I agree. It’s an ideal situation.
It’s odd. Kyrie is our most talented player, but his fit is among the worst. He’s not a good passer, he’s a bad defender, and his best offense comes from iso play. I’m hopeful that Kyrie’s focus is on fitting in here, rather than on his next step.
His best offense comes in iso? Do the numbers back that up? That would surprise me.
I was really impressed by Kyrie's ability to play within the offense last year. Coming into the year my fear was that he would revert to isoball too much but after watching him play I didn't think that happened.
This is a great thread topic because the offense is going to be a sight to behold and it reminded me of that.
The ball movement on this team is going to be amazing, they are going to get so many open shots because almost everyone is a threat to score. I expect them to play at an increased pace to further utilize their depth. Combining the two will lead to the quality of looks sky rocketing compared to last year.
No, it doesn't. ISO is generally the least efficient form of offense, statistically. I've read a stat that ISO plays result in roughly .78 PPP (points per possession), which is the least. Kyrie's Iso is 1.04 PPP which ranks him 8th after Harden, Paul, Schroder, Lillard, Rivers, Durant, and Oladipo). His best offense is in the pick and roll at 1.1 and handoff at 1.16. We'll need ISO Kyrie for the 4th quarter when defense tightens up and you need clock management.
Other than that, I expect more of the same offense where everyone touches the ball until there's a wide open shot. This is how:
When Kyrie was the ball handler in the pick and roll in 17-18, our points per possession is 1.1 (48.6% score frequency). That's either #1 or #2 in ball handlers with more than 20 games played & 2 PnR possessions per game (Kyrie #1 in score freq (Curry 47.1%), Curry in PPP at 1.13 (they get more 3s)).
Brad knows this. One of the go-to moves is a Kyrie/Horford PnR, which gets overplayed by the defense because you have to respect Kyrie's drive, allowing either Horford an easy roll to the hoop or a wide open 3 by one of the other 3 players.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xB8INkZ7BAAnother play that they score well in is dribble handoff where Kyrie is also ranked #1 in PPP at 1.16:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3hxOpn7LZII can't find a clip of the more common one where Horford has the ball at the top of the key and hands it off to Kyrie coming around.
I'd argue that Horford is the most irreplaceable person on the team. But to say that Kyrie has the least fit in the team is nuts. Sure we can play without him, but you're taking away the best ball handler in the best offensive set in basketball. That's not easily replaceable considering the next best on the Celtics in that situation is Marcus Smart with a PPP of .77 and score Freq of 35.5%...