Mavs 113, Nuggets 117

[DaRiv]

Serious question: With as much vague talk we've gotten from Carlisle and others about "team basketball," "moving the ball" and "unselfish play," I'm wondering if some of it is directed at Doncic. I mean, it COULD be all about the others not stopping the ball, and there have been plenty of examples of several people doing so, but I wonder if a big part of the problem has simply been that THIS group isn't quite as happy to just watch Luka do his thing as last year's group was.

For the Denver game, it was Luka who definitely stopped moving the ball, he just started doing a lot of isos in the paint.  I've seen him wave off KP before in a game. 

Finally, in this past Denver game, I recall being a bit surprised on the play where Luka grabbed the rebound and then passed it the length of the floor to THJ for the easy dunk.  I recall the camera showed Luka signalling to THJ nice play, but THJ wouldn't hardly even look at him.  Conventionally you give the hat tip gesture to the assist guy, but THJ did not acknowledge anything.  I remember thinking this was really strange, before I read these interesting comments about a possible backstory, here.

THJ not acknowledging Luka assist

[Kammrath]

I just find it interesting that when we brought up the speculation, we mentioned Luka as being a possible source of it, but justified it as a consequence of his drive/desire/winning mentality and all the great ones have it and others have to adjust or get better. But when KP was brought up, we talk about all the trades we can throw him in for for other players that haven't even crossed 20 ppg.

Yeah people have lots of different theories and takes....some maybe more legit than others. We are just spitballing to see if something sticks.


My speculative take:

1) This kind of stuff tends to have lots of complicated nuance. So there is generally always "more to the story."

2) Luka IMO seems to be struggling to find his groove as the team leader. He has been put in this position by the MBT and they seem to want him to take charge of the team.

3) From my seat it seems that KP has played selfish offense at times (but so has Luka when he shoots a three and no one else touches it) AND I have always had a strange feeling that KP didn't quite mesh with the other guys. 

4) The KP trade talk is mere fantasy talk that is entertaining to me because the team is playing bad basketball right now. Like I said NO WAY would I even consider trading KP till the summer at soonest.

[KillerLeft]

But has KP not shown that, when healthy, he's almost on the same level? 

I was speculating for fun throughout this entire "trade KP" conversation. I don't think there's a realistic way to trade him and stay on the current timeline of developing into contention (we hope). So, I'm fully on team "hope for the best" with him. But, I'm being dead serious right now:

I know you framed the above as a question, but is that what you believe? 

In all seriousness, I'm not sure KP would be the 2nd best player on a single contending team right now. MAYBE you could say he's better than Middleton. 

I think we love Dirk so much that we're very eager to file KP into the same "unusually skilled big guy" category, and while he fits there to an extent, I've been pretty disappointed by how limited he is offensively, and lately he has been a flat out negative on defense, going all the way back to the bubble. Now, I fully hope that these are temporary, injury related problems having to do with rust and/or rhythm (I bet the shooting is), but I think it's disingenuous to claim he has played well here. He had a nice stretch after the all star break last season, and he was doing some major damage in the Clipper series, too, but all in all there has been more bad play here than good so far, imho.

[SleepingHero]

I know you framed the above as a question, but is that what you believe? 

It is. Truly. I feel like recency bias is warping the perception of KP a bit. 

He isn't the perfect player, but when healthy he is a transformative defensive figure with the offensive skills closer to Klay Thompson than a big man. It's rare that combination. And it just so happens to be an ideal fit next to Luka. 

He has downsides of course, like any player. His ability to stay healthy is the biggest concern. I think he can be better in picking his spots rather than shooting his way out of a slump. But I feel like his positives more than outweigh his negatives and its just a matter of time before he's back to putting up all-star numbers.

[KillerLeft]

when healthy he is a transformative defensive figure...And it just so happens to be an ideal fit next to Luka. 

There have been times when the pairing have looked good, but not very many. The statements above simply aren't sentiments I feel confident enough to agree with. 

I'm also not DISAGREEING with them, but I'm pretty far from accepting them as conclusions at this point. 

But man, I sure do WANT them to be true.

[SleepingHero]

There have been times when the pairing have looked good, but not very many. The statements above simply aren't sentiments I feel confident enough to agree with. 

Fair enough. Guess we just have to wait and see!

[mavsluvr]

https://twitter.com/BlakeMurphyODC/statu...00100?s=20