Bob8 wrote:
Re: Ayton
On offense, Ayton operates 10-20 feet from the basket, he doesn't roll hard, and he doesn't pop to the 3 pt line, this worked well with CP3 and works well with Reaves or smaller PGs because they utilize the pocket pass, Luka doesn't, that's not his game, Luka operates over the heads of the defense, and when the rim is sealed, Luka's go to move is to operate from the mid range, exactly where Ayton likes to camp.
On defense and rebounding, I'd love to be proven wrong, but he isn't physical and this leads to giving up crucial rebounds and doesn't protect the paint well, we saw this multiple time against the Mavs in 22 and against the Nuggets in 23.
Re: Laravia
Luka gets exploited on the perimeter, he's slow and can't handle dribble penetration, in addition to the lack of physical rim protector, Luka was helped a lot by elite low man forward who covered for him and switched to the perimeter a lot to help him, these were DFS and PJ Washington, that's why Luka worked very well with them.
Laravia isn't that, again, I'd love to be proven wrong here.
Ayton and Laravia >> DFS for RS, they give you 60 minutes at high level, in the PO, where teams win on the margins, they are worse, much worse IMO, Lakers nailed the off season in terms of bang for the buck, but not in terms of fit.
The main criticism levied against Luka was his pedestrian on/off, the reason was that players like KP, Brunson, Seth Curry and even THJ to some extent, don't complete Luka, but operate well w/o him, which lowered his ceiling (the ON part), and raised the floor of the team (the OFF part), when Luka got a good roster tailored to his weakness, but also, not good w/o him, do you know what was his on/off? He has +21 on/off and went to the Finals.
