Post#53 » by joesha1698 » Thu Dec 28, 2023 5:19 am
You guys here criticizing Kyrie for being injured are kinda pathetic. With that being said, this Cleveland team was missing its two best players and we were up big, so there's no scapegoat here. Here is the reality, Luka plays like James Harden 2.0, this style of play has been done before. It's great when the 3's are falling and the long shots by Luka are going down. However, once the law of avgs kick in - teams can come back and beat the Mavs because of this style of play. Just like Nash and Dirk never won until Dallas became a more complete team / well rounded - the same can be said for Luka and the Mavs. Stop looking for scapegoats and accept that the furthest Luka ever went in the playoffs was because of the defense he had around him and the emergence of Brunson.
The James Harden style of play will get Luka big numbers and when things are going great - his teammates will hit the 3 at a high clip. All of that is dandy until the law of averages show up. The bottom line is, the Mavs have to become a more complete team. I.E. what happened when Dirk finally won..... Matrix, Kidd, Terry, etc. You need balance.
The best teams beat you because they play a balance and complete game. Think Spurs. Lakers with Kobe and Shaq. You can go down the line. You got to play both ends. You got to respect the defensive end as much as the offensive end. Also, everyone has to stop jocking the GS warriors. They have two of the best shooters of alltime and when they won their rings - they had excellent defenders and balance on that team. Not to mention a KD who is one of the best 6'10 over shooters / scorers of alltime.
What the Mavs need to :
1. Luka has to limit the amount of step back 3's he takes and the amount they take in general. This is great when their going on but this is also the reason teams their suppose to beat get back into the game. Luka's step backs represent a fun style but if you think about it - when he misses it or his teammates - it speeds up the game and leaves more time on the clock for the opposition. James Harden and the Rockets ran into this problem all the time. Its not the team that hits the most 3's or gets the most up in the shortest amount of time that wins - its the team that executes on both ends throughout the game. Luka needs to become a more complete player and learn how to win a game deliberately without putting up 50pts to do it. That's not sustainable.
2. The Mavs needs to add more layers to their offense and take a more deliberate approach. My vote is for keeping Kyrie healthy and using him as a catch and shoot player ala Rip Hamilton and Allen Iverson. Keep him healthy and out of the paint as much as possible. This also adds another layer of complexity to the Mavs offense. You have Luka creating in the pick and roll and you have the defense concerned with Kyrie's movement. This is how you take the offense to another level and become more deliberate on offense....you make the other team work and use energy - instead of taking 3's with 18 seconds of the clock - which is pretty much rest for the opposition when the Mavs start coming back down to earth.
3. The Mavs must play defense (and have attention to defense) as much as they do offense. And it must start with Luka. Like James Harden,Luka hides behind big numbers in a system designed to his skill set - but his game still has a lot of holes. And the Mavs are really a representation of their best player. All of these guys around Luka were put here to maximize his skill set. However, if Luka wants to take the next step he is going to have to sacrifice (as well as this team) some of those fancy numbers for those things that do not show up in the stat sheet. Like boxing out, attention to detail on defense, being deliberate on offense and stop taking shots with 18 seconds left on the shot, getting the best shot (that forces the defense to work hard) and not just the Luka shot.
Thats all folks!