You know guys, multiple things can all be true:
1. Pitino would like the team to take more 3s
2. There are good 3s and bad 3s
3. Jenkins is a productive player
4. The ball sticks to Jenkins hands too long sometimes, resulting in too many shots for him and not enough for others who might be more productive with those opportunities.
5. RJ Luis has a world of physical ability.
6. RJ Luis needs to make much better decisions in a variety of ways.
7. Ledlum is undersized to play PF and struggles to score against longer bigs at this level
8. Ledlum is a beast as a rebounder, an excellent defender as long as he isn't in too bad of a length mismatch, and makes your team better
9. Glenn Taylor is a tremendous defender and makes excellent decisions about when to shoot.
10. The team would benefit if Glenn Taylor were more aggressive offensively
I could go on. But the point is that no player is perfect, and the fact that there are criticisms of some things a player does is not equal to trashing the player or not appreciating that there are other things the player does well.
My own beef with Jenkins is really #4 - most of his points are coming at the expense of other players who would get the ball in better positions and would very likely be more efficient than he is if they did EXCEPT that he is not a pass-first point guard and thus his offense comes at the expense of others who I believe would be more productive if he let go of the ball sooner. So he's productive personally, but I think the team as a whole would be more productive if more of those opportunities went elsewhere.
If you're going to criticize Dingle, then you have to start with Pitino and Jenkins. Dingle is a player who has spent his life with the ball in his hands being a scorer. He's just a poor fit for the system here, and that is compounded by Pitino playing him with Jenkins which is probably not a pairing that can work (unless Pitino takes Jenkins off the ball, which he isn't going to do).
Dingle would be fine playing the "point," to the extent we want to call Jenkins a point guard then given the same minutes and opportunities it wouldn't surprise me if Dingle were more productive at the position than he is. Otherwise the pairings should be Jenkins with Taylor and Dingle with Alleyne. You could swap Taylor and Alleyne, doesn't matter - the point is that if you want Dingle to be an offensive player then you need to pair him with a guard who doesn't need the ball and give him enough minutes to get into a groove. That hasn't happened for him here, and frankly I feel badly for him. I guess you could critique him for not adjusting, although Pitino seems to think he has based on his comments the other day.
Also for those who somehow forgot - Ponds was a TREMENDOUS player. Could be a little lazy with his feet defensively, but unstoppable with the ball - one of those players who was worth the price of the ticket to watch. There isn't anybody on this team who belongs in that conversation.
