I’m not worried about the center situation at all, they already found an arrangement that works, and it’ll probably only get better this coming season. One of the strongest center lineups in the league - neither of them are Jokic or Embiid, but they’re both better than whoever the backup centers for the Nuggets and Sixers are.
Yeah, Gafford came in cold, not knowing the system. Now he has a complete offseason and a full 82 game season to get acclimated to his role off the bench. Considdering he will play a lot of minutes with Marshall/Grimes/Maxi off the bench, he has tons of help defensively as well. I have no concerns whatsover if it comes to Gafford.
No joke. They did that with a new guy to the team from the trade deadline. The other was a rookie figure himself out and going through some serious family shit. I picked up that rookies jersey, guarante, that dude will be nice.
Luka had a great all around defensive year before he got injured right before the playoffs. Statistically he was the 9th best ISO Defender and legitimately top 2-3 best PG defender all season long. You can tell it just got too much that he had to take painkiller injections before each game, he needed to conserve energy more than ever too to facilitate and score so he had to rely on team defense but Boston was just too good. If Dallas had faced a team like the 2023 heat and not a literal superteam they would’ve won but they lost so the narrative shifted again and just blamed it all on Lukas defense when his literal teammates couldn’t make shots to save their lives and choked!
Isolation play of Dallas doesnt win against Celtics... Celtics the best tree point shooting team in nba,, they just need to play good ball movements to be able to execute good offence...Dallas offence rellies on luka or kyre's isolation play...but no match for Celtics..
There's so many great players in nba that never to have championship... Including STEVE NASH,, REGGIE MILLER, CHARLES BARKLEY, CHRIS PAUL, PAUL GEORGE, JAMES HARDEN,, RUSSEL WESTBROOK...WHAT DO YOU THINK THE REASON WHY THESE GREAT PLAYERS DIDNT WON CHAMPIONSHIP?
Dude... Dallas created more open 3's then the Celtics in the finals, but shot them under 20% (not counting the blowout win). That was the by far biggest problem. Not to mention that Kyrie was completely off in the 3 Boston games. But that wasnt because of the Boston defense or Dallas gameplan... it was in Kyries head. If he gets his head right playing in Boston, this series wouldve looked WAY different as well. Sorry, but its clear you dont know much about basketball. Cause yes Boston won this fair and square. But Iso offense had nothing to do with it. Cause its also true that everyone on Dallas played well under their normal average, and the Boston defense wasnt the main reason why. Luka was injured, Kyrie had a mental blockade and the role players werent hitting anything from 3. Now they added a 3P sniper who will change how Boston can defend. They sagged off of DJJ to crowd the paint and stop the Luka/Kyrie and Lively/Gafford P&R. Will they be able to do the same with Thompson being out there instead of DJJ taking 6-9 3's per game?
@@SurprisedAlpineSkiing-fg5mo Mostly running into all time Super teams, bad injury luck, or just being stuck on a team that wasnt good enough... whats your point?
The Celtics just have too many good and versatile players that can shoot, defend, and create. Dallas closed the gap a little with their off-season moves, but only time will tell if it will be enough. Luka also wasn't able to play at his MVP level due to injuries... if he's closer to 100% for the playoffs in this coming season then that also helps to close the gap a little more.
The Mavs need Luka to be closer to 100% healthy going into the Playoffs this season. He gutted it out and performed well enough, but he wasn't moving like he had been in February and March of that year.
Nice to NOT mention PJ Washington shooting 47% from 3 and averaging more points than Kyrie in the thunder series, which clearly is the everyday performance for him.
It's also not everyday that PJ is left that wide open, that consistently. The Thunder chose to not even attempt to closeout on wide open Threes when PJ was shooting from the corner, and they paid the price for it. Those were practice shots, and most NBA players can hit a pretty decent percentage from 3PT with nobody guarding them.
