RememberTheRoar
“I’m not as worried about the 5-on-5 scoring.”
In terms of harsh criticism, I think this is where you have the difference between beat writers and analysts. Laz and Powers do express criticism, I remember Laz really questioning the Q firing.
But they will only ever go so far because they have to face these folks regularly. You are likely not going to see them say something like the coach should be fired or X player traded because expressing those kinds of opinions regularly may make it impossible to interview these folks.
You need a distance, a neutrality. That's why you don't see the more decisive analysts in the locker rooms doing beat work. It's not just sports, politics too. You're not going to see Trump's biggest critics in the press conference, though White House beat reporters do ask critical questions. The real meat of the criticism comes from analysts who speak after the presser is done.
Also a reporter and an analyst isn’t the same job. I feel like most people who casually pay attention to media don’t necessarily know the difference — especially when it comes to politics, but also somewhat in sports.