I think that scenario shows the lengths that people went to defend TH's honor. Like the expectations got so low that it was completely normal for him to be behind Simone (who we thought was getting cut) and Luka.
There were also several iterations of the rotation. Took a long time for Hardy to land on something that worked and the injuries also opened up different rotations. The rotation was very fluid and different guys were in and out of the rotation. Positions were flexible enough that pretty much anyone could fit into an open spot. To me, it raised an eyebrow that TH was not even in those considerations....whether it being TH actually being terrible or Hardy simply not believing in him. I still think it was super reasonable to expect him to be in the mix and I didn't expect him to be this raw....or I didn't expect his lack of feel to be so apparent and impactful. But that's what comes with expectations, the possibility of not meeting them. Maybe some people were quick to call him bust...idk. I also think people were bending over backwards to lower their supposed expectations of him. What I know for sure is that me having some expectations of him being an NBA caliber player caught me some heat. Even now, I would say he's probably worse that I expected, but that's because my expectations weren't piss low.
About the negative stuff....I think everyone likes him as a person, that's not what I was talking about. It does not seem like they think much of his game atm. I mean, we had that whole conversation about the locker room and what they thought about him. TH is a guy who we applaud when he's able to string a few dribbles together...probably not a player that stands out in camp amongst players.