(02-12-2023, 06:00 AM)Mavs2021 Wrote: Nah. You don´t touch Green (or Hardy) at this point. What Green has shown is borderline #3 player level and he´s on a perfect timeline with Luka.
Imagine how good this team would be going forward if they had just kept Brunson. You can use one protected 1st to get Hart. Another two 2nds to get Vanderbilt, instead of splitting all that up for Kyrie.
That´s pretty crazy and shows how badly this Brunson botch has effected our roster building possibilities.
His averages are now up to 24/4/6 shooting his usual super-high efficient 48/41/84, not that far off Irving´s 27/5/5, at HALF the cost.
You could even argue that on one hand Luka and Randle being somewhat similar players has helped him make a smooth transition into a new 1-2 punch situation, but also shows that with a little sacrifice by Luka, there was further upside in Brunson´s game.
Maybe, but again it's player dependant. No player is truly untouchable outside Luka. Green could have played his way out of being available for most players by the end of the season. Hardy is much less likely to do that.
I agree, not signing Brunson to that cheap contract was a huge gaff. Brunson however might have had one of the most unforeseen skillset improvements we've seen from a player in a very long time. Certainly at the time we were able to resign him (which was def not at any time during his final season as he def going to NYK way before he actually signed the contract), he was not near the player he is now.
But there are all sorts of unintended outcomes that have played out that might not have. Brunson, Dinwiddie, DFS still around, Green maybe doesnt get the playing time and gets traded away before we understand his potential. Also plenty of players don't really unlock things until they leave a situation. Things don't always play out the same way doing these retrospective hypotheticals.
For example Brunson is putting up his current stats ranking 3rd in the NBA in time of possession (behind Luka and Harden), and 4th in dribbles per possession. Kyrie on the other hand is producing close to career best numbers ranked 23rd in time of possession, and 78th in dribbles per possession. He ranks slightly below Steph Curry in both these rankings this year. Both Brunson and Dinwiddie are ball pounders who produce more having much more of the ball, their numbers are suppressed without it. Kyrie for all the talk, isn't. That's actually pretty relevant when talking about whether Brunson would be able to do anything close to what he's currently doing in NYK with Luka if he was still around or if he would have been an equal fit to what Luka and Kyrie might do together moving forward.