GAME 51 DIRKIE: Winner KP (77%) | Runner-up DFS (17%)

[ItsGoTime]

I am more concerned about luck than body falling apart though...

In the short term sure, but if major injury happens every year, that can stack and start showing up sooner or later.

[SkenfromLMF]

From my take on a few possessions of the Big 2 sharing the floor...

Several times when KP took  lesser player to the post and got possession the ball swung to the wing and THJ pulled a Wesley Matthews - 

Yeah I said it... if we weren't talking about Luka being such a large part of this the DAJ/DSJ comparisons would be flying.

Luka's impact on the game with 2:00 left in the 3rd qtr - comes in Dallas up 8 and finishes the qtr down 4 reminded me of early season Luka. 

I really hope there is a nagging injury to Luka that he is working through, because if this is mental

[omahen]

Luka's impact on the game with 2:00 left in the 3rd qtr - comes in Dallas up 8 and finishes the qtr down 4 reminded me of early season Luka. I really hope there is a nagging injury to Luka that he is working through, because if this is mental

So you are trying to argue on a 2 minute sample that Luka is bad for this team?

[cow]

So you are trying to argue on a 2 minute sample that Luka is bad for this team?

The sequence were he got his tech was pretty disastrous for the team.  He needed to control his emotions better or Rick needed to yank him.

[ItsGoTime]

Firing up the trade machine now!

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All I could come up with was Luka for all of the draft picks. Not just 1 team’s draft picks, ALL OF THEM!

[omahen]

The sequence were he got his tech was pretty disastrous for the team.  He needed to control his emotions better or Rick needed to yank him.

I am not arguing that, totally agree. It was a bad stretch. But those were just two bad minutes. Overall Luka had a great game. I am not really sure why there is a focus on two bad minutes and not 34 very good ones?

[cow]

I am not arguing that, totally agree. It was a bad stretch. But those were just two bad minutes. Overall Luka had a great game. I am not really sure why there is a focus on two bad minutes and not 34 very good ones?

Being the wonderboy is going to have some drawbacks.  It was also symptomatic of his biggest flaw this season.  Getting caught up with the refs isn't going to lead to anything meaningful and all his improvements on defense are negated when he's too busy complaining about a missed call rather than getting back on defense.  Not spilt milk or anything but this is where I wish you had Chris Paul to talk to the refs to campaign on Luka's behalf or maybe one of the coaches should grab a T instead.  

I was pretty angry at Luka but then I remember that he's 22.  He's a kid and far from a finished product.  Still a badass though.

[SkenfromLMF]

So you are trying to argue on a 2 minute sample that Luka is bad for this team? 

Nope I am saying that he has some flaws and part of it is his ability to make KP better, the other part is that he hasn't looked right for about 3 games to me... I will repeat, My hope is it is minor physical issues and not a mental keep banging your head into the wall (refs). If I were on Rick's staff I would be proposing that Luka/KP open the game together but limit their together time to guarantee "one on the floor at all times" but in reality limit the friction of KP feeling frozen out by outside shooters when in the game with Luka. If you can stagger those minutes with 5 minutes to start and 5 minutes to close with both on the floor, Luka gets 20 without KP, and KP gets 18 without Luka. 

We need both to maximize their effectiveness and it just seems that both are better without the other at this point.