Luka Dealt to Lakers: Nico Harrison is a Basketball Terrorist

[audiosway]

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.

I knew what you meant by it. I do agree with you that Kyrie and AD have always been #2 players winning titles. That does concern me a little. Klay is a very good facilitator. Especially now that the ball will be moving more. Lively has shown to be a good passer as well. I think too much is being put on having that one facilitator on the roster. Kobe was never a big facilitator. I don't really consider Giannis one either.

Jokic I agree is a very good passer but he leaves a hole on D. Curry is a shoot first PG. Most of the time Curry is cutting and moving to get open. 

I think we'll see Kyrie take that next step as a closer to lead the team. My main point to all of this is that only 1 team has ever won a title with a player having a usage above 35%. That was the MJ Bulls. If you are putting your entire team on the back of one player he has to be dedicated on and off the floor to a crazy degree.

There have been plenty of teams win titles without a "facilitator". I'll take my chances with that.

I think as the season goes on we'll see how good of a playmaker Naji is. SD can facilitate, Klay can as well, Kyrie is better at it then you realize. I think AD will be a good one also. Then there is Lively once he is back. Max is a good passer.

Basketball is a team sport and always has been. Stern tried to make it not that way with MJ during the 90s. Teams soon figured out that no one would ever duplicate what they did with that Bulls team. LeBron has never even had usage as high as Jordan in his busiest season. For that matter, LeBron has never had usage as high as Luka.