Mavs 87, Thunder 78

[HanspardsShowerVoice]

One the other hand....I see some say they dont like his defense...he seems disruptive with his hands on defense to me.  NBA.com says DFS and Luka are ahead of him in deflections...but he seems to be able to annoy his guy when they are dribbling.  I know there is more to defense than just annoying your guy when he has the ball...he just doesnt seem bad at defense to me.  Maybe you can find another two-way player with more bang for your buck.

I don't think his defense is bad, I just think it's  been oversold a bit.

[DaRiv]

Not gonna lie...I prefer more ball movement.  I get that we have a lack of shot creators on the team and that in the playoffs Luka will be handling the ball 40+ minutes a game...but damn it gets boring watching such little ball movement.  Love Luka...incredible talent...but him dribbling the ball into the lane running the equivalent of footballs RPO every possession gets old.   In the playoffs that maybe what has to happen...all 70+ regular season games though?   

I totally agree.  On any one possession, Luka driving to the hole or taking a step back is unstoppable.  But over the long term, I think he needs to pass more and let others get touches and feel relevant. I am sympathetic to KP, after all the Mavs are the one who stroked his ego early on and had Rick visit him in Latvia.  I think it is healthy for guys to disagree on how to be teammates, JET and Dirk were in each other's face all the time. 

Next year, I think Luka really needs to work on a catch-and-shoot game.  He just NEVER does this in the regular game flow.  He needs to take a minimum of like 10 dribbles before any shot.  I think a catch-and-shoot dimension would give him comfort to pass the ball more, knowing that when he gets it back he can be very dangerous.

[Hypermav]

In Harp's defense for the poorly worded question, he was drunk.

[Paul Gasol]

In Harp's defense for the poorly worded question, he was drunk.

Was this discussed somewhere and I missed it??

genuinely, two seasons ago (not so much now) I thought Harp was drunk on most of the broadcasts. Surly, barely able to string a cohesive sentence together, countless mistakes and truly brutal chemistry with Followill and Skin, in particular.

[Hypermav]

Was this discussed somewhere and I missed it??

genuinely, two seasons ago (not so much now) I thought Harp was drunk on most of the broadcasts. Surly, barely able to string a cohesive sentence together, countless mistakes and truly brutal chemistry with Followill and Skin, in particular.

I think the banter on the broadcast was kinda all over the place last night.  Harp just seemed like he may have had a glass of wine or two to be less inhibited.  I mentioned he might be tipsy in Discord when he was calling Doe Doe, DFS Jr.   Harper, like alcohol, is an acquired taste.

I mean, we could ask Mavsluvr if he encourages Harp to partake before a broadcast

[cow]

The broadcast team was insufferable last night.

[SleepingHero]

The broadcast team was insufferable last night.

You didn't like Skin's 5 minute conversation about being color blind?

[cow]

You didn't like Skin's 5 minute conversation about being color blind?

Harp is usually pretty bad and Skin is always willing to go as far off the rails as the team lets him, but all three seemed really disinterested in the game last.  I guess that's more Luka Magic.

[Dahlsim]

Yeah, Tsarks brought this up on the Bill Simmons podcast ... Luka is strangely kinda hard to adjust your game to because he just dribbles the ball so much and everyone just has to stand around let him do his thing.    He brought up the comparison with playing with Lebron.    LeBron is the greatest point forward in history of the game and his basketball IQ is off the charts, but we've seen guys like Kevin Love have real problems adjusting their game to him.

Luka may well be like Lebron or another example would be Harden.  He likely adjusts when he's playing with other stars.  Luka hasn't really had another Allstar playing with him.  KP has had flashes but mostly, Luka has been surrounded by 'good' players but no one like the Anthony Davis, D. Wade, Bosh types surrounding Lebron or like Harden now playing with Kevin Durant or Kyrie Irving.