Did everybody forget that Mid Range scorers still create spacing??
So I understand that everybody is traumatized from the lack of spacing that we had last season , but 90% of the people complaining about it right now have no idea what spacing actually is.
As our roster is constructed right now, we have a nice number of spot of shooters and we have Duren , Ausar , and Collins as deadly threats in the paint area but our boy Cade Cunningham IS THE ONLY SHOT CREATOR AND MID RANGE MASTER ON OUR TEAM.
If we buy into the obsession of “ if he’s not shooting 40% from 3 , we can’t acquire him at all” we’re going to torture Cade by surrounding him solely with non-shot creating spot up shooters and non-shot creating paint beast. And that is only going to lead to teams absolutely loading Cade up with double teams in his favorite mid range area , Cade is an incredible playmaker so he will make good lob passes and kick out passes to the perimeter and maybe even win us a bunch of games during the regular season with this strategy. But come playoff time and even when we face really good defense during the regular season , his scoring bulk is going to be restricted and tortured by the lack of spacing within his favorite areas to score in because there will be no relief valve to prevent double teams coming at him.
At this point since we are striking out on most of the big name fancy shot creating buckets (which is not the end of the world) , our best bet is to try to go get DeMar DeRozan who is a veteran bucket , and makes very little mistakes with the ball. His mid range scoring will not magically add to the spacing issue or “cripple our roster” like I saw someone in here say. He will add more space as far as making defenders second-guess double teaming Cade in that area and allow Cade more passing options on all three levels of the floor.