You can’t understate the value of taking the ball-handling responsibility off your top guy. It may not seem like much, but taking the ball out of his hands, and allowing that player to concentrate on (most likely) scoring, is a helluva lot easier when bringing the ball up-court is taken from his list of everyday chores.
It did wonders for Allen Iverson, just take a look at his splits and his numbers from November to December, and then realize that Anthony Carter missed most of the first month of the season, only to come back, take over the ball-handling duty, and then proceed to feed a happy Iverson, who had a great month/rest of year.
And now, look at the Delonte West effect in Cleveland.
Yes, I am aware LeBron James is proving in this Boston series that there is traces of play that suggests he may actually be human – although what human shoots 19%? But the point is, James doesn’t have to handle the ball near as much as he used to now that West, acquired in February from Seattle, is there to shoulder some of that workload.
And while there are still those possessions where LBJ does his best to pound all air out of the ball, they just don’t happen as often.
The West effect continued today as he hit for 21 points – on 7/11 FG, 4/6 3s, 3-3 FT – with five boards and seven assists in 38 minutes while totally outplaying the Rondo/Cassell combo in the Cavs’ huge win. How big is that? Well, when you consider the PG’s Cleveland has had in The James Era…
Jeff McInnes, Kevin Ollie, J.R. Bremer, Eric Snow, Damon Jones and Daniel Gibson
… then you realize just how vital a contribution like West’s is. Gibson has shown potential, never more noteworthy than in last year’s run to the Finals, and had been very productive as a back-up since he came back from an ankle injury. With efficient and reliable PG’s surrounding James, its only good things for Cleveland.
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