I’m not gonna lie a lot of the time this season it feels like Giannis plays heavy ego ball, as if he is determined to prove that he’s still the number 1 on the team and not Dame. I think you could point to several examples over the span of games recently like when he taking threes with a wide open Dame right next time him and the outright refusal to give him the ball at times. I’m sure it’s likely just him adjusting to not have to do it all compared to last season where we were heavily reliant on him with Khris out and Jrue shooting tour dates but Dame is a literal Hof pg and he evidently gets everyone involved in the offence and our possessions look smoother whenever he is the primary handler. Besides Giannis focusing his energy more on defence, setting screens and being the roll man not only would help get more open shots for everyone else but also helps him conserve his energy on those night where the refs just don’t give him calls. Again this ties in with Giannis having to humble himself and play a somewhat lesser role in respect to what he usually does (and it would reflect in his stats being lower) but I think as a team it would make us look much better. I reckon AG will figure it out but right now at times Giannis looks like a 7” Westbrook with his decision making when the ball is in his hands but that could just be me.
Think of it in terms of effectiveness. Giannis up until last night was dominating the paint. He could get whatever he wanted at the rim and was shooting high percentage shots close to the rim. If this is happening it doesn’t really matter if you have Dame, KD, Steph, and Lebron as your other 4. If you’re getting a bucket you take it.
This is also where you need to give the Celtics credit. They do a much better than average job of stripping Giannis when he has the ball down low before he has a chance to shoot. That’s been their game plan for years. It also looked like the ball was a bit more slippery than he expected last night because his normal one had moves were flying everywhere when he lost control of it.
Imo it doesn’t matter who has the ball if they’re the hot hand. Lopez was getting to the rim tonight so they fed him the ball. Bobby has had nights where his shot is falling. Dames been getting to the rim and what would’ve been a foul last year, isn’t this year so he needs to adjust. All in all watching these two teams play last night looked like their destined for a 7 game series.