Before springboarding a bit off of this quote, and Duke I always appreciate your contributions, Hal, I'll probably dive more into your detailed post tomorrow, especially with this stuff, your longish posts in breaking things down as you see them does allow one to create a complete checklist in pondering their own perspective. Anyway....
Duke4life831 wrote:As an outsider who has been watching this group for awhile now (also rooting for you guys to win it all because of Tatum). I do think there is a lot of beating around the bush and trying to find ways to mask the main problem with this core.
There is just a lack of creating easy shots for others in my opinion. I think guys have improved in this area, but when the games get tight and pressure kicks up, I think muscle memory just kicks in. And when Tatum and Brown are the two primary guys in the offense (top 2 in touches, shots, and time per possession in the playoffs), neither one of these guys are great facilitators. Again Ive been praising Tatum's growth here, but that growth is more along the lines of he makes those solid open passes now. But neither guy are point forwards, you cant count on either one of them when it comes to putting the ball in their hands and consistently creating and finding open shots for either them or others. Too often they get tunnel vision and will settle for their own tough contested shot and you can see teammates know this as well and you see a lot of standing around and watching.
Again to be clear, Im not saying neither one of these guys are capable of making plays for others. Its just both guys are wired to be scorers. Muscle memory kicks in and that is what theyre going to be looking to do.
I see Bradley Beals name as a replacement for one of them or Collins as a 3rd guy. I just dont think either really solves the issue at its core. I think the core issue is the culture is set by the stars and those guys have a score first and second mentality. I think if this continues to be an issue, you made need a cultural shift and bring in a PG that is a legit facilitator or a wing that can actually play that point forward role.
I won't jump into my most polarizing opinion regarding trades for this team until after I see where this postseason goes. I definitely agree with your take on Tatum. Speaking to the theme of this thread, the only guy I can definitely say I want traded is Brogdon. It's much more about team construct than disliking the player. For this year, yes, I see why you wanted to give this group their strongest shot at a championship and getting another attention drawing distributor and diminishing pressure on Tatum to break through to that point forward tier. But, if he really wants that MVP, that's his best shot. Especially now they are going to be paying MVP money to both Tatum and Brown, I'd want to do all I can to get him there. And he's the guy who is going to have the ball to close regardless. So, long story short, I want to trade him to line up acquiring a long, defensively strong, strong rebounder, willing and at least modestly successful 3pt shooting PF.
The final piece to the conclusion I've made is, while I would have liked to see how far Robert Williams could legitimately guard quicker perimeter PFs. But I haven't seen an improvement in his closeouts. His injury situation remains precarious. And you can never be 100% sure when Horford's play will decline to a point he is ineffective. And the team needs to finally realize they should encourage Rob to shoot. But, personally, I need a path to my best shot to get that player. Even if it's through a Brogdon for 1st round pick, getting that player now can better secure this next Jays contract window for their entire contract.
