Luka Dealt to Lakers: Nico Harrison is a Basketball Terrorist

[mvossman]

I agree that continuity can really help. However, with vets it's really mitigated. You also have to think that Kyrie and AD have played together on team USA. Look at the pass from AD to Gaff at the start of that game we saw with AD.

The main aspect of how this team was built it focused on Defense first. Every player out there besides Luka and Kyrie are D first. Now you see Kyrie sticking his nose in there as the leader and playing hard defense. You are talking from an offensive perspective. Gaff and Lively both have a decent post game. AD has an incredible post and mid game. Kyrie just makes buckets. PJ has a good post game as well as an outside shot now. P&R is just an aspect of offense. There are so many other ways to create offense that this team can do. And P&R will be one of them.

Dallas has 2 elite creators in that Kyrie and AD are both elite shot creators. Most NBA champions do NOT have elite PGs. Jasons Kidd won a title when he became a 3&D PG. CP3 has never won a title. John Stockton never won a title. Tony Parker was a scorer, Jrue Holiday is 3&D.

Elite shot creation means they can get their own shot at an elite level. Most creators are NOT distributors also. LeBron and Luka are. But, I would argue that LeBron has cost himself titles by passing the ball and not being the one to own it and take the shot. I've said in the past that if the game is on the line I would rather see Kyrie take the shot than Luka.

Ball movement is the key. You can't double ball movement like you can a single player. Most NBA champions have very good ball movement with an elite shot creator or two. And they play defense first. Look no further than the Warriors and Spurs Dynasty's.

To be clear, when I say elite creation, that means shot creation and creating for others.  I'm not talking about a pure point guard.  Guys like Jokic, Curry, Giannis, Lebron and Kawhi.  Tatum isn't quite at the level of those guys, but he had a crazy amount of help.  Kyrie is probably in the Tatum tier, but he doesn't have the help Tatum did.  AD is a very good offensive player, but he is not an elite shot creator and he doesn't make up for it with playmaking (what makes him so good is he combines good offense with elite defense).

If ball movement is key, then you are going to need a high level of playmaking to make it work, otherwise ball movement is going to equate to high turnover rate.  The guys mentioned above were all elite playmakers and they had help (Jokic has Murray, Curry has Draymond, Giannis had Jrue and Middleton and Lebron had Wade then Kyrie).  Lebron had the least amount of help with AD in the covid championship, but he was playing true point guard that season (he led the league in assists per game) something Kyrie struggles with (if we had traded Kyrie for AD I would feel a lot better about our chances).

The bottom line is Kyrie and AD have established themselves as contending level number 2s.  Its hard to win a championship with that model.  The team looks light on shot creation, playmaking and perimeter defense.  Eventually they are going to need to replace Klay in the starting lineup with a player that fills those holes.  I don't think that player is on the roster right now.  I'm not sure Exum is good enough and he has too many health concerns.  Max feels more like an elite role player.  He would have been perfect as 5th starter with Luka, but I think they need more creation now.