Dec
05
It might be possible to minimize each individual game loss, but not the recent accumulation of losses. It's a slump, a bad one, maybe an unprecedented one. But let's also consider losses of a different sort which this team began accumulating months and months ago:
With the departure of KP, a radical reorientation, and the loss of many familiar faces from both management and coaching staff.
Players lost to injury --a long litany all too familiar to most of us-- but the Saga of Oden perhaps deserves special mention, and even Nate's Achilles blow-out when he had to sub in practice for the fallen ones.
Players lost to trades, etc. --Sergio, Blakey, Outlaw, Jay-Bay, Martell, Juwan, Frye. And new players added to the roster: Oberto (for about a minute), Camby, Patty, Wesley, AJ, Babbitt.
Monty moved on to bigger and better things, and Maurice Lucas... moved on to the ultimate venue.
Loss is hard. Change is hard. It makes you sick and emotionally vulnerable. Ever hear of the Holmes Rahe stress scale? Even if a change is 100% positive (and most changes are a mixture) it creates stress which eventually takes a toll.
Our team has absorbed a lot of change and a lot of stress of late. Our players amazed everyone last year by "stepping up" over and over again as teammates went down to injury. But there comes a point when your resilience is exhausted --and it doesn't matter how much money you're paid-- you're tapped out. Your strength and confidence will come back, but it requires a renewal of the spirit; it's not a simple matter like flipping a switch.
It's tempting to think that one more change --replacing Nate, reworking the starting line-up, trading for somebody new-- might "fix things up." And it might. Or not. When a team is already struggling with a string of such changes, better proceed with caution, and be sure that change is the right one.
Folks, we're a franchise that's grieving. That's a process, unfortunately, and not an event. As a fan, I don't stop sharing my concerns. I also don't give up, I don't stop offering my support.