Funcrusher wrote:Harry Garris wrote:It's definitely a successful season for them considering they didn't have Zion. This offseason is going to be interesting. I could see any outcome from them giving Zion a max extension to trading him.
As dumb as it usually is to trade a guy that talented early in his career, he is a really poor fit alongside Ingram and if the injuries continue it could submarine the franchise for a few years. I don't know what I would do if I was David Griffin.
The fit is literally not poor come on man. Zion is a pretty portable player anyway, don't know why people stick with this narrative
Yup lets be real now, its really hard for two players to be a poor fit as long as they dont play the same position (strict 5 or strict PG). At worst they're just neutral and its the your turn my turn kind of offense. Which is a perfectly fine offense when youre doing that with 2 players. Even if both guys are horrible defensive players, you can find 3 defensive guys to put around them (especially if netter guy is a strict 5) and you can hide them pretty well. So again the whole BI/Zion not being a good fit thing has always been overblown and Ive been saying that from day 1.
Now I am one that believes you can be fine with 2 guys no matter what really, finding a 3rd guy that fits with both of them is the harder thing to do. I also think there is another thing to consider when looking at BI and Zion. The Pels focus should be getting the ball more and more in their hands.
Guess what became pretty clear the 2nd half of last year with Zion. The more they put the ball in his hands the better he got. Guess what also became pretty dang clear this year with BI. After about 15 games into the season they gave up with a normal offense and basically just handed the offense to BI. They were an above .500 team ever since then. It also was clear that even in the playoffs the offense ran better with the ball in BI's hands compared to CJ's.
So the Pels should be really focusing on building a team around the idea of those two guys being by far the two ball dominant players. Again I think you can easily have a good offense built around 2 guys being the primary guys. The issue is finding that 3rd guy that can fit in with that. Now I personally dont think CJ is that guy going forward. CJ likes to dribble and likes to create all of his shots (only 25% of his shots have been assisted on in his career). So I think him being 3rd wheel with the other two will most likely be a problem. There is enough possessions and enough shots for 2 guys to do the "your turn, my turn" thing. Cant do it with 3 guys. So I personally think either CJ accepts the 6th man role, or there is going to be some clunky offense next year (not to mention the no defense CJ brings) with most games at least 1 of the 3 guys not being able to get into rhythm.
CJ took more shots, had more touches and had the ball in his hands more than BI in these playoffs. I think it will be a massive mistake for BI to be 3rd fiddle behind Zion and CJ next year. If CJ is cool being the 6th man and primarily being out there while one of BI or Zion is sitting, then I think that can work. But if not, I think a lineup with all 3 out there at once can be pretty clunky.