(Text/L.A. Van Cidy)
In the past 20 years, a new style of play has emerged in the NBA - the ball core (or ball core), represented by James, Harden, Paul, Doncic, etc. Their characteristics are: big bag consumption of the ball, can organize, control the field, can sort out the offensive tandem team, and top scoring ability, can form a system around it.
Unlike traditional playmakers (e.g., Stockton, Kidd), they have top-notch scoring ability. The role of traditional playmakers is to organize the field, and the scoring burden falls to teammates (such as Carl Malone next to Stockton, Carter or Novitsky next to Kidd). Ball carrying is not limited to point guards, but players in other positions can also play (such as shooting guards Wade, Harden; small forwards Maddie, James, Tekcoglu), which is in line with the trend of blurring the current position.
The ball-carrying core play has a high minimum limit for leading the team, even if the teammates are poor, they can make the playoffs.
Some players can carry the ball, organize and score, but their ability to control the field is inferior, such as Wei Shao. This reluctance can be said to be the "ball core". Some players can carry the ball, organize the field and score, and can become a system, but the status of the team is not high, it may be called a "small core with the ball", such as Dinwiddie.
The core style of play with the ball has probably appeared since the 21st century, and it has set off a trend represented by James. In the Cavaliers 1.0 era, in 2007, James led his average teammates (Big Z, Vallejo, Gooden, Hughes, Gibbs, Damon Jones, Pavlovich, Marshall, Snow) to the Finals, ushering in a new era of ball-carrying core.
There are many core types of ball holding, and there are various playing styles, including blocking, such as Paul; There are singles + blocking-based, such as James, West, Harden, etc.; There are also back-to-back singles and hand-to-hand. Some ball-carrying cores are only good at pushing fast attacks, such as Wei Shao; Some are only good at positional warfare, such as Doncic; Some can be fast or slow, such as James and Harden.
The relatively rudimentary configuration of the ball-carrying core system includes one-star four-shot and one-star three-shot one-shot (pie-eater). The shooter team creates singles space for the ball-holding core, and the pie eater is responsible for the empty cut and running to eat the pie. The Rockets Harden (before Paul came) and Thanos Jen '18 have all achieved good things in this configuration. Of course, this configuration is mostly functional shooters, and lacks autonomous offensive capabilities, which determines that the upper limit of this configuration is not high.
There are also advanced versions:
One is the ball-carrying core with an all-star interior (you have to be good at eating cakes), one control and one cake, which is very suitable. In 2009, the Magic advanced with Turkoglu as the ball-carrying core and Howard as the interior core, leading a group of shooters through the hurdles to advance to the Finals. In 2020, James and the top Pie King Thick Eyebrows team won the championship.
One is a ball-carrying core with a super single. For example, James and Irving combined. Lu coached a top-level offensive system around James, while Irving roamed outside the system and provided a single hard solution. This style of play helped the Cavaliers win the 2016 championship.
Another example is the 21 Nets Harden with Durant and Irving, two super scorers, with huge momentum and a very high call to win the championship.
Of course, this combination has to consider fit, such as Doncic and Irving combination did not even make the play-offs.
One is the double (many) ball-carrying core play. It is difficult to achieve 1+1>2 because of the problem of ball distribution between the two sides. If both cores have the ability to cut the air or the ability to catch and shoot, they can be run-in. Such as James and Wade, both of which have good open cutting ability, so they have won two championships; Harden and Paul's light cannon combination, although the ball is average, good can stand on the pile to catch and shoot, is also a lot of results. It would be very embarrassing if one of the cores seriously lacked the ability to play off the ball, like the Hardenway combination in the 20 season was far less successful than the light bulb combination, and the Lakers 360 combination in the 22nd season did not even make the play-offs.
And the big core with the ball + the small core with the ball is an affordable version of this, because the small core with the ball is paid less. Last season's lone ranger Doncic + Brunson + Dinwiddie three shots were such cases, once reaching the Western Conference Finals.
With the advent of the small-ball era, the playing style of the core system of ball holding has become more and more complex and deepened in recent years, forming a top-level team offensive system. For example, in 2017, under the coach of Tyronn Lue, the core of the ball was James with top singles Irving, and then a group of pitchers, through sharing the ball and strong and weak sides to play a flowing offensive system.
In the era of big roll call, many of the cores of ball holding have the ability to roll call and enhance the lethality of the move. For example, James can block and play big centers, and can also reverse block small defenders; Harden, Doncic, and Paul can name big centers, such as the Utah Jazz who beat Mitchell and Gobert in Harden's playoffs every year.
What do you think?