ICMTM wrote:
Kevin isn't a play maker for other people, and yes he should have shot the ball the most, but not been able to hold it and try to create for himself. Truth be told John Salmons was a better creator than Martin. Salmons however played in a bigger vacuum than Kevin did.
It's roughly the same talent from a year ago with the exception of Tyreke, who didn't start playing well until Kevin was out of the lineup. I can't say that Caspi is an upgrade from Garcia so again I don't think we needed to go the route of give Kevin the ball and watch.
Salmons was a better creator than Kevin, but he's still not the kind of guy you can build any kind of offense around. I don't think that was really a viable option for the offense. Kevin creating for others certainly wasn't a viable option, but at least when he had it, he could create for himself (and continued to do that with great efficiency). I think my point stands that there really weren't many choices.
I'd argue the lineup is a little different. Other than Tyreke, Spencer, Jason and Donte have developed, and like you said, Casspi. Also Beno is playing considerably better (most notably, he's just shooting a lot better right now). It's a different team. The important thing as I see it is that the team didn't know what it had in the first few games, so they kind of continued with the offense as it was from last year. Now that these other guys have stepped up and showed that they can do some things themselves (most notably Tyreke), I expect Kevin to go to a role similar to the 07-08 Martin. Getting around 15 shots a game (plus many trips to the line) playing off the ball.
Make no mistake about it. If Tyreke continues playing the way he has been without Kevin, he will be the best King by the end of the year. He may not be quite the scorer Kevin is (we'll see about that), but he'll be close enough to where his edges elsewhere will more than make up the difference. We also have to remember that, as of right now, it's still very early. We are still all talking a mere 3 games as of right now.