(12-26-2022, 05:54 PM)SleepingHero Wrote: This would be the weirdest timeline.
If Trae can't work next to Murray, how can he work next to Luka?
TBH, with how Luka is starting to spend more and more time deferring ball handling duties and basically lining up as a post up power forward, I'm not sure the ball handling between the two couldn't work. I think Luka's ankle is a real constant problem, and it's going to be necessary to start limiting ball handling duties particularly during the regular season to not overtly risk longer term damage. Not to mention Trae I think unquestionably has far more respect for Luka than he does for Murray. I think it could potentially work even better than it did between Harden and CP3, whom basically everyone was saying would be a disaster before CP3 went there. That's purely from an offensive standpoint, defensively it's a completely different story. But I think Trae's efficiency would jump up significantly when he isn't the number one focus of a defense, and their offensive hub firepower could make up for it. I think the efficiency of both increases based on each others presence. The combined playmaking with two top 5 NBA passers is almost more appetising than the scoring ability. I think sometimes we forget or overlook how ridiculously elite a passer Trae Young is (I think he's arguably better than Luka). I think he's an 11-12 APG guy with high level teammates around him.
No idea how we'd even come close to offering the best package for him though, unless his downturn in efficiency and defensive weaknesses has other teams hesitant to give up big packages for him.