Jordan scored 63 points against the Celtics in the playoffs, establishing that as a gold standard playoff performance and everyone went nuts...he's amazing. Larry Bird called him "God disguised as Michael Jordan", it was the greatest scoring performance in a playoff by any player anywhere ever. He was anointed the greatest player ever...and they lost the series. IN fact, they got SWEPT in 3 games. He was flanked by players like Woolridge and Dave Corzine, who weren't horrible, but weren't HOF either, but there were some players who were on his championship team in 91. Paxson for the series played 80 minutes and took 15 shots...the 5th most shots by a Bulls player in the series. Jordan took 33 shots per game and averaged 44 points per game.
In the championship series in 91, in 6 games, Paxson took over 3 times as many shots in that series than in the '86 series, and while playing the SAME amount of minutes per game and took the 4th number of shots in the series. Jordan averaged 22 shots a game and scored 31 points/game.
Everyone said Jordan is amazing and all at age 23...everyone was ecstatic, except Jordan. His takeaway from that was that I cannot have a usage rate that high (44.5 and Luka's was 40.4) and score every basket and win a championship. Almost every one of his points came off the dribble, and not off an assist...
He did exactly what Luka did...and he, at least, had a player that scored 20 ppg on 40% shooting with 20 shots per game in 1986. In the 1991 series against the Lakers, Jordan's usage rate was 31.8).
The roster has to change, but Luka has to change...the offense has to change. Luka can't score 60 points a game and make it through to a championship...Jordan figured it out. Luka has to figure it out. Donnie said it...he thinks he can score every time, but he's got to learn to use the pieces on the team. It can't be "I'm going to score and if I can't, I'm getting the assist". There has to be a consistent set of plays that maximize whoever we have on this team to get a consistent bucket when Luka isn't in the game AND when Luka IS in the game.
I am still where I was. You can say what you want about playing with Luka, but any star that you bring in, to help Luka, will require Luka giving up the ball and the offense molding to their talents. You won't find ANYONE that is a bona fide 2nd star or 1a that will come here for this narrative.
Sit in the corner.
Shoot 10 shots.
Get blamed for losses.
That's just fact. I've "listened" to so many people on this very forum bemoan the "atrocity" of Luka being expected to work to get the second star involved or having to mold the offense to include KP....that, two days after the loss, is as ludicrous a take as it was the first time I read it.
This is a legit view that players in the rest of the league will see, whether all of us do or don't because we think Luka is perfect (and he's as close to perfect as just about any player in the NBA...that's true.)
Players that are crap and need to win or score some points to up their ability to sign will come. Established players don't want that...they want to be an integral part of what's going on.
For example, Bradley Beal isn't forcing a trade to go from taking 22 shots per game to start taking 12 shots per game and have fans go "Well, he's not as good as Luka, so he should be happy he ever gets a shot" and "why isn't he helping?" He's not a regular fan with a ticket...he doesn't want to sit in the corner and worship Luka until Luka gets tired of dribbling or gets caught and gives him the ball.
You can say what you want about KP, and honestly, I don't like his attitude at times, but I do understand it. For all of those who said "he wasn't aggressive in the LAC" series, you need to watch the series, because you didn't...not seriously. He basically had a couple of options. Cut baseline or receive the ball and shoot a 3....time and time again, he cut baseline, and rarely received the ball. Yeah, I was frustrated that he went 0-5 from 3 in Game 7...I don't absolve him of that, but it's not 0 or 100 either, it's not he's horrible or he's perfect, which seems to be the only two positions allowed on this board. He's trash and ditch him and if you aren't in that camp and say anything positive, you're an idiot living in fantasy world. He shot 29% for this series from 3, that's less than Josh Richardson, and that's fact. He had a terrible game from there...no question that was bad...
I get the emotions because of the loss and the frustrating year and KP's remarks himself, but I think it's leant to a very, very skewed and unrealistic perspective that at the same time says "He's trash" and "We'll get something better than him for a trade because we {fans} somehow see something that others don't see." If your first take is true, really true, he's not getting traded for anything beyond a bag of beans, until he's expiring or we are going to use our cap space taking back crap to get him out, because both can't be true.
My personal belief: Luka needed to have his 1986 playoffs to figure out that he can't score 44 a game and win on his own, with either making every shot or directly assisting on every shot. I don't think he would articulate that he thought he could, but it's one thing to not agree with it verbally and quite another to play like it.
Everyone else on the roster is not equal, it's not Luka and 4 interchangeable widgets that don't matter because they aren't either as perfect as Luka or they are trash and should shut up. You have to learn to use the pieces you have to the best of their ability...and you might win a championship, but you'll have to give up the ball and see John Paxon shoot 3 times the number of shots, and the offense is going to have to be BUILT for ALL players to do well, not one to just rack up stats, because he's an awesome player and a great guy...that's just truth, whether you like it or not.
In the championship series in 91, in 6 games, Paxson took over 3 times as many shots in that series than in the '86 series, and while playing the SAME amount of minutes per game and took the 4th number of shots in the series. Jordan averaged 22 shots a game and scored 31 points/game.
Everyone said Jordan is amazing and all at age 23...everyone was ecstatic, except Jordan. His takeaway from that was that I cannot have a usage rate that high (44.5 and Luka's was 40.4) and score every basket and win a championship. Almost every one of his points came off the dribble, and not off an assist...
He did exactly what Luka did...and he, at least, had a player that scored 20 ppg on 40% shooting with 20 shots per game in 1986. In the 1991 series against the Lakers, Jordan's usage rate was 31.8).
The roster has to change, but Luka has to change...the offense has to change. Luka can't score 60 points a game and make it through to a championship...Jordan figured it out. Luka has to figure it out. Donnie said it...he thinks he can score every time, but he's got to learn to use the pieces on the team. It can't be "I'm going to score and if I can't, I'm getting the assist". There has to be a consistent set of plays that maximize whoever we have on this team to get a consistent bucket when Luka isn't in the game AND when Luka IS in the game.
I am still where I was. You can say what you want about playing with Luka, but any star that you bring in, to help Luka, will require Luka giving up the ball and the offense molding to their talents. You won't find ANYONE that is a bona fide 2nd star or 1a that will come here for this narrative.
Sit in the corner.
Shoot 10 shots.
Get blamed for losses.
That's just fact. I've "listened" to so many people on this very forum bemoan the "atrocity" of Luka being expected to work to get the second star involved or having to mold the offense to include KP....that, two days after the loss, is as ludicrous a take as it was the first time I read it.
This is a legit view that players in the rest of the league will see, whether all of us do or don't because we think Luka is perfect (and he's as close to perfect as just about any player in the NBA...that's true.)
Players that are crap and need to win or score some points to up their ability to sign will come. Established players don't want that...they want to be an integral part of what's going on.
For example, Bradley Beal isn't forcing a trade to go from taking 22 shots per game to start taking 12 shots per game and have fans go "Well, he's not as good as Luka, so he should be happy he ever gets a shot" and "why isn't he helping?" He's not a regular fan with a ticket...he doesn't want to sit in the corner and worship Luka until Luka gets tired of dribbling or gets caught and gives him the ball.
You can say what you want about KP, and honestly, I don't like his attitude at times, but I do understand it. For all of those who said "he wasn't aggressive in the LAC" series, you need to watch the series, because you didn't...not seriously. He basically had a couple of options. Cut baseline or receive the ball and shoot a 3....time and time again, he cut baseline, and rarely received the ball. Yeah, I was frustrated that he went 0-5 from 3 in Game 7...I don't absolve him of that, but it's not 0 or 100 either, it's not he's horrible or he's perfect, which seems to be the only two positions allowed on this board. He's trash and ditch him and if you aren't in that camp and say anything positive, you're an idiot living in fantasy world. He shot 29% for this series from 3, that's less than Josh Richardson, and that's fact. He had a terrible game from there...no question that was bad...
I get the emotions because of the loss and the frustrating year and KP's remarks himself, but I think it's leant to a very, very skewed and unrealistic perspective that at the same time says "He's trash" and "We'll get something better than him for a trade because we {fans} somehow see something that others don't see." If your first take is true, really true, he's not getting traded for anything beyond a bag of beans, until he's expiring or we are going to use our cap space taking back crap to get him out, because both can't be true.
My personal belief: Luka needed to have his 1986 playoffs to figure out that he can't score 44 a game and win on his own, with either making every shot or directly assisting on every shot. I don't think he would articulate that he thought he could, but it's one thing to not agree with it verbally and quite another to play like it.
Everyone else on the roster is not equal, it's not Luka and 4 interchangeable widgets that don't matter because they aren't either as perfect as Luka or they are trash and should shut up. You have to learn to use the pieces you have to the best of their ability...and you might win a championship, but you'll have to give up the ball and see John Paxon shoot 3 times the number of shots, and the offense is going to have to be BUILT for ALL players to do well, not one to just rack up stats, because he's an awesome player and a great guy...that's just truth, whether you like it or not.
"There are no friends on the court." - Luka Doncic