HALLELUKA: Luka Clinches All-NBA 1st team. 4th in 5 years

[Jym]

Keep seeing people talking about Kyrie and his ball dominance and comparisons with Brunson, and it just being the same thing with Kyrie being a better scorer. It's just not the case, and I posted about this in another thread. Now the defensive concerns are absolutely valid, but Kyrie is a much better fit with Luka offensively, not purely because Kyrie is a better player and scorer, but because his production is not suppressed playing off ball, which is the case with Brunson who is one of the most ball dominant players in the league this season. If Brunson was still here his numbers would look pretty similar to last season, and nothing like what he's doing in NYK. That's a huge difference compared to Kyrie who should maintain his production even playing with the current iteration of Luka who leads the league in TOP (Kyrie's TOP numbers with the Nets are basically what Dinwiddie's were playing next to Luka).

"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."

With all that said, I would rather lock in Brunson for 5 years between $150 to 175 million than get Kyrie and his unpredictably at 4 years $200+ million 
Just insane to me we didn't throw a solid 5 year offer at Brunson that the Knicks couldn't match. Especially now after seeing that Cuban is indeed willing to spend 52milion in luxury tax alone this year. Letting him walk for nothing made way more sense to me when I thought we would dump salary to eliminate as much of the tax bill as possible. Understandable if you're going to live the life of a no tax/low tax poverty team. 
Completely unjustifiable to me on a player evaluation standpoint when the budget is actually there

[KillerLeft]

With all that said, I would rather lock in Brunson for 5 years between $150 to 175 million than get Kyrie and his unpredictably at 4 years $200+ million 
Just insane to me we didn't throw a solid 5 year offer at Brunson that the Knicks couldn't match. Especially now after seeing that Cuban is indeed willing to spend 52milion in luxury tax alone this year. Letting him walk for nothing made way more sense to me when I thought we would dump salary to eliminate as much of the tax bill as possible. Understandable if you're going to live the life of a no tax/low tax poverty team. 
Completely unjustifiable to me on a player evaluation standpoint when the budget is actually there

I think it’s safe to say he was one of the guys responsible for leading the team to play hard, too.

[Mavs2021]

Keep seeing people talking about Kyrie and his ball dominance and comparisons with Brunson, and it just being the same thing with Kyrie being a better scorer. It's just not the case, and I posted about this in another thread. Now the defensive concerns are absolutely valid, but Kyrie is a much better fit with Luka offensively, not purely because Kyrie is a better player and scorer, but because his production is not suppressed playing off ball, which is the case with Brunson who is one of the most ball dominant players in the league this season. If Brunson was still here his numbers would look pretty similar to last season, and nothing like what he's doing in NYK. That's a huge difference compared to Kyrie who should maintain his production even playing with the current iteration of Luka who leads the league in TOP (Kyrie's TOP numbers with the Nets are basically what Dinwiddie's were playing next to Luka).

"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."

Also pretty important to note that we were in the West finals with that not working Doncic/Brunson backcourt , that Irving is either a flight risk or he costs $25M of additional cap annually compared to Brunson..... plus DFS, Dinwiddie, an unprotected future 1st, and two 2nd round picks are gone.

Most great teams have players that sacrifice some of their own stats for the success of the team. That´s usually what makes a dynasty. That players like Klay Thompson, Manu Ginobili or Toni Kukoc put their invididual stats 2nd for the team winning.

You know what they expect in return?

For the owner to recognize it, value them and pay them accordingly.

[SleepingHero]

The Brunson topic always finds a way back 


In other news, 

https://twitter.com/GrantAfseth/status/1...19520?s=20

Do you guys see Luka's heel? Hopefully he's good after the ASG, and he doesn't come back out of shape.

[dirkfansince1998]

What is Luka going to do?

[SleepingHero]

What is Luka going to do?

Pump fake, drive into the lane, back down the guy, then kick it to the corner for a bad shot with 2 seconds left on the shot clock.

[dirkfansince1998]

Pump fake, drive into the lane, back down the guy, then kick it to the corner for a bad shot with 2 seconds left on the shot clock.

Almost full score. Ball ends up in the corner but instead of taking a bad shot Green is forced to make a risky pass and throws it away.

[Mavs2021]

What is Luka going to do?

Let´s just say SleepingHero would hold a five paragraph monologue, if his name was Ben Simmons. I have noticed it many times now. Luka HATES spot up shooting. He´s a shooting genius, when he´s in motion, maybe the best ever INSIDE the 3pt line. He´s below average from the ft line and I bet he´s below league average on wide open spot-up shooting, too.

[SleepingHero]

Let´s just say SleepingHero would hold a five paragraph monologue, if his name was Ben Simmons.

https://tenor.com/view/you-right-lol-uh-...if-5571191

Luka HATES spot up shooting. He´s a shooting genius, when he´s in motion, maybe the best ever INSIDE the 3pt line. He´s below average from the ft line and I bet he´s below league average on wide open spot-up shooting, too.

Luka spot up shooting stats from 3 for his career here:
22-23: 45.2
21-22: 32.3
20-21: 34.1
19-20: 32.1
18-19: 37.4 

The thing is, he attempts as little less than 1 spot up attempt a game for his career. In fact out of all those years the one with the most weight is his rookie year, as Luka did have a significant amount of spot up threes. I think you have a point that Luka is a rhythm shooter and spotting up is foreign to him. But he's shown he can be a good spot up shooter with enough attempts.

[MFFL]

Really good Luka article in NY Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/16/sport...ign_id=285&emc=edit_msb_20230216&instance_id=85553&nl=on-basketball®i_id=90375544&segment_id=125520&te=1&user_id=2b39a9eacfbe6ddffa9798d4616d4ba0

[donzingis38]

As great as Luka is, he still has a lot of work to do. (Duh)

I think one thing he needs to learn is cutting after he passes the ball. Can't just watch and expect Bullock, Powell to create shots.

I just hate it when Powell has the ball, gets stuck and wait/look for someone to take it. We all know he's not going to attack.

Luka should also post up more when Kyrie brings up the ball. They cannot be outside the 3pt line at the same time.

I think the team will also benefit once Luka embraces the SF/PF position and just allow Kyrie to be the PG.

[omahen]

I think the team will also benefit once Luka embraces the SF/PF position and just allow Kyrie to be the PG.

This will never happen. Luka is the PG

[SleepingHero]

I think the team will also benefit once Luka embraces the SF/PF position and just allow Kyrie to be the PG.

Curious why you think that given that Luka has been undeniably one of the best PG's in the league the last 4 years. He generates more wide open shots than almost some entire teams.

[StrandedOnBeauboisHill]

Curious why you think that given that Luka has been undeniably one of the best PG's in the league the last 4 years. He generates more wide open shots than almost some entire teams.

Also strange because Kyrie actually has a very small sample size of playing PG himself.

[Mapka]

Curious why you think that given that Luka has been undeniably one of the best PG's in the league the last 4 years. He generates more wide open shots than almost some entire teams.

I don´t think he was "the PG" last year. And him beining the PG this year was a soso thing. He is so much more leathal if he already has an opening.
And he is an great decoy also.
He gets someone covering him, if he is just argueing a ref.

[KillerLeft]

I am not going to outright say "they should think about not letting Luka play PG" because that seems silly. 

However, I do think there are parts of the PG's job that he hasn't learned to do effectively enough, so far.

[Mavsfan12]

As great as Luka is, he still has a lot of work to do. (Duh)

I think one thing he needs to learn is cutting after he passes the ball. Can't just watch and expect Bullock, Powell to create shots.

I just hate it when Powell has the ball, gets stuck and wait/look for someone to take it. We all know he's not going to attack.

Luka should also post up more when Kyrie brings up the ball. They cannot be outside the 3pt line at the same time.

I think the team will also benefit once Luka embraces the SF/PF position and just allow Kyrie to be the PG.

My first take on your post was that you're crazy.  haha.  But I see a little of what you are saying.  I think I've seen a little of it already.  Luka has been defensive rebounding and making the up-court pass more often.  I think this is a sf/pf thing.  TBH, it was also a JKidd thing. I think that this is a good progression, rather than slow walking it up all the time.

But in the half-court?  Luka is the best in the business and Kyrie is a brilliant off-ball player in the half court.  I also trust Kyrie in late shot clock possessions that Luka sometimes needs a bail out.  I will have to see more from Luka as an off ball player, but recently, he hasn't been asked to do it or done well when he has to.  I think that Luka will be running more offense from the "point forward" office - high/low post with back to the basket.  I am sure that will actually increase when Maxi is back and they play more 5 out.  But any team that Luka is on can't take the ball out of his hands in the half-court. I don't care WHO his teammates are. That is silly.  Some day, he just won't be able to do what he is doing and he will need to retire.  But that IS his game and he is ELITE.

[mvossman]

Also pretty important to note that we were in the West finals with that not working Doncic/Brunson backcourt , that Irving is either a flight risk or he costs $25M of additional cap annually compared to Brunson..... plus DFS, Dinwiddie, an unprotected future 1st, and two 2nd round picks are gone.

Most great teams have players that sacrifice some of their own stats for the success of the team. That´s usually what makes a dynasty. That players like Klay Thompson, Manu Ginobili or Toni Kukoc put their invididual stats 2nd for the team winning.

You know what they expect in return?

For the owner to recognize it, value them and pay them accordingly.

Both can be true.  Kyrie is probably a better backcourt fit with Luka offensively than Brunson (because he is a better off ball player than either Luka or Brunson) and we would be better off with Brunson, Dorian, Dinwiddie (playing 6th man) and our unprotected first than the wildcard that is Kyrie.  I did not read the OP suggesting we are better off letting Brunson walk because now we have Kyrie.

[donzingis38]

This will never happen. Luka is the PG

Curious why you think that given that Luka has been undeniably one of the best PG's in the league the last 4 years. He generates more wide open shots than almost some entire teams.

Didn't we trade for Kyrie to lower Luka's usage rate? Luka can be the PG when Kyrie sits. It's just a small sacrifice he needs to make playing with another superstar. 

We've seen Luka punish guys easily on the post. With less dribbling too. 

No doubt they'll figure it out soon. Offense won't be a problem anyway, it's the overall defense.

[SleepingHero]

https://twitter.com/FrankBurner2/status/...9333131265

https://twitter.com/FrankBurner2/status/...66657?s=20


The Mavs and Luka have always argued that he needs to be bulky to be able to attack in the low post. I think there's an argument now that with this team the Mavs need Luka to be more spry to attack off the dribble more effectively. 

It's hard to argue against a guy averaging close to a 34 point triple double on good efficiency, but look at these clips!