Bidofo wrote:I dunno, I think people are severely underrating Murray if they think he's one of the worst recent second options. Imo the only ones definitively better this century are those part of an all-time duo: Shaq/Kobe, Curry/KD, and Lebron/AD. He's clearly been better in the bubble and last year in the playoffs than guys like Middleton, Lowry, Klay, Parker/Duncan (I consider Manu first here), 06 Shaq, etc. For my money, better than Kyrie and Wade. A bad 3 game stretch shouldn't change that, especially when in one of them he still took over in the 4th and hit the game winner!
There's just so much to like about his offense. Great shooter, good passer, and excellent at limiting his turnovers. Obviously the two-man game with Jokic is unstoppable, and he certainly makes life a lot easier for Murray, but Murray is just one of those inelastic, tough-shot-makers. Large percentage off the bounce, usually with a hand in his face, and he still makes them at a great clip in the playoffs. Plus, all the bad tendencies you might see in the regular season (hero ball, dribbling way too much) get reduced in the postseason. Part of it is that Malone plays him a lot with all-bench lineups, but I think he's just one of the ones that know how to flip the switch.
This is just winning bias. Murray has played mediocre for 3 games and theyre up 3-0. He can do that because other guys like Porter Jr and AG can step up and Jokic is literally one of the few guys ive seen that actually makes his teammates better (you hear that phrase a lot but its fat rarer than analysts would have you believe).
Murray is for sure on the lower tier of guys who won as 2nd options and its downright laughable to compare him to 2012 Wade or 2016 Kyrie. Lebron is just not capable of raising a guards game like Jokic by virtue of him just not being a big. 2012 Wade or 2016 Kyrie with Jokic would be absolutely impossible to guard in the PnR