Point guards are the easiest players you can get to run your offense, but they aren't important if you have one or more wings that can do the same thing.
It may be better to commit to the positionless trend and see Kyrie as a point of defensive weakness that cannot be fixed. I'm also pretty sure he won't like making room for Tatum and Brown to reach their potential. Rozier or Smart aren't the answer either. Rozier just doesn't quite play big enough defensively and Smart can't shoot.
Longer term, we could instead start another defensive oriented wing that is quick enough to cover guards and who can consistently hit 3's. If we can get a quality resource for Kyrie, maybe we should let him go. I'm no cap expert, but it looks to me like we could clear room for a major free agent if we don't sign him and are willing to move Smart.
Hayward can run the offense and that Tatum and Brown will be able to as well as they evolve. We are in an amazing position where we have three big talented wings who all shoot very well, who all play rugged, flexible defense, and who all can attack the rim. On top of that, we have the most versatile big in the league to play with them. Let's go big and positionless and see if anyone can hang with us. Even GS has a couple of holes when they go small.
Kyrie doesn't give us that.
Mostly nonsense. Quick teams would eat up a positionless team without a true PG.
Kyrie is one of the 10 best players in the league. Tatum might become that, but he isn't right now.
Hayward can't run the offense, none of them can other than Smart, none of them can beat pressure like Kyrie, and he's far and away the best on the roster at getting his own shot. Because we have a # of players and picks, we can regroup and quickly rebuild if Kyrie leaves, but you'd have to be astoundingly naive to not think it's a harsh blow.
I really don't understand your criticism. Kyrie is a glaring defensive weakness You may remember in the playoffs how LeBron endlessly backed Rozier down into the lane, and Rozier is a far superior defender to Kyrie. Do you really think we would have more defensive integrity because Kyrie is defending a point guard rather than Brown, or some other wing we bring in primarily for defense? I doubt you could find a single point guard in the league that would rather have Brown cover them instead of Kyrie.
You can clearly run your offense through Hayward. You can even run it through Horford for spots. No one is going to successfully press a team that big, fast and skilled. And I doubt seriously that a team like that will have any trouble creating shots. If we have a problem, it will be how to keep everyone happy.
Even positionless basketball have "positions".
You can run plays through Horford and Hayward, and both are excellent playmakers. However, it is not advisable to not have true ballhandlers on the floor. No, if we don't have Kyrie I still want Smart/Rozier to be on the floor.
Its also a bad idea to compare Rozier guarding Lebron vs a guard guarding a guard. Rozier guarding is a mismatch as does Horford guarding Kemba. When you play against guards, Brown can handle it, but you don't want him to do that 24/7. He will get tired and take away from offense, plus Korver and Middleton scored on Brown through screens, what more if its guys like Curry? This is why Smart and Bradley are excellent guard defenders, they can fight through screens easier than someone like Brown or Morris. Its also why IT had a relatively decent job defending Curry.
Topic: Will Kyrie mess up Ainge plan? (Read 6550 times)