BostonCouchGM wrote:The Moose wrote:just re: the whole Ivey position thing
Givony was on Zach Lowe's podcast post draft, and he said Ivey is very self aware, and was telling teams that he isn't a point guard and doesn't expect to be a point guard.
The Cade/Ivey fit has a chance to be so harmonious
positions don't matter. Guys at every position run offenses around the league. It's about who is initiating the action at the top of the key and Ivey will be doing that a hell of a lot even potentially more than Cade. It's because his first step is elite which puts pressure on the bigs in PnR when they switch. In that regard, if Cade wasn't there, Ivey WOULD be the defacto "PG" initiating the offense. That's when he's at his best. I kinda think the fit with Cade isn't really optimal tbh since they both need the ball and neither are as good off as on. But I think he was too talented to pass up so they took him regardless and will worry about fit later. Kinda like how they took Cade even though they had just taken Hayes the previous draft. They badly need Cade to get his three ball % up for this to work out.
While Cade doesn't have an elite first step or burst, he's still effective at creating advantages off the dribble due to his pacing/craft, is the better passer of the two and a better scorer at the inbetween levels. Ivey misses too many reads to be given true initiator responsibilities imo.
I'm sure Ivey will get plenty of PnR reps, but I would guess he's used primarily as a second side/action guy early on who maintains or capitalises on the advantages created by Cade, where he is likely to be far better against scrambling/shifting defenses and attacking close outs than Cade would be. It should simplify his playmaking tasks too and take a lot of that responsibility off his shoulders.
Cade was good at creating advantages last season but the roster really lacked perimeter players to capitalise on these. Hayes/Joseph/Bey provided very little rim pressure, are unathletic and are not all that effective at attacking closeouts. Ivey is going to thrive and feast in these situations.
But yes, Cade's 3 ball definitely needs to get back to his college levels, because he is going to get far more catch and shoot opportunities this season