01-23-2024, 09:25 AM
(01-23-2024, 08:29 AM)Chicagojk Wrote: I just want something more. Luka having the ball is going to get good shots. We have seen it for years. He is going to score or create looks. I just am growing tired of your main offense is him looking for the mismatch and doing his thing. Next time down, Kyrie does his thing. Is there a way to build a better mousetrap? If your #3 is also a guy who can score 15-18 points in the future, will that player ever play to his max level here if this is the offense we are running. If Luka is off, can he go more into distributer role and not shoot 30 times on a bad shooting night? Mavs are a little limited here with their current team but what happens when they add more talent?The Luka/Kyrie Harden-ball and the PnR action are fine. We have success at a high level. Every team in the league does those things. But we need more. We can’t run that the whole game. The successful teams we play share the ball more and it causes their role players to play better. We knew in the first half that Luka was having a bad night. We need to be able to go away from him and have an alternative plan in these situations.
Not to spill old wounds, but Jalen is a top 5-10 player in the East this year for a good team. KP is close to an all star if he played more games. KP wasn't healthy here, so you can't put this all on the Mavs. But would the Mavs ever have gotten peak play from both while in Dallas? If not, why not? It is not just one coach either. Carlisle thought this was the best way to play as well. Maybe it is. Or maybe there is a way to play different and then do the Luka ball for stretches (IE end of games, hot streaks, important possessions).
Let me add, Boston appears to me be the best team for me. Even when they were short handed. Such a benefit having Jrue, White and Brown being able to switch on perimeter players. Then they have really good long creators on offense. Just a really nice put together team. They have been hardened through a lot of playoffs games and some really tough losses. But they are really mentally tough now.
For me, I would really look to not go small (especially with long stretches of Luka, KY and Hardaway together). Hardaway is playing hard, but is limited. They score plenty but it feels like they give up as much as they get. I would look to throw some players into the fire and see how they respond. I don't think Omax is ready, but I wouldn't be against giving him small runs to see how he handles it.
Let me add, Green had some tough misses. I am never going to complain if he looks to be aggressive. 11 shots in 38 minutes is probably a little low. I thought he looked pretty good. I still think there are times where his defense is overrated. He tries and plays hard but there are just a few things that just minimizes his energy.
The tricky thing is: when Luka has these games like this he totally disengages defensively. A true great NBA player would double down and find a way to effect the game defensively. Can’t do that when you let the refs get in your head.
There has to be some sort of sharing offense we could run when 1) Luka has an off night 2) shots aren’t falling 3) refs are screwing us
We need cuts to the basket. Some sort of movement to make the defense work. Players who can drive to the basket with the ball. Actual plays being run that aren’t a PnR variation. Luka more as a distributor and him being involved off ball with movement and spot up shooting
Boston is the best team in the league. I don’t care what the listed heights say…..White and Jrue play bigger than any of Green, Hardy, Kyrie, THJ. I think the formula is to only have one(maybe two) Kyrie sized players. Exum plays much bigger and is closer to Jrue/White in how he’s a bigger presence. The Celtics size was a problem (same as other teams) and that’s the direction we must go
And yes. Omax can’t be worse than Williams/Maxi/Hardy offensively. Put him out there for a 3 min stretch in the middle of the game when we can’t get stops and see what happens