Given the occasional disinterest of OG and Mikal, as well as the in infallible eye test, I’d have to think that JB is at least some of it.

We’ve all know what Mikal and OG are capable of and we saw it really well last year when Brunson was out and OG went on the best run of his entire career. They are not elite scorers. There are going to be nights when the matchup or defense makes it tougher on them or someone else has it going so they are less involved. But they are both very good. Yet both of them have nights where they totally vanish (much like Towns). IMO, when the ball is not moving, they are not involved enough and that’s when they stand around and nothing happens.

long term Kolek bull

Seems like you found a new handle, Strat

The theory that Brunson is the source of KAT’s disappointing offensive season seems to have a big “last season KAT had one his best offensive seasons ever” flaw, no?

Look at this way.

This season we were supposed to have a more balanced attack with better ball movement and a less Brunson centric offense. We also added offense on the bench. Yet somehow Brunson is scoring more PPG in fewer minutes and his usage is a tick higher than last year.

I’ll agree that there are players that are more dependent on good PG play than others, but everyone’s efficiency is helped a little by good QB play and good ball movement even if their points/36 goes down a little through that balance.

Some of Towns struggles may just be noise or under reported injuries, but some nights he’s not getting the ball at all, let alone in good spots for him personally to score. If it’s not Brunson and it’s not the coach, who is it?

But my eye test is also aligned with pt’s observation that KAT is somewhat point guard agnostic because he’s not a quick decision maker. This season in particular he always seems to make the shoot/drive decision I don’t agree with from the top of the key.

I hear you, Noble, and I do generally agree with Milo that a portion of KAT’s difficulties/limitations are PG agnostic. But he’s also been MIA in more than a few games this year, and the question is whether it’s all MB’s systems or whether JB going Hero Ball had something to do with it. Given the occasional disinterest of OG and Mikal, as well as the in infallible eye test, I’d have to think that JB is at least some of it.

The samples are small and I wouldn’t make much of it, but since Kolek is in the rotation anyway I think it’s a prima facie case for making sure the non-Brunson minutes with KAT are basically all with Kolek.

I’m a pround long term Kolek bull. There were and continue to be questions about his defense and ability to hit outside shots consistently, but he’s one hell of a good PG. If he gets the rest of it down consistently over the next year or two, I’ll be arguing to start him at PG and play Brunson off ball. Brunson scores with high efficiency at high usage in every way. Kolek will never do that. But Kolek has the skills to run an offense and make other players better. I’m all for giving Kolek as many minutes with Towns as we can as long as he shoots at a tolerable level and defends well enough to prevent me from whining.

Dallas Mavericks star Anthony Davis has sustained ligament damage in his left hand, sources tell me and @BannedMacMahon. Depending on second opinion and if surgery is required, Davis could miss a number of months.

we’ve seen zillions of examples in the nba of the fact that the microskills (i.e. traits that are less obvious than size and speed) required to excel as a POA defender are much more nuanced and activity specific than you might expect going in. and they don’t correlate well at all to seemingly rhyming traits on offense, like a quick first step or incredible footwork or elite deceleration. i think of the difference as similar to the robotics idea that model predictive control (offense) is a very different set of pathways than feedback control under adversarial perturbation (defense). rapidly flipping your hips in a wide stance while maintaining balance is extremely hard to learn, and those skills don’t really show up on offense. jalen is not good at them.

jalen also does not have a good hand-to-ball timing knack. one of the things that made cp3 deadly is that his hands had sonar. if you can’t be a real threat to the handle of an opponent AND you are short and stubby AND you aren’t a gifted hip flipper / reactor, you are in big trouble as a defender. i don’t think jalen’s motor is bad relative to a high usage guard (though it’s far from guys like maxey). and he is obviously balls to the wall in his willingness to step in front of a charging zion like a weeble wobble and wink at his life insurance guy. but he’s working off of a tough base.