When you don't have a true point, your superstars suffer disfunctionality

Didn't say Howard could do that anymore. What I said was we lack a premier distributor that can feed Howard and Harden and make them mesh together. We lack a distributor that understands the effort big men go through to defend and board and run the floor and gets the ball to them consistently enough for them to get their bunnies.

The biggest problem is a one-dimensional system that lacks ball movement and player movement combined with the team superstar being the de facto coach and controlling style of play.

Saying we won 56 games last season with the same bunch is over simplifying. We had Josh Smith on last year's team making random plays, being unpredictable and basically not cooperating with the "get the ball to Harden" approach. Smoive single-himself led us out of the second round while our superstar sat on the bench. Wouldn't you like to know why Smoove left us last summer? It'll eventually come out. The random unpredictability of Smoove drove us to 56 wins my friend. He knew how to get the ball to his big man consistently.

This is really not worthy of a response. I have never said nor do I feel that the offense should run through Dwight. I just got done saying the offense needs to run through a premier point that is a superior distributor/playmaker to Harden. Don't know how much plainer I can make it. Dwight is not good enough to run the offense through. And Harden is not a good enough distributor/playmaker/ball handler to be the point. Away with you and your stupid shtick. Go suck sour eggs and find somebody else's words to distort.

Yeah. I said point....not point guard.

Orlando had multiple players that could distribute. And Hedo was good at it. That was an example of a multi-faceted offense. Jameer was the first distributor/playmaker for them when he was healthy. And his numbers showed it. Hedo was the second best distributor and Jameers injury finally caught up to them in the Finals. But that was a multi-faceted team that actually had 3 distributors including Dwight who was in his prime and able to make plays.

We have nowhere near that capability. We are one-dimensional. All an opponent has to do is water down Hardens efficiency by turning him over and getting him to force some shots are we're barbeque chicken.

Dwight deserves touches second to nobody on this current roster sans Harden. Look at what our guys are doing right now. We've ordered a case of red paint for our rims because of all the bricks hitting them. Get real here.

This is why we need a real distributor.

Once again I said point, not point guard.

Yeah. That's not my point. My point is that we don't have a point to make Howard and Harden jive.

Point
...not point guard. Pippen was the point in Chicago. Biups and Thomas for Detroit. Magic for the Lakers. Celtics had great distributors and many of them. I could go on. But needless to say championship teams have a premier distributor that is a superior distributor to Harden.

By making hacking non-consequential because we are so far ahead at hacking time. By being able to run a smooth, efficient offense when Harden is sitting.

 

The Pat Bevs were not at the point offensively.. Once again for emphasis, I said at the point, not at point guard. The point can be any of the 1, 2, 3 and even the 4 on occasion.

The primary point for the Jordan Bulls was Pippen. Pippen handled the ball and initiated their offense from the top, helped Jordan and the team keep the turnovers down, and he fed Jordan and everybody else the basketball in scoring position.

The primary point for the Piston teams was Thomas and Billups. Thomas is the single championship point most like Harden with his high turnover count but even he didn't turn it over as much as Harden does, and he got way more of his turnovers back on the defensive end, and he played alongside other playmakers like Dumars that could handle and dish.

Multiple playmakers on the floor together in a staple of championship teams as well as a lead playmaker that is efficient with the dribble and feeds his big men. Those are staples we haven't had except for brief moments. And we have avoided acquiring playmakers, eschewing them for guys that can only spot-up, catch and shoot, and supposedly play defense. Ariza is a disaster both handling and passing the basketball. He couldn't make a play if his life depended on it. Brewer and Bev are headless chickens. They can dribble the ball around tangibly across and around the court but they can't find guys consistently and when they try to their turnover count blows up. Terry is a spot up shooter. And we gave up a first rounder on a guy who is basically finished as a player whom James wanted to play with.

Let's get real here. This franchise is now at a crossroads. We have a superstar shooting guard who is now miscast as the primary point. Not only is he the primary point, he is the only playmaker on the entire roster. And he should be the primary scorer and secondary point on a championship capable team.

We don't have, and haven't had the great glue guy, the guy that could have made the chemistry work between Harden and Howard or between Harden and the whole team. We've come this far simply by riding Harden to the finish line and a little bit of luck. But this style of play with a scorer attempting to be the point and totally dominating the basketball is not going to produce a championship. I'm sorry to say. We've got to get the other elements to have chemistry, to make this a team instead of just individual talents thrown together like salt and sugar without any water.

 

What all championship teams have is ball movement. You gotta have scorers (more than one) and you have to have playmakers/passers (more than one) with your best playmaker/passer being efficient with distributing the basketball to his teammates. He has to generate efficient looks for all the other guys and do it while keeping turnovers in check.

 

Sorry, Billups and Pippen were premier distributors.

You are defining distribution simply by assist numbers. That's just one aspect of distribution. It's wrong not to consider the other aspects of distribution/facilitation. Do you know what a hockey assist is? Probably not. Because our team doesn't get hardly any of those because of our one-dimensional style. Not to mention turnovers. A player could average 10 assists a game. But that Durant make him an efficient, premier distributor. If he averages 7 turnovers and in the process of getting his 10 assists he constantly throws the ball to guys that are in their low-efficiency scoring zones, where the defense just sits and lets them jack up low efficiency shots then those 10 assists don't have much positive value. They are offset by turnovers and low efficiency looks.

That means a 10 assist guy could be a mediocre or even poor distributor.

The Garnett Celtics had Rondo feeding the hall-of-fame trio of Pierce-Allen-Garnett. Don't know why you can't see Rondo's glue-man role on that team. Dude averaged over 5 assists with only 1.9 turnovers during the regular season. And he offset 1.7 of those turnovers with straight steals. And he got back even more turnovers on the defensive end by drawing offensive fouls. Oh, and he probably averaged around 8 hockey assists a game as well. That's the definition of a glue guy.

Then in the playoffs he upped his assist totals even more while keeping his turnover count down and mire than offsetting all his turnovers with steals and offensive fouls drawn against his opponents because he was D'ing up.


Yes, Chris Paul is a premier distributor and he makes hacking DeAndre have minimal effect because he can create effective, efficient looks for every player on the floor even when DeAndre is sitting.