If Brunson can pull-up from steps beyond the arc, he can run even higher pick-and-rolls, which extends the court, creating more space for a defense to cover. Imagine a Brunson-Julius Randle pick-and-roll 28 feet away from the rim, where a defender knows he can’t go under the screen because Brunson will pop an open look in his face and the rest of the defense understands that if the point of attack doesn’t do its job sufficiently, then one of the best scorers in the league will throttle downhill for a trademark floater or an easy pass to his big man or a kick out to an open 3.
We don’t need a spread 5 if we have a backcourt that pulls the defense, uh, back. Mitch can box out 3 mf’ers in the paint and iHart can handle 2.5. If JB and Randle are dropping it from 27 that only leaves 1-2 mf’ers down low trying to collect defensive boards and that’s light work.
This was the most salient bit for me:
We don’t need a spread 5 if we have a backcourt that pulls the defense, uh, back. Mitch can box out 3 mf’ers in the paint and iHart can handle 2.5. If JB and Randle are dropping it from 27 that only leaves 1-2 mf’ers down low trying to collect defensive boards and that’s light work.
We’d absolutely bitch teams in the paint. Imagine if RJ and Grimes join the 3pt party too?
That Brunson-Randle high PnR can potentially be a postseason weapon.