06-17-2021, 09:49 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-17-2021, 09:50 PM by dirkfansince1998.)
(06-17-2021, 09:36 PM)TXBamanut Wrote: No...way. I have been screaming at my TV all year on 5-7 plays just like that all year long. If I was KP, I'd be pissed, adn 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."
Here's the problem with all you folks who beat me up when I say this stuff and get so righteously indignant when you think Luka can improve in this area. He DOES take shots he should not take. 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 got the route 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, 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 apppreciate him or are some KP fanboy. You can do both, 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. 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.
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.
But that brings us back to the counter point. Who are the guys that are capable of driving and kicking it out to create the best possible shot. Three of the starters cannot put the ball on the floor (DFS, Kleber, KP). THJ can do it but he lacks the court vision to find the open guy.
I am not ignoring your point. Agree in general. Just think that it is hard to do the things that you are asking for with the current Mavs roster. Ball movement with multiple ballhandlers used to be the focal point of the Mavs offense in the late Dirk years. People complained about the undersized lineups with multiple ballhandlers.
Best example is the Clippers series. The big difference between the role players was the ability to put the ball on the floor and make easy plays of the dribble. Morris, Batum and Jackson could do it. Mavs struggled.
We will see how the new coach approaches the situation. Will we see more play calling and less flow. Will the new GM add the necessary playmakers.