In Reply to: Re: Agree... posted by mikeo on June 09, 2025 at 16:18:01
I was one who thought Cronin should have taken that roll of the dice with Mara. That's easy for me to say because it's not my head on the chopping block. Given that however, I think Mara was and is that kind of potential game changer. It clearly would have been a huge risk and there probably would have been lots of growing pain lows. If Cronin had gone all in with Mara would Dent have committed? Maybe not.
It would have all been different. Would it had been worth the risk? Only those with everything to lose can answer that question. If Cronin would have gone that route he would have had to make that decision sometime during last season. I thought Mara might have been worth the risk and starting him and keeping him in as long as possible could have given Cronin some clues as to how that would all work going into next (this coming) season.
He didn't go that route understandably trying to win as many games as he could last season. When he went after and got Dent it was clear to me that he wasn't ready to go all in with Mara. Still, I think, he was ready and expecting to try and integrate Mara (with his abilities and weaknesses) into how Cronin wants his team to play with the addition of a dominant scoring point guard. I believe it might have worked but clearly there was some work needed - mostly by Mara IMO. Mara, obviously, saw it differently. Bringing in Booker, even with his issues, clearly indicates, IMO, the direction Cronin wants to go. There's still a lot of ifs, but to me it seems that dealing with Booker instead of Mara in this scenario brings potentially more effective Cronin style of play. We'll see if that's the case. It should be interesting.