(06-14-2021, 12:42 PM)burekemde Wrote: This is taking things out of context. How many times has he found and passed to KP made him.open. a million times. He even callef plays for KP overriding the coaches playcall. Changing plays to pass to KP.in the post. We saw how that turned up when KP had to create the offense.
No...way. I have been screaming at my TV all year on 5-10 plays a NIGHT just like that all year long. That video isn't cherrypicking at all, and I've been saying that ALL YEAR. If I was KP, I'd be pissed, and it wouldn't be thinking "I'm better than that guy" (which I doubt seriously), but "hey, I'm open, I have a better shot than that crap you just clanked."
Here's the problem with all you folks who beat me up when I say this stuff and get so righteously indignant when someone suggest that Luka can improve in this area. He DOES take shots he should not take. No one is talking the bail out at the end of the clock stuff, but he tries to take bail out at the end of the clock stuff with 10 seconds left on the clock, when he doesn't HAVE TO. There have been loads of times that he's pissed his help off doing crap like the video above. It doesn't destroy the fact that he's a generational talent to point that out and admit it. It doesn't blame all the losses on him and it doesn't give KP a pass for when KP's been playing like crap.
BUT some of it does rest on Luka. He's not perfect and a 40+ usage rate and having to put up 44/15/10 as an average will not get you from round 1 to a ring. #fact
Luke reminds me of the classic extremely talented leader who really can do most things better than the people he leads...supremely talented, extremely high capacity, but those type of leaders can get the rut of hovering over their direct reports, and because of their affinity and skill can't stand to watch someone take longer or not do as great a job as they do, so they end up taking over and pushing the person to the side. Those subordinates either get used to having their work done for them or if they truly have talent, they leave because they want to be a part of it. They get frustrated and most of them know, "Yes he's better", but they want to contribute and as a leader, you WANT people that care about contribution and selling out for the company (or team in this case)...and the high strung talent, you usually have to mentor into a more respectable understanding of life...the more talented, the more you put up with and vice versa. It's the classic bottleneck -- in Luka's case, it's TERRIBLE that he assists on or scores like 80+% of the teams points. Some of you wear that like a badge...that will get him to leave in a couple of years when he figures it out that he can't do that and win in the NBA. That's not a shot at Luka, that's a reality.
It's a false dichotomy to say that if you point this out you somehow don't recognize the greatness of Luka or don't appreciate him or are some KP fanboy. You can appreciate him and evaluate him fairly, and honestly, I think that's the most balanced analysis of the team. You can hate on KP all you want, but he's right...the ball is better when it moves, and when I say move, when the ball is moving, assists are more spaced out and come from several people. 20 assists by one player doesn't mean the ball was moving well, it means one dude moved the ball well...it often means it didn't move well as a team.
Often the best basketball comes when the ball moves 3 passes off the drive and the shot you get is primo...the Mavs just didn't do that often last year. They fell into Luka dribble until he scored or got someone a shot, and that wore him down. Yes, he got them amazing shots, but in the 4th, in the playoffs, he and the team paid the price. In those clips above, you would see KP with the primo shot and there you go. IN fact, some shots he passed up, but a lot of the shots you guys got mad at, I thought was moving the ball better to get the even MORE wide open shot, usually from the wing to the better corner 3. That's good ball.
If you think anyone objectively hasn't watched film of these games and not seen this, and when I say that, I mean OTHER players in the league...they dont' want to play like that. Everyone likes the idea of the unselfish superstar, but Luka didn't exhibit that last year at all.
Even though Luka is probably as close as you can get to a player who can do it by himself, he can't through a deep playoff run, because no one can (which I pointed out was a lesson that MJ said he learned from the '86 series against the Celtics)...they've all got to be better.
But after a year of frustration, I'm not sure they will make it as constructed.
"There are no friends on the court." - Luka Doncic