Was it the Pistons in the 80s? Curry scores a lot, but isn’t really ball dominant. Dame is 5TH in usage at 33%. Does he get we will NEVER win with a 6’1” player with that usage rate? How do the Blazers build around that? It’s literally finding guys to stand around the 3 point line waiting for the ball, while the defense pressures Dame enough, but not too much so he jacks up a 30 foot 3
Look at the highest usage rate player vs type of player vs success. #1 Giannis - Incredible length with tremendous defense leading to the #1 seed in the NBA. #2 Luka - great offense, HORRIBLE defense, and didn't make the Play-In after what now seems like a fluke WCF appearance last year. #3 Embiid - MVP type of season with length and defense. #3 seed in the top-heavy East. #4 Dame - small, little defense, and 2 trips outside of the 1st round in his career. #5 - Tatum - lengthy wing who was in the Finals last year and is the #2 seed in the East this season. #6 - SGA - leading an entertaining young Thunder team as a tall PG. Jury is still out on how high he can lead the team. #7 - Trae - small guard who shoots a lot, gets a ton of assists, but doesn't play D. Scraped into the Play-In to likely get trounced by the Celtics. #8 - Mitchell - Cavs #4 in the East, but they were better last year without him before the team got hit with a bunch of injuries. #9 - Fox - had never done anything until Sabonis arrived. Now the #3 team in the West, making the Playoffs for the 1st time in 17 years. Size and defense matters. Dame doesn't have either of those. Nothing he can do about the height, but the height typically affects the defense as well. Building around Dame as the piece has historical flaws. Yes....Curry, but that is the greatest shooter in the history of the NBA who plays a very different style of game. And look at the core of that team.....Draft picks. I just don't see how it works and think it could really damage the future of the team trying.
The years that Steph has won championships his usage rate has not been significantly lower than Dame's: https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/steph-curry-usage-rate-by-year https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/damian-lillard-usage-rate-by-year Dame just needs the right talent around him... not that he's better than Steph but they are similar. So Dame might need even more talent around him but if you take the guys that Steph has won with and you put them as number one options, do most of those guys even lead teams to the playoffs? We need better talent but maybe even more importantly talent that fits better. Oh and you are right that if we could put a bunch of non all star three and D guys around Dame along with one all star big and a decent bench that could just hold the leads, then we would win championships.
