Jalen 'Can He Play Alongside Luka?' Brunson

[bartlettbear]

The thing is that Brunson just flat out looks lost because he has no clear role to play. He doesn't know his place yet. Same goes for most of the Mavs though. Only Luka and Kleber and somewhat Wright and Finney Smith look comfortable in their roles yet.

Luka needs to play some off ball in order to get the other guards going. He cannot handle the ball 37 minutes per night. Brunson is a lead guard same as jjBarea and Delon wright.

They don't know how to play a flow offense yet with lots of ball movement. 

Actually the first quarter against Portland was excellent with many secondary assists. That's how they are supposed to play. 

Many times especially in the 3nd halves the games became super stagnant and the offense dropped because players started to do their thing.

Brunson flat out forces his shots more often than not, same as Hardaway Jr.

If you believe Brunson and THJ are forcing their shots then the same applies to Luka and KP, especially the former. Luka almost cost us the game in DEN and did cost us the game vs POR with his hero ball antics.

You already alluded to the problem, there is little to no ball movement. It becomes contagious and it starts at the top, which also includes Carlisle.

Luka has more touches and time of possession than anybody in the NBA by a country mile. He is 7th in isolation frequency. He is simply doing too much and it's icing out other guys like Brunson, Seth, etc. I cannot further emphasize the importance of preserving Luka's energy tank for a potential playoff push. At this current rate, he will burn out by midseason; he definitely needs to play more off ball. 

The offense becomes way too predictable, especially in crunch time, and it will get even more exposed the more it lingers. No idea if it is all by design via Carlisle or the head coach is helpless and defers to his stars. We're good now but we could be much better, which is what it's gonna take if we want to beat playoff caliber teams more consistently.

No because both Luka and KP can shoot over almost all defenders  thus their shots are not forced while Brunson does his , reverse pivot move in the paint that all Nova players do but does not work at this level and then he shoots a fade away jumper.