AROUND the NBA: Pat Bev Suspended 4 Games Next Season| PHX Fires Vogel

[mvossman]

Agree with all of this, and I'd like to pile on some more context. 

I just rewatched the entire playoff run from the year before last, and REALLY, what we should be talking about here is: can Irving reach the level with this team that Brunson attained, both on the court and (my confident speculation) in the locker room? I promise that if anyone takes the time to rewatch those games, they'll come away realizing they'd minimized Brunson's contributions a least a little in time and memory. I'm one of his biggest fans here, and I was SHOCKED at how great he looked back then. He literally outplayed the other teams' best players on a semi-regular basis during that run. 

So, can Kyrie Irving have that type of impact here? I don't think we know yet, but there is definitely reason to hope so. If he can, I can see them reaching a similar level to that playoff team at some point this season, and I can see it seeming in hindsight like we should've known they'd be a top-4 team all along. They basically messed up the Brunson situation and had to take a mulligan on an entire season trying to fix that mistake. If they were successful, we might be in for a treat. 

Luka's conditioning and general outlook on the season will play a huge part, too. I know he put up huge numbers last season, but when you look at his efficiency in the clutch portions of all those close games they lost (which were mostly wins the prior season) I think it's pretty clear last year was sort of a delayed "sophomore wall" from him.

Agreed.  We have a lot of what ifs regarding our depth, but the most important what ifs are how our two superstars play together.