Why didn't Newell play?

[StatGeek]

Yeah but for the last 8 minutes? When we were kind of sort of within striking distance?

It was a good coaching decision, not all of coach Capel's moves are bad. With that said; I simply cannot understand why Tyler Neal isn't getting minutes in front of Thompson, I mean Thompson has one year left and that year will be spent playing behind Osby, Goff, Fitzgerald, Clark, and hopefully Neal. Thompson is simply a player with little current value and zero future value. Neal has little current value, but has the potential for future value. Seems like a no-brainer to me; I don't get it.

 

[SoMuchDramaInTheLNC]

Thompson's a captain (or at least was a captain at the beginning of the season). In terms of his playing time, is Capel just being stubborn at this point, or is he thinking that Thompson will eventually live up to the potential he is ostensibly showing in practice? Because we're halfway through the season, and I haven't seen anything other than the occasional 3 pointer or no-look pass. I hate knocking players like him, but at some point you have to wonder what's keeping him in games?

 

[bgrch1350]

I'm not going to try to decide why certain players aren't playing b/c I don't watch them in practice. For all I know, Thompson dominates Neal in practice. What I do know is that average players can not play 30 plus minutes a game. 38 mins of playing time for Blair is just plain ridiculous. He started out the 2nd half like a player who played 20 straight minutes. He looked winded...so did the rest of team.