Chris Paul is only playing 27 minutes, he's new to the team, and he's averaging 10 assists right now. I'm not sure why I should expect him to assist less moving forward. I do expect Harden's to fall off because I think CP3 will have the ball a lot, but I still expect him to average over 8 the rest of the way. Maybe his season average stays above 9. I could easily see these 2 averaging close to 20 by years end.
It’ll be hard to get the 25 mark because when either Chris or James have the ball, which is near all the time, they run the offense the same way. We get very few hockey assists, and those come when both are on the court. Also, Harden scores a ton from the pnr, so the assists to him are few and come from usually only CP.
Chris and Jim are the best passers in the league. This season is gonna be fun watching this team shatter some offensive records. These last two games have been total laughers (except for the 1st quarter last night). All the postgame highlights last night included an awesome pass to set up the score.
On the Knicks telecast, they said the highest combined APG was Kevin Johnson and Jeff Hornacek. It was only around 17 or 18 APG I think.
There's no reason they can't do it. If someone other than Paul or Harden has the ball, that means Harden and Paul are just 2 of the options for passes. Also Harden is going to be off the ball much more this season. He will have tons of catch n shoot opportunities and they don't all have to come from Paul. 25 is very achievable. It's not even top 2 in the league. Just depends on how Tucker, Capela, Anderson, Gordon, Ariza, Nene and Black adapt to Paul/Harden.
Our team is constructed as 1 ball dominant guard, and either 4 gunners or 3 gunners and a center. If Paul and harden are on the court, the moment someone catches the ball, they should be shooting or dunking. No one should be holding it unless it’s the aforementioned. We aren’t setup with that kind of offense. Not all offenses are constructed to pass around the perimeter, or use the high post. There isn’t one style that is better than the rest, and most assists doesn’t mean best basketball played. 25 is not how we are constructed, and if we got 25, it’ll be because Harden and Paul both average 11+. It is not indicative of our teammates playing better, they play their roles as they should. Catch, fire.
I don't agree with this assessment. That's how we have played, but MDA gives the team freedom to make choices. We're not rigidly constructed except in terms of what is and isn't efficient. If they see new and efficient opportunities - i.e. the role players are being defended well, while one of Harden or Paul is open - then they will take those chances and those opportunities will definitely be increasing this season. It's also something we will probably need to employ against the Warriors, whose defense is so good that we need to move the ball/players better than we normally do.
Hopefully CP3 (& everyone) can stay healthy and play each game. If so, then the 1/26/18 game against the Pelicans will be one to watch. CP3 needs to play 70% of his team's games to be eligible for Assists Leaders. He missed 14 games so that puts his eligibility coming online at game #47. Also his Assist/TO ratio becomes eligible at 200 assists. He's at 65 assists right now at about a 10.8 a/pg clip. So he should be eligible in that category in about 4 games or so. It could be really cool to see the #1 & #2 Assists Leaders in the league as CP3 & Beard, where both combine for 20+ a/pg. And as for A/TO ratio, no one is even in the same atmosphere as CP3. He is just unreal in this MDA system.
I do wish CP3 would stroll through the lane the way Nash did before he passed it. If forces defenses to shift. CP3 tends to hang a little bit around the perimeter.
