Creating w/o another Creator?

[DanSchwartzgan]

Much has been made of the lack of a "secondary creator" this off-season.

Much has been made of the three point shooting ability of additions Bullock and Sterling Brown.  Even Frank N. has had some corner 3 success in limited attempts the last two seasons.

Focus on those two things alone and one might presume Dallas will continue to run a very similar offense to what it has been running.  Space the floor with shooters and let Luka take advantage of the space created.  

But, Kidd coached teams did things differently.  The Smoking Cuban had an article last month that pointed out that Dallas was 29th in cuts per game (scoring a super efficient 1.3 points on such plays).  Milwaukee under Kidd was third in the league.  The article also pointed out that Kidd's 16/17 team was fourth in drives and 2nd in assist percentage off those drives.  Dallas was 13th and 15th in those metrics.  Bottom line, there are other ways to "create" if you don't have  a natural secondary creator.  You create through movement.  

I think Kidd will want to play with more force offensively meaning percent of O at the basket goes up and percent of O from behind the arc goes down.  Don't get me wrong.  We will still throw up a lot of three's.  Having players who are good at that will create tons of space.  Kidd's history says we may take advantage of that space differently than we have in the past.  This may help us when it comes to the playoffs and open three's are more difficult to come by.  The SC article made this point, but stopped short of looking at who on the team is any good at scoring from cuts or driving and dishing to create open looks from places other than our heliocentric star.  

Let's take S. Brown for instance.  Many focus on how good of a marksman he became last season.  But, he was also in the 88th percentile in Cut Points Per Possession and the 93rd percentile in PPP off screens.  He's not a PG, but was in the 87th percentile in Drive/Pass-Out rates and 72nd percentile in Drive/Assist Rate (he can also get to the rim unassisted...92nd percentile).  Bullock doesn't cut much or get to the basket much.  But, when he gets closed out on and puts the ball on the floor he's in the 93rd percentile in Drive/Pass-Out rate and 72nd percentile in Drive/Assist Rate.  I don't know if Frank N. will play much (or even make the final 15).  But, if you go back a season when he actually played, he was another strong drive and dish guy with a Drive/Pass-Out Rate in the 87th percentile and a Drive/Assist Rate in the 96th Percentile.

BTW, look for DFS to be a beneficiary of this style of play.  He's in the 99th percentile in PPP off Cuts and 95th percentile in PPP off screens.  He's in the 95th percentile in Drive/Pass-Out rate and 79th percentile in Drive/Assist Rate.  He's also in the 87th percentile in Finishing at the Rim.  I don't know that we saw enough of Josh Green to know what we have there.  But, he looks to have great timing on his cuts (99th percentile in Cut PPP) and is a willing passer (88th percentile in Drive/Pass-Out Rate).  He was only in the 55th percentile in Drive/Assist Rate, but his Potential Assists per 100 passes and his Passing Creation Quality are both very high.  Put another way, much of his O is lacking, but if he's asked to move without the ball and move the ball when he gets it, he's likely to excel. 

All numbers come from BBall Index.  Not all of these guys did these things with great frequency, but when they did cut or drive and dish, they did it well.  I loved the ball movement the last two seasons when Luka sat.  How much better might the offense be if we could have more ball movement when he's on the floor and do it in a way where he doesn't have to generate every assist himself.  I don't think we fully take advantage of the space created by having good shooters on the floor when guys are simply standing in the corners hands up while watching Luka work his magic.  Living and dying by the three isn't a great strategy in the playoffs.  We have to "create" more offensive diversity.  Since we didn't add it through another play-making creator, we have to get it from somewhere else.  It looks to me that we are going to add it through a much greater emphasis on ball-movement and people-movement.  The additions we brought in are really good at spreading the floor, but the thing many of us might have missed focusing on 3% is they are also good at some other things that Kidd has historically emphasized.