AROUND the NBA:

[michaeltex]

PS - "The Mavs have done the hardest part. They have their elite creator." ----

Was this intentional wording, or a slight misstatement of your thinking?

I recall the discussions last summer -- you and others felt the Mavs were making a mistake in putting the ball in CF's hands, and needed someone else to be the creator, vs my pov that I felt they saw him as potentially becoming a high-level high-usage creator of offense, and were going to put him in that role (with lots of failure as part of the path) to accelerate the process.

There's no question they did what I thought they would. I think it was a great investment of his rookie season minutes. 

But I'm not sure that he is that Elite Creator guy yet, and not sure his future will be best as The Creator on a team.

My question is how YOU see it now -- iyo, do they need another (better, more natural) PG/creator to play alongside CF? Should he be a secondary creator? Or do you see him as the guy to create the offense?

Maybe another way to frame this is to offer some comps of bigger star players who have the ball a lot. As you see it, is his (potential) trajectory --- 
1 80-90% of Offense Creation -- Luka, SGA - ball dominant, all the time
2 40-60% of Offense Creation -- Giannis, Lebron, Kawhi - lots of ball dominance, but in need of a PG who carries much of the offense
3 20-40% of Offense Creation -- Tatum, Durant - lots of usage, able to create, but not the guy who regularly does it himself, lots of off-the-ball play

I'm not sure who he is (or where he's headed), but the answer is a big factor in what they need alongside, and how they need him to improve.

I would add that playing Coop at the point provided him a unique perspective on the game, increasing his understanding and effectiveness with more exposure. As it turns out, this was an excellent season to let him learn the pro game, increase his confidence and live with the mistakes that inevitably happened. No pressure to not make a mistake to stay on the floor, in fact mistakes were good if they were learning experiences.