That's absolutely true. There are other factors in JA development , I'll grant that. But this hybrid limbo we are stuck in seems to have kept us from becoming anything different than we were in November.
I came on strong because, like most public trends, people create scenarios that are overly simplified, other people echo it and suddenly the scenario is fact.
Last year it was Rodney. This year it's Sterling. In Germany pre WWII it was Jews, Boshevicks etc. Currently in America it's Mexicans, Muslims etc.
This is not a dig on your hypothetic suggestion. You're suggestion is a narrative that is worth exploring. But taken with what I observe in the chatroom and the plethora of threads recently in this forum I felt the need to butt in. I'm choosing a thread less charged than others.
There are valid possible reasons JA has been brought in slowly.
Of the guards his 3 pt shooting has been the worst.
He was the most turnover prone until recently.
He's not a pg that is balanced. He is focused more on driving to the basket than distributing. His athleticism makes up for it in that if he gets into trouble he can contort his body and distribute, (yes this is his much superior attribute over SG), but teams will easily figure out how to negate his drives to the basket if he doesn't become a better 3 pt shooter unless some of the other weaknesses on this team improve. That's what happened to TB but at least his supporting cast made up for the weakness and TB was a pass first guard.
His defense has been the poorest of the four guards prior to his benching.
He yells at his team mates on and off the court. That's maturational but if not taken to task will not change and will be a big problem.
He is foul prone. He would have received a lot more playing time in the first half but he picked up two quick fouls. And yes they were bogus but part of his problem is he doesn't know how to interact with the refs. Kemba was a master at interacting with the refs. His smile was infectious. Bazz didn't use this method but chose to go to the refs and politely discuss what happened. Jerome, Jalen, Amida and Shonn scowl at the refs. The refs should be unbiased. But most of us know that's not how things work. Smart players figure things out and work with the system. The "so called" principled players will be sitting on the bench with foul problems.
SG can drive to the basket. He struggles with finishing and/or distributing. Is he selfish? I disagree with people proposing this. He certainly lacks Jalens quick burst and jumping ability so the coaches move the bigs away from the basket to allow for more spacing. It's compensation for his limitations. But not having players to distribute is part of the problem. SG does not inflame the refs or other players. He drastically improved his defense (Jalen has as well) and manages to stay out of foul trouble. I love TSam, but he was a poorer version of SG in all aspects of the game imo and I feel strongly that forcing the coaching staff to put in an immature and undisciplined Jalen from the start of the season would have inhibited his development and the future of UConn as opposed to helping it.
