(01-13-2023, 02:31 PM)F Gump Wrote: Interesting from Porzingis, on his fit with Luka Doncic in Dallas.

He kind of dodged giving a direct answer, but the implication is clear that he likes the ball in his hands a lot, and the "bad fit" with Dallas was the fact that it's Luka's team, Luka's ball, and he wasn't going to get it that much when playing here. Not upset, just the reality of the situation.

That does lead to the question of whether there's an avenue to get a true star alongside Luka who will also excel, or whether it's always going to need to be Luka and a bunch of role players who don't expect to handle the ball.

In a way, to the extent this thinking might be applicable to excellent players, it might have application to how Brunson was lured away - maybe it was because he was sold on (or came to believe) his ability to handle the ball would always be very limited in Dallas, and too limited for him to want to be here.

(01-13-2023, 02:31 PM)F Gump Wrote: Interesting from Porzingis, on his fit with Luka Doncic in Dallas.

He kind of dodged giving a direct answer, but the implication is clear that he likes the ball in his hands a lot, and the "bad fit" with Dallas was the fact that it's Luka's team, Luka's ball, and he wasn't going to get it that much when playing here. Not upset, just the reality of the situation.

That does lead to the question of whether there's an avenue to get a true star alongside Luka who will also excel, or whether it's always going to need to be Luka and a bunch of role players who don't expect to handle the ball.

In a way, to the extent this thinking might be applicable to excellent players, it might have application to how Brunson was lured away - maybe it was because he was sold on (or came to believe) his ability to handle the ball would always be very limited in Dallas, and too limited for him to want to be here.

(01-13-2023, 02:58 PM)HoosierDaddyKid Wrote: Bingo!  I believe that was one of the main reasons Brunson left, outside the fact Cuban low-balled him on his contract.  It's going to be hard enough to pair a 2nd star with Luka because he's so ball dominant and I don't know if he'd be willing to relinquish some responsibility.  Remember early last year when there was talk in Boston of breaking up Tatum and Brown saying they couldn't co-exist?  Well, they didn't do it and now they are one of the best one-two punches in the league on a title contender.

(01-13-2023, 03:15 PM)ItsGoTime Wrote: A couple years ago when Kamm suggested this needs to be Robin Hood and his merry men, that resonated with me and I have been on that band wagon ever since.

(01-13-2023, 05:03 PM)KillerLeft Wrote: My take on this notion that great players can’t fit with Luka because he has the ball too much was summed up nicely by Charles Barkley last night:

“Jalen Brunson didn’t just magically become a good player last year. They gave him the ball.” 

He also said things like “they won because they took the ball out of Luka’s hands” and “Luka doesn’t have to make every play.”

I agree with all of that, and believe that what is needed is not “merry men” but the most talented players possible (with some good merry men mixed in, obvs).

The thing is, there needs to be willingness on both sides to make the situation work. Said players have to know coming in that they are here to play with Luka, and the Mavs need to do a good job of using said players’ strengths to the team’s benefit. I believe we are starting to see this work to fairly decent effect right now with Christian Wood.

When it comes to Porziņģis, I personally don’t believe the problem was not having the ball in his hands, because I remember them throwing it to him at the elbow so many times every game that I wanted to kill myself. The problem was that he did absolutely nothing with those opportunities.

(01-13-2023, 11:38 PM)dirkfansince1998 Wrote: https://twitter.com/TheNBACentral/status/1614089497632718850

(01-14-2023, 09:02 AM)MFFL Wrote: And WHY do people still think he was interested in returning to the Mavs?

(01-14-2023, 11:20 AM)Kammrath Wrote: https://twitter.com/TheNBACentral/status/1614135237293768704