Text/L.A. Van Cidie
After the Lone Ranger lost to the Bulls, the Lone Ranger officially missed the play-offs this season!
The Lone Rangers traded Spencer-Dinwiddie and Finney Smith for big trades this year, an unprotected first-round pick in 2029, and a second-round pick in 2027 and 2029. The deal came to Irving, who wanted to make a big difference. Who knows, the team's record is not advancing and retreating, and once the fourth place in the West fell out of the play-offs, the effect is comparable to Wei Shao joining the Lakers in the 22nd season.
There are many reasons for the Lone Ranger's decline:
First, the management is incompetent and lame, which leads the team to fall into the trap of the middle class, giving tens of millions of contracts to players with ordinary combat power (such as Hardaway, Kléber, Powell, Bullock, Bertans, etc.), but in order to save money, they sent away Brunson, the second-in-command who performed first-class last season.
Second, trading Smith, a 3D electric fan sent away by Irving, caused the team to lose most of its defensive resources.
Third, there are problems with Coach Kidd's coaching ability and platoon formation.
In fact, from the Irving trade, there is only one way in front of the Lone Ranger: offense and build a team. The lone ranger failed completely, falling to the point of bleeding.
Everyone can't help but say that the 2017 Cavaliers and the 2021 Nets are also offensive teams, and defense is not good, and the strength is still top. 2017 Cavaliers offensive efficiency 113.6 (3rd in the league), defensive efficiency 110.3 (21st in the league); In 2021, the Nets had 118.3 offensive efficiency (first in the league) and 113.8 (23rd in the league) defensive efficiency. These two teams are also a super organizational core of Irving's partner (James, Harden, 21 Nets Durant is often absent, Harden and Irving have a lot of time together), why did they show championship strength and record so much better than the Lone Ranger?
Let's talk about the defensive problem first, the 17 Cavaliers and 21 Nets regular season defense is not good because of insufficient defensive resources, but the playoffs targeted defense is okay, the 17 Knights defensive efficiency is 112.1 (9th in the league), 21 Nets defensive efficiency is 109.6 (3rd in the league). They will adopt focused defensive strategies, such as 21 Nets against the Bucks, using Griffin to play against each other, and Durant to protect the basket to pinch the brother and make the Bucks disgraced.
This is also the reason why the 17 Cavaliers and 21 Nets showed their championship strength.
Speaking of offense, the 17 Cavaliers, 21 Nets, and 23 Lone Rangers are all top singles attacker Kyrie Irving, plus a core with the ball (James, Harden and Doncic), but the offensive end is also different.
Let's start with the three top ball-carrying cores, all of whom have the ability to lead the team, sort out the team's offense, and can support the team's lower limit.
But Doncic also has flaws compared to James and Harden, that is, Doncic's ability to attack quickly is not very good. Although the 17 Cavaliers and 21 Nets didn't play fast, with 96.2 (15th in the league) and 99.5 (12th in the league), counterattack and early offense were taken very seriously because it was an efficient way to score as a complement to positional offense. At this point, James and Harden are both good at pushing fast attacks, or their own fast attacks, or assisting teammates fast attacks (Harden has a reputation of "creeping"). 17 Jen and 21 averaged 5.5 and 2.4 points respectively, while 23 Doncic only had 1.7 points.
This is exactly why Jen and Har can run in with Irving, because Irving is also very good at counterattacking conversions, fast attacks, and early offense (4.1 points per game in 23 seasons, 4th in the league). And Zhan and Ha happen to be able to help him make balls. Doncic is not good at this, which is not conducive to him and Irving running-in.
Compared with James, although they can both face the basket and start with their backs, James has a top open cutting ability, which is exactly what Doncic lacks (17 Jen averaged 2.3 points per game, 21 East only scored 0.4 points). Irving is the top attacker, he needs the ball, he needs to play singles outside the system (this 17 Cavaliers, 21 Nets provide good options), James' open cutting ability can match Irving.
That Doncic and Harden are quite similar, not fast, both like positional battles, and they are not good at running without the ball. In fact, there is also a difference between the two, Harden and Doncic, more magical, better three-point (Harden three-point shooting 36.3%, Doncic career three-point 33.8%); And in handling the ball, Harden is a combination of fast and slow, relaxed and measured, making people unpreventable; Doncic, on the other hand, is slower and uses a crushing style of play, which makes the opponent's defensive strategy a little simpler. Of course, 21 Harden sacrificed a lot, for the team to weaken the number of shots, organization to lead the team, which is impossible for Doncic.
As team leaders, 17 James and 21 Harden have played a long time, but they both played leadership; Doncic showed frustration after the game and also hurt the team's locker room.
When interviewed by a reporter, Doncic said: "What do you think about falling out of the play-off circle? ”
"I don't know."
"Do you think you can't get out of this desert?"
"You forced me to make a choice, maybe yes. But we have time to make it up? ”
"How to make up for it?"
"Win."
"Have you been so upset lately?"
"It's really frustrating and you can feel that frustration from the field. Sometimes I feel like it's not me, I'm just playing. I used to smile on the court and have fun, but it frustrated me for a lot of reasons, not just basketball. ”
"What else is going on?"
"I don't want to talk too much about my private life, but a lot has happened."
Let's talk about teammates, the 17 Cavaliers, under the coaching of Tyronn Lue, fully developed the offensive firepower of Love, Jefferson, JR Smith and Korver, developed offensive space, played a flowing offensive system, and the offensive efficiency in the playoffs was the highest in history (bringing in DeLong, giving up Likins is a mistake). 21 Nets Nash has a limited coaching level, but sacrificing Harden's passing the ball, coupled with Durant Irving's two-star firepower and outside shooters (such as Johar, Jeff Green), also makes the team's offensive invincibility.
On the Lone Ranger's side, he can't shoot the three-point level of 17 Cavaliers and 21 Nets (17 Riders 38.4% three-pointers, 2nd in the league; 21 Net 39.2% three-pointer, 2nd in the league; And the 23 Heroes 37.1% three-pointer, 8th in the league), and Coach Kidd is even less good at getting their sharing ball right, and the result is that Doncic and Irving take turns singles, one on four. And Kidd's larger black spot is the use of Wood's disaster level, seeing that the 17 Cavaliers even use Love's defensive loopholes, Kidd dislikes Wood's defense and gives him too few opportunities, which is a stark contrast.
The Lone Ranger failed in the 23rd season, declaring the Eastern European combination and offensive team completely bankrupt. And the extension of Irving's contract in the offseason is even more of an Olympian-level problem, and how the lone ranger can get out of the quagmire really can't see a solution for the time being.
Cuban spent a lot of effort to trade Owen, I wonder if he regrets it at the moment?