PRESEASON GAME 2: LAC (1-2) @ DAL (2-0) | 122-114 win

[soog]

I'm going to point this out also.  Last year, when it was pointed out that the ball was not moving on the offense and other countered with by pointing to Luka having 18 assists or something outstanding...the ball was not moving and people kept poo-pooing it all season when I said that.

If you look at the Mavs, with Luka having ungodly assist numbers, the Mavs were 26th in the NBA in assists.  Basically, Luka WOULD pass, but it was only to a shot or he would take a shot.  That's not a shot at him, but when the TEAM is moving the ball, you see more hockey assists from him and more assists from others.

Look at Dallas last year....the second leading assist guy has 3 assists.  And the 4th leading assist guy has 1.x assists per game.

Now look at Indiana...to get to someone averaging less than 2 assists you have to go to the 6th-7th man.  THAT'S what it looks like when a TEAM is moving the ball.

The other night -- yeah, it was preseason and they played a lot of players, BUT, how many players had 2 or more assists?  7 -- THAT'S what it looks like when the TEAM moves the ball.

I think this sharing of assists is another result of Kidd wanting to push the ball.  Bigs are looking for the closest guard to outlet the ball to, Luka is making passes across half court to THJ rather than dribbling it up himself, by pushing it and getting it into KPs hands he has the opportunity to pass it back out for the inside-out assist.

In highschool we would do a fast break drill where we would take a rebound and the ball wasn’t allowed to hit the ground before we made a layup on the other side of the court.  I want to say it took 3 passes to cover the length of the court.  We’d do this non stop for… well I’m too old now to remember but I want to say it was 10 minutes.  It was killer.  But got everyone involved.  Everyone scored.  Everyone got assists.