He has had different stages throughout his career. Early on, it took a second string PG with heart named Speedy to bail him out. Honestly. Later, he found his game and began to dominate, which benefited us because we needed the scoring. Now we need more than he can deliver by himself, so we need him to make others around him better, which he has never been asked to do, and honestly outside of timmy he is not very effective at this. Honest.
Over the years he has done what Pop wanted as the "head of the snake." Pop utilized him for what he was good at. But now at no fault of Tony's, the other parts of the snake have dwindled, and we need a different gameplan. We dont have the same guys in Tim and Bruce and Big Shot Rob, and we desparately need the guys we have to get involved.
We dont have shooters that I trust outside of manu and bonner, and even bonner hasnt done it in the playoffs, which some players are never able to do. So again, though we used to be this, now the answer is no.
They need to be less predictable, with a less straightforward attack. Swing the ball, get the defense off balance then attack, regardless of who gets the opportunity.
Lakers come to mind...
Tony is one man. I hope Pop takes advantage of ALL our young guys who can get to the bucket (Hill, Jefferson, Malik) and keep the other team guessing. Dont assume that TP can beat a defense that is geared to stop him specifically. The TP theory only works until you play a great team with a great coach and a great scheme to stop TP. then we will be forced to rely on the role players so its best that we get them tuned up before the playoffs.
I criticize Timmy on a regular basis. Manu too. Pop. I am a critical dude.
I think everyone does to some extent. I think our team has changed to the point that we have very different needs at the point guard position. The loss of the guys above, and Timmy's decline, along with great new talent has changed the landscape drastically, and the old tony hurts where he used to help. But its not tony, like i said, its the scheme.