(01-23-2021, 10:04 AM)DanSchwartzman Wrote: His PER of 17 is third on the team behind Luka and KP. His On Court and On-Off are second on the team +8/+9.2. His TS% at .620 (.611 before last night) is second on the team. But unlike #1 and #3 (Maxi and WCS), Brunson creates his own shots. He creates 75.7% of his 2's (Third on the team behind Luka and Burke) and 23.1% of his 3's (Second on the team behind Luka). Yes, he's taking .9 more FG attempts per 36 than last year, but right now with his TS% as good as it is, who do you want taking those shots instead. Is it "forcing" if they go in?
Another really encouraging thing that I've written about before is the improvement of Luka and Brunson in shared time. Last year they were a net negative in their time together. This year (8 games and 89 minutes) the pair is +17. Brunson is easily Luka's best net rating pairing in this small sample size.
Brunson (at least the version we have thus far this season) is WAY down my list of players I want to criticize and you have to look really hard to find anything to criticize him for.
http://gph.is/23yQ5oe
Btw, Luka + Brunson were actually a net POSITIVE last year at +2.6 in only 202 minutes total (they have already played 110 minutes together this year in 1/5 the time).
I would also like to add that Brunson leads the entire Mavericks team in 4th quarter scoring at 5 ppg. For perspective, Luka is technically second with 4.9 ppg but with more shots and less efficiency. Do we want Luka taking less shots in crunch time? Don't think so.
I think Brunson's and Luka's championship pedigree bodes well and could possibly be the next Dirk/JET 4th quarter 1-2 punch with some KP mixed in there. Curious to see if Carlisle plays each closing line-up by ear or forms a more stable group.
https://twitter.com/CallieCaplan/status/...2092238849