I’m very late to this, buuuut. ‘01 - Fisher - 11.2 ‘02 - Fisher - 11.5 It can be done as long as you have balance down the roster 8 or so guys deep. The ‘09 and ‘10 teams had similar things going on. Current team averages Kuz - 11.1 Bradley - 9.6 Rondo - 8.5 Green - 8.2 KCP - 8.0 McGee - 7.2 Howard - 7.0 Caruso - 5.7 That’s not amazing, but it’s very decent balance. Would be nice to have another guy in double figures regularly, but we haven’t had that on a title team since 2010 with Kobe, Pau, Bynum, Odom, and MWP.
I think it would obviously be very advantageous to have Kuz scoring in double digits on a continuous basis. Do we need it to win a championship, maybe/maybe not. It certainly decreases our margin for error. There are going to be games our stars shot are off, we need the other guys to pick up the slack. A concern with Kuz is his number of shot attempts. Right now they are down from last year, which they should be. If he increases them and is inconsistent, that will hurt us.
i think of kuz more like a shawn marion type offensive player: he thrives off of others' ability to create. more of a measure of the offense working than a driver of an offense. this isn't a bad thing--not everyone can fill that role. in fact, our problems with randle and ingram were that they had difficulty unless they were driving action. it's just the fact that we purged all other creators from the roster that highlights kuz's issues there, imo. i think it's easier to find guys who can make things happen with the ball than it is to find guys who can thrive off of it, though. we have the MLE next year to get one.
Marion was also an elite defender and rebounder. Kuzma can learn a thing or two about contributing in other areas.
i mean, he was also a lottery pick and could potentially make the hall of fame. i was comparing their offense. very similar, with kuz having a better stroke (if not much better results) from deep. i don't think he has the physical tools to play defense like marion. i do think he could be a better offensive rebounder than he is, but some of that could be scheme-related.
I agree that Kuz can be utilized similarly to Marion on offense, but I think their overall impact wouldn't even be close. The Matrix constantly made hustle plays, he was MUCH more active in the paint, he was always a lob threat, and he crashed the offensive boards non-stop. (he's 36th all-time in offensive rebounds) On top on that, Marion was known for his stalwart defense and was ridiculously active on both ends. I wish Kuz had that kind of motor.
We need Kuzma to get healthy and right quickly - we got Heat/Pacers/Bucks/Nuggets/Clippers/Mavs coming up - all going to be tough games and half of these are on the road.
