ozwizard8 wrote:BliscoSantos wrote:ozwizard8 wrote:You're delusional. He of course gave effort. He may not give 45 pts effort but gave 38/11/10 on 14/27 FG, 4/10 3-pt, 6/6 FT, 40 min played, +9.
Luka is great at taking responsibility after losses. He did that last year as well. But he is a human-being. He wont be able to post 50-pt each night to bail out kyrie and subpar pieces around him. When Luka is having a 70% night, it used to be Brunson or Dinwiddie helping him out. Now, Kyrie only works against bad teams and second units. Nowhere to be seen against Celtics. Luka is taking the heavy load in expense of kyrie's defensive liability.
You do realize that saying the right things and doing the right things are different,right?? Talk is cheap,action speak louder than words... there's plenty of film ,this and last season ,where Luka just coasts, on Both ends of the floor...it usualy happens against teams they're heavy favorites against...if you can't see the difference in his effort against a contender and a team they should beat confortably
Again, you're talking about O...yes , he's a magician on O,but you do realize basketball is played on Both ends of the floor...we know he can be ok on D when he tries, aka gives effort, but most of the time he's James Harden bad on that end... you're claiming Kyrie's the problem on D...Kyrie is small but he moves his feet well..he might not be a great defender but unlike Luka at least he gives effort...Mavs Lost to Pacers and Sixers cause they tried to play their game,fast pace,instead of trying to Play slower...they fell into their trap cause everybody in the league knows Luka takes a lot of time to get back on D(argues with the refs) and than you're one Man down on D
Nobody is questioning his ofense,but he's talking a lot how his D has improved,which it has, it Just happens that he chooses when it's time to try on D
Seriously stop sucking kyrie this much. This is not Kyrie Mavs. Kyrie can be decent defender for his height. That doesn't mean he is decent defender for NBA. He only bring LOSES to his teams in last 6-7 years.
Offensively Luka does much much more than Kyrie. Due to his size and height, he also do better on defense than Kyrie and also significantly helps the rebounding. But you are still crying about Luka not being good on defense. This is BS.
You cannot expect Luka to average 35/10/10 and also play good D. Its not who he is. It is also not possible to put that much effort for many games.
Harden-Rockets had similar heavy offensive load on Harden but had pieces around him to not defend. Luka team also should have a good defensive surrounding. Kyrie doesn't worth the max and defensive liability for his offensive production especially against playoff teams. Where was he against Celtics? Did you see how Celtics fans clown him?
Kyrie is worst defensive liability which makes Luka to defend 2nd worst offensive player of the opponent. Ideally, Luka should defend the easiest matchup and all others should bring help to Luka. Now team tries to 'hide' Kyrie to avoid mismatches. We cannot bring help from him to Luka so Luka gets exposed more frequently.
I'm definetely not as big of a Kyrie fan as you seem to be Lukas...I'm not a Luka hater,I 'm a fan, it Just pisses me off when he takes breaks on D,or doesn't Play it at all...basketball is played on Both ends...and Harden Rockets had some succes,but it's not like they were close to winning
You seem to faill to comprehend what the point of the post was ..yes Luka can Play D,when he wants to(which is rare,lets be honest) ..his O is amazing , but what he gives on the O side he gives up on the D side... Mavs D collapses mostly because of Luka,THJ and Kyrie...it's obvious that when you need D this three should not be playing together,yet somehow the coaching team fails to see that
Luka is a big dude, he's not very quick and athletic,but he has great BB IQ...he shouldn't be guarding PG and SG,even not the Best SF...it would be Best if they put jim on the PF...like I said,he's tako,Strong and knows how to position himself,he'd have less problems...I mean,I know it was one game,but he did prety good against Towns
It also doesn't Play to his strenth and the team D to Play fast tempo....sure, you should speed up after you make a Play on the D,but otherwise Play Smart,patient, don't rush...if you Play uptempto and you don't score you have to be good in transition D,which this team isn't
The Best lineup for when you need D should be
Kyrie(guarding PG), Green or DJJ ( depends who's having abetter game) guarding SG, PJ guarding SF ,Luka guarding PF and Lively(because he offers rim protection) guarding C