gradyandrew wrote:

BlueKnickers wrote:What I love about the last two games is Brunson has finally seen the light and loosened his grip on the ball so everyone can take turns playmaking with KAT being the primary benefactor to his teammates.

It's wonderful, because now Brunson can go back to being dangerous without feeling the compulsion to carry the team on his back.

Brunson unlocked means he can lean in to his natural DNA as a player and focus on being the scorer he is without needing the ball as much to do it.

He's going to get so many more easy looks at the basket being a part of a daisy chain of passers instead of trying to always be the head of the snake.

Brunson was the bottleneck, not sure how anyone ever disputed this. He is so fantastic at what he does well that he did need to hand over the ball distribution keys to his colleagues and just be himself without the burden of being a point guard.

This team needs to run its passing game by committee. Anyone can bring the ball up the court. Everyone, including Brunson, just needs to keep moving off the ball and rotate around KAT like he's the center of their universe. KAT is the Sun and he will pass to the orbiting moons if they keep moving their feet, including Brunson.

Brunson's assist numbers may fluctuate more, but I doubt his averages will drop much. If anything, they may go up, because more movement means easier passes to cutters and less forced passes late in the clock from overdribbling.

If Brunson does this, then they should go to the Finals. This is everything I was asking for and this is the version of Brunson required to be a contender. Keep it up fellas.

I don't know how true this is. In a clutch situation, giving Brunson the ball is the best play to make. This isn't me saying this but the entire NBA (Clutch Player of the Year). The last 3 games haven't been close so no need for iso Brunson.

I won't speak for anyone else but I'd assume BlueBalls isn't referring to end of game situations regarding getting the ball out of Brunson's hands so much. In fact, I'd guess it's the opposite, just the overall gameplan of how to involve full team offense.

martin wrote:

gradyandrew wrote:

BlueKnickers wrote:What I love about the last two games is Brunson has finally seen the light and loosened his grip on the ball so everyone can take turns playmaking with KAT being the primary benefactor to his teammates.

It's wonderful, because now Brunson can go back to being dangerous without feeling the compulsion to carry the team on his back.

Brunson unlocked means he can lean in to his natural DNA as a player and focus on being the scorer he is without needing the ball as much to do it.

He's going to get so many more easy looks at the basket being a part of a daisy chain of passers instead of trying to always be the head of the snake.

Brunson was the bottleneck, not sure how anyone ever disputed this. He is so fantastic at what he does well that he did need to hand over the ball distribution keys to his colleagues and just be himself without the burden of being a point guard.

This team needs to run its passing game by committee. Anyone can bring the ball up the court. Everyone, including Brunson, just needs to keep moving off the ball and rotate around KAT like he's the center of their universe. KAT is the Sun and he will pass to the orbiting moons if they keep moving their feet, including Brunson.

Brunson's assist numbers may fluctuate more, but I doubt his averages will drop much. If anything, they may go up, because more movement means easier passes to cutters and less forced passes late in the clock from overdribbling.

If Brunson does this, then they should go to the Finals. This is everything I was asking for and this is the version of Brunson required to be a contender. Keep it up fellas.

I don't know how true this is. In a clutch situation, giving Brunson the ball is the best play to make. This isn't me saying this but the entire NBA (Clutch Player of the Year). The last 3 games haven't been close so no need for iso Brunson.

I won't speak for anyone else but I'd assume BlueBalls isn't referring to end of game situations regarding getting the ball out of Brunson's hands so much. In fact, I'd guess it's the opposite, just the overall gameplan of how to involve full team offense.

OK. I don't think it's fair to say Brunson was the bottleneck. This team has evolved over the course of the season and it looks like they are hitting their ceiling at the right time.

Remember, going into the series, the talk was that Brunson and KAT should be running more pick and rolls or pick and pops. This isn't that.

All season KAT has been getting the ball in isolation and driving against his defender. KAT converted a bunch and was fouled on some more but there were a lot of misses that led to fast break situations, often with KAT complaining to the refs. This isn't that either.

KATs always been a good passer from a stationery position but this is a true evolution of the team where the other guys are running off the ball actions to get open. The whole team has improved and it's kind of silly to insinuate that this was low hanging fruit that, were it not for Brunson's ball hogging, could have been run all season. It took Spo and the Heat a similar amount of time to put Bosh as the center. The Knicks have gotten better, just enjoy it.

martin wrote:

gradyandrew wrote:

martin wrote:

gradyandrew wrote:

BlueKnickers wrote:What I love about the last two games is Brunson has finally seen the light and loosened his grip on the ball so everyone can take turns playmaking with KAT being the primary benefactor to his teammates.

It's wonderful, because now Brunson can go back to being dangerous without feeling the compulsion to carry the team on his back.

Brunson unlocked means he can lean in to his natural DNA as a player and focus on being the scorer he is without needing the ball as much to do it.

He's going to get so many more easy looks at the basket being a part of a daisy chain of passers instead of trying to always be the head of the snake.

Brunson was the bottleneck, not sure how anyone ever disputed this. He is so fantastic at what he does well that he did need to hand over the ball distribution keys to his colleagues and just be himself without the burden of being a point guard.

This team needs to run its passing game by committee. Anyone can bring the ball up the court. Everyone, including Brunson, just needs to keep moving off the ball and rotate around KAT like he's the center of their universe. KAT is the Sun and he will pass to the orbiting moons if they keep moving their feet, including Brunson.

Brunson's assist numbers may fluctuate more, but I doubt his averages will drop much. If anything, they may go up, because more movement means easier passes to cutters and less forced passes late in the clock from overdribbling.

If Brunson does this, then they should go to the Finals. This is everything I was asking for and this is the version of Brunson required to be a contender. Keep it up fellas.

I don't know how true this is. In a clutch situation, giving Brunson the ball is the best play to make. This isn't me saying this but the entire NBA (Clutch Player of the Year). The last 3 games haven't been close so no need for iso Brunson.

I won't speak for anyone else but I'd assume BlueBalls isn't referring to end of game situations regarding getting the ball out of Brunson's hands so much. In fact, I'd guess it's the opposite, just the overall gameplan of how to involve full team offense.

OK. I don't think it's fair to say Brunson was the bottleneck. This team has evolved over the course of the season and it looks like they are hitting their ceiling at the right time.

Remember, going into the series, the talk was that Brunson and KAT should be running more pick and rolls or pick and pops. This isn't that.

All season KAT has been getting the ball in isolation and driving against his defender. KAT converted a bunch and was fouled on some more but there were a lot of misses that led to fast break situations, often with KAT complaining to the refs. This isn't that either.

KATs always been a good passer from a stationery position but this is a true evolution of the team where the other guys are running off the ball actions to get open. The whole team has improved and it's kind of silly to insinuate that this was low hanging fruit that, were it not for Brunson's ball hogging, could have been run all season. It took Spo and the Heat a similar amount of time to put Bosh as the center. The Knicks have gotten better, just enjoy it.

Brunson is the guy with the ball in his hands the most, and with responsibility to initiate the offense. And some times, often rightfully when he got his groove going on, Brunson will ISO from that starting point.

For things to unlock to other players after that bottleneck of a starting point, Brunson must decide what to do?

I know some words feel wrong to some people so I would just follow your logic and simply say it is a math problem of redistributing ball usage minutes among the players. If one player is ball dominant and the offense stagnates, but the offense flows when the ball is distributed more evenly with other players taking over some of the passing duties then call it an improvement. Math, bottlenecks, getting hung up on semantics is unnecessary. Everyone on the floor needed to be involved more. Let's keep it simple for those who don't like certain words I guess.

gradyandrew wrote:A much easier explanation seems to be no one knew how dangerous KAT is at passing the ball. Outside of game 6 JB's usage was higher than his season average.

Maybe it's not the correct phrasing but high usage = bottleneck

What is notable about most of those assists are they are basic passes, nothing sensational, even the lobs to Mitch.

What that says to me is Brunson is surrounded by guys who deserve to be fed and it is not that hard to feed them.

It also says if he can rack up 15 assists that easily then he is passing more in spots he used to go ISO instead of looking for a teammate.

This is how it should be IMO. Brunson should be close to a league leader in assists due to the collection of able shooters around him with a lower PPG average himself.