[via B-Edge] This is something we severely lack. LMA is the only one on the roster that can get his own shot and that's if he's attacking the hoop and not settling for jumpers. Maybe McMillan is at some fault by keeping Batum in the corner but I don't see that he has the handles to be that guy you can give the ball to and create his own offense. The same thing can be said about Wes. WWBD? (what would Burt do?) -- this roster is a long way away.
Yet the Mavs just won a championship with the same roster + Tyson Chandler last season...and beat the Lakers, Thuner, and Heat in doing so.
Every player that I've mentioned so far that I'd like to see Vulcan go after all can create their own shot or shots for others: *Bradley Beal *Kendell Marshall *DeMarcus Cousins We have enough energy/blue-collar guys (Hickson/Hillbilla/Freeland)
Dirk this year wasn't the Dirk of last year. He was a dominating offensive force last year. And don't forget that they let their best bench player go last summer -- Barea was instant offense and a very important piece to that team.
It is actually a very different team. No Chandler, no Barea and no Caron Butler. Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2
Barea was very good for them, but I don't think Nowitzki is hinting at adding a JJ Barea type player to bring them back to title contention.
Why does no one mention the departure of Peja and Stevenson? Along with Barea, they lost a ton of their perimeter shooting, making their main playmakers (Dirk and Terry) much easier to guard.
It seemed Dirk was still hitting those "he's not going to hit that fadeawa..... oh I guess he can" type shots this year, but adding players like Carter to that team certainly didn't help the Mavs. I think they got really lucky in the matchups that they faced, I don't think they would have beaten Memphis, but they played who they had to play and that's all that matters, and hats off to them, they were one of the few teams that I routed for after seeing my favorite team get eliminated by. Funny how matchups can dictate the success of teams, such as the Blazers facing Houston that year. I vividly remember some freak comeback by the Hornets that forced the Blazers to play Houston. Had that not occurred, I fully believe they were built to beat any other team that year, except in the finals against Boston, but the cards fell how the fell. Similar to this year in that I would predict a Memphis over OKC scenario (I'm not kidding), but they'll be lucky to get past LAC, however, LAC will most definitely lose to OKC. I'm still holding out hope that the classy San Antonio team can take care of business and absolutely destroy both the Lakers followed by OKC. It's taken me a number of years to realize that it is hard to hate the Spurs, all of their superstars seem polar opposites to the class shown by Westbrooke, who at this point has become my new Kobe (most hated in the NBA). I fully believe that the Mavs as a team are finished in their current makeup. Perhaps Dirk moves on at some point but they've probably reached the rebuilding phase, assuming that they don't get Williams or Howard. But they've been a great franchise for 12 years at this point, so it's about time that some other team takes on their role of contenders.
Yeah this is a severe problem for POR right now, not even LA can create his own shot all the time and literally NO ONE else can... This is why a guy in the draft like Austin Rivers interests me, he is a guy who has consitently been able to create his own shot...Same goes for Beal... POR needs at least 1, likely more of these types of players...
The key is finding a player like that who makes others around him better. Crawful is a great example of a guy who can easily create his own shot, but doesn't make anyone else better.
Who are the top 10-15 forwards in the league, ranked purely on dribbling ability? There are some gold nuggets in there, hidden by their coach's system of not encouraging them to dribble. We need forwards who can dribble into traffic and make contested layups.
