(1 hour ago)Chicagojk Wrote: Clayton is older and that is a little concerning. I never thought of him as a true point. He works best playing with other creators. Best case scenario for him is something close to JET. Maybe not as good but some of the same scoring and big game instincts. On the other hand, he could be in China next year.
Well, this is where semantics come into play in a confusing way when we have these discussions. To use your example, JET is who I'd call the Mavs' PG for basically his entire Mavs career. It's true that Kidd took over a lot of the strategic parts of the job when he arrived (and that change was for the better), but when the team got into their half court offense, it was essentially dozens of variations of the two-man game between Terry and Dirk. THAT's the part the Mavs are lacking, imo, and while I don't know his game like the back of my hand yet, the highlights make it seem like that's the role Clayton Jr has been playing, so far.
Between him, De Larrea and Sasser, I think it's more clear (and positively so) that the Mavs are even thinking about mixing in a fair amount of pick and roll into their offensive plans. I personally think that's a relief and portends potential good things for the way the roster is designed, as long as we assume that at least 1-2 of Johnson, Lively, Gafford and Cisse will be around for a while. What Kidd tried last year made ZERO sense to me. Maybe I missed the genius - that's very possible. But this...I'm starting to feel like they have a plan.
Everyone has just been saying "wait until Kyrie is back." Setting aside any kind of debate about what he has left or how injury prone he's likely to be, one thing Kyrie is NOT is a pick and roll ball-handler. AMAZING iso scorer. Deceptively good and smart as a movement/relocator type of off ball player. Obviously able to pass to the right guy when an advantage is created (by himself or someone else). Pick and roll ball-handling is its own niche skillset with very structured goals, and he has just never played that way (that I know of). If the plan is to build the offense around Kyrie, than pulling defenders out of the paint at almost any cost should be the goal, imho. The presence of sooo many vertical spacers on the roster is SCREAMING for a prevalent use of pick and roll, imo.
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