06-20-2021, 05:10 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-20-2021, 05:23 PM by Time Machine Dirk.)
Just to throw a thought and some questions out there (and don't get me wrong, I'm also a Luka fan like all of us):
Is Luka too much of an (immature) alpha to have playoff success at this early point in his career? He didn't get along well with Carlisle and also with KP, there were obviously issues between him and Deandre Jordan as well as Wes Matthews when he was a rookie. While Deandre Jordan isn't the brightest or easiest character out there I always had the impression that Wes Matthews was quite a likeable guy. (Maybe I was wrong about that?)
My point is: While Luka gets along well with players who defer to him because they are clearly role players and admire Luka, star players, star coaches or players who view themselves as stars and have huge ego didn't seem to mesh well with Luka on the Mavs up to this point in his career.
Another interesting question would be what came first: KP's decline, loss of his self-confidence and him appearing quite detached from games or Luka "overlooking" a free KP time and time again and causing or at least strongly contributing to all of these KP issues. Remember the bubble, when they were playing more as a team and Luka also finding sometimes KP with passes? That was the time when KP was most effective, confident and commited. What do you think about all of that? Did Luka ice KP out and did this lead to a weaker Porzingis?
In effect, my strong guess would be that he would have had more team success and that the Mavs would have beaten the Clippers if Luka didn't "clash" with Carlisle and KP, if everything would have been more harmonic, if they would have been a TEAM. Not saying that it was exclusively his fault, though. (There was also Voulgaris and all that...)
Also important questions for near future decisions can be raised from these thoughts: Can Luka co-exist with a coach who has different strategic opinions as Luka and who he is not friends with or will such a coach fail again?
Is Luka too much of an (immature) alpha to have playoff success at this early point in his career? He didn't get along well with Carlisle and also with KP, there were obviously issues between him and Deandre Jordan as well as Wes Matthews when he was a rookie. While Deandre Jordan isn't the brightest or easiest character out there I always had the impression that Wes Matthews was quite a likeable guy. (Maybe I was wrong about that?)
My point is: While Luka gets along well with players who defer to him because they are clearly role players and admire Luka, star players, star coaches or players who view themselves as stars and have huge ego didn't seem to mesh well with Luka on the Mavs up to this point in his career.
Another interesting question would be what came first: KP's decline, loss of his self-confidence and him appearing quite detached from games or Luka "overlooking" a free KP time and time again and causing or at least strongly contributing to all of these KP issues. Remember the bubble, when they were playing more as a team and Luka also finding sometimes KP with passes? That was the time when KP was most effective, confident and commited. What do you think about all of that? Did Luka ice KP out and did this lead to a weaker Porzingis?
In effect, my strong guess would be that he would have had more team success and that the Mavs would have beaten the Clippers if Luka didn't "clash" with Carlisle and KP, if everything would have been more harmonic, if they would have been a TEAM. Not saying that it was exclusively his fault, though. (There was also Voulgaris and all that...)
Also important questions for near future decisions can be raised from these thoughts: Can Luka co-exist with a coach who has different strategic opinions as Luka and who he is not friends with or will such a coach fail again?