MAVS 132, BLAZERS 117

[DanSchwartzgan]

The basis of me being in "trade-KP" camp is that Luka and him don't play naturally well together. If you are building around Luka you need to trade KP no matter how well he starts playing in his own right IMO.

Of course, this begs the question...what kind of second star does fit with a player like Luka?  The best thing is to probably look at the other heliocentric guys and see what has/hasn't worked for them.  

Houston tried its version with just Harden, a very good PNR center and some shooters.  I don't believe that alone will ever carry us to a championship.  Duplication (CP3 and Westbrook) didn't work out either.  KD and Harden might work, but I'm not sure how to replicate KD here.  

Kawhi had pick and pop centers who could defend and rebound when he won a championship in Toronto.  He also had ball handling guards in Lowry and FVV.  But the second highest scorer on the team that year was Siakam.  He's not a great three point shooter, but like KD, he creates a huge percentage of his shots for himself.  He can create his own, but you can't ignore him when someone else has the ball or he will back door you to death.

Lebron has had Davis, Love and Bosh as championship front-court mates (and some help from pretty good guards on some of those teams).  The common thread between Davis, Love and Bosh is all were able to create for themselves.

Some of those guys can hit 3's.  Some can't.  The main thing seems to be that they be able to thrive with the ball and without the ball.  In theory KP should work without the ball as he provides great spacing.  The issue is when KP has the ball he is where Luka wants to go and he can't create that shot, he has to be set up for that shot.  I think KP can work with more of a perimeter oriented ball handler than Luka.  I can see Curry/KP or Lillard/KP.  FVV/KP?