HOLY KRISTAPS: All Things Porzingis | TRADED to WAS

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Crazy theoty but Carlisle and Luka purposely avoid giving KP too much touches in the regular season, so other teams noticed the trend that KP isn't much of a second fiddle. But when playoffs come, with teams guarding heavily to Luka, he'll more than willingly pass to KP being more open than before. Unleashing the dormant unicorn....at least thats what im hoping for.

I disagree completely.  I would hope for some master conspiracy that ends up good, but I"m not buying it.

I'm telling you...if KP rests Wednesday, they are shopping him.  AT this point, he and Luka have to have a sitdown or go out for a long lunch or go play lazer tag or something, just the two of them, but this needs to get fixed.

Normally, I'm about "KP has to deal with it", but I guarantee he's been hearing from all the coaches that "Luka's just making the right play", "No, Luka isn't about himself and just creating highlights for himself" and all that, and then you get this ridiculous forced pass to DFS which the easiest and the right pass should have been a lob to KP, and it suuuuuuuuuurrrre looks like at this point, if you want the ball you have to kiss Luka's butt in the press and be his best buddy...and honestly, the further it goes, the more it looks that way.

You see Luka get in the post and immediately, he gets the pass from KP -- a good entry pass, not a "make me seal them for 3 seconds before you get around to it" pass -- and yet, when KP gets deep with the ball, he has to seal and wait an call for the ball and he might not get it.  Luka can find his friend Bobi whenever he gets deep on a smaller player pretty quick but KP has to wait and jostle or just get passed over.

People can say "oh, he's not doing anything with the mismatch", but I counter with he's shooting well above league average in the paint...and you work on it in practice and you get him up to speed, because THAT is one of the things that will be there when the game slows down in the playoffs, so you are going to need that.  All this jack threes seems to tighten up against good teams, but that screen-switch-pin will be there any time you want it.

For all the on time and on target passes that people seem to hear about Luka, the only guy he can't find on time and on target is KP.

Luka had more 3 pointers tonight than KP had shots, and it's not because he wasn't open.  He's take 15 shots a game, which isn't crazy...but you've got Luka taking almost 7 more shots per game, the 2nd most shots/game in the NBA (second only to Bradley Beal -- and people THEY could co-exist...lol).

I will say this...if KP gets a block, it seems, like clockwork, Luka gets him a pass in the lane.  Go back and watch.  It's kind of weird that I'm tracking this....but it is a thing.  And it's not all KP, Luka is exacerbating it now.  It may have been KP being whiny in the beginning, but Luka is contributing to it now...it's a thing.  I believe he knew exactly what he was doing on that pass to DFS and KP knew it too.

I really hope they work it out...but it's getting less likely as the days go by.  

Because here's the thing...Luka can just play like KP is "just another guy" and can sort of freeze him out to make a point and cut his shots down, but that's not winning basketball, and this team will NOT win that way.  

If Luka wants to prove his leadership, he needs to show it here.  (None of this is an admission that everything KP is doing is right or everything Luka is doing is wrong, but they both are in this, and they need to figure out how to fix it.  Shaq and Kobe had their beefs and it was largely for the same reason...the big man always depends on the guards or the flow of the offense for the ball, while the guard just take the shot when he wants it.