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[F Gump]

Well, the 4 bigs worry was only part of what upset me. 

For me, the whole idea of needing to replace Powell at all was to ween themselves off of depending on a player like that in situations where it was a negative. Upgrading Powell would be fine, but not necessary once Wood was added, imho. I would be fine with Powell still to be the 3rd big (which is what I believe McGee will be in certain playoff matchups). 

Think of it this way: can they get to a 9-man rotation without using EITHER Powell OR McGee (if they need to)? Because that would've been my #2 goal (behind re-signing Brunson). 

And then, this worry was compounded by 4 of their top-9 being bigs. The 4 bigs rotation worry was a second, even worse concern. 

My initial concern is still valid, imo. I believe there will be playoff series in which McGee shouldn't see the floor, and they currently only have their pick of Green, Ntilikina or Hardy to fill in for him in a different play style. In other words, they MUST play him, whether it's the right move or not. Does that make sense?

I don't think that's so high on the Concern-O-Meter. To me, when I look at this roster. I think I see only 6 real playoff guys (in bold) -- so McGee, getting some minutes here or there to bang with bigger centers, and perhaps being your #9 in the pecking order as a result, isn't all that worrisome. I promise that if we get up against big boys (like the Gobert-Towns pair), we'll be glad we had at least one big body, and will probably wish we had more.

Luka 35
DFS 33
Dinwiddie 28
Bullock 28
Wood 28
Kleber 24
[Player 7 - 2 way wing to rotate with DFS and Bullock]
[Player 8 - 3rd offense creator to rotate with Luke/SD]
THJ 23
McGee 12
Bertans 9
Green/Frank/Hardy (20 combined)

In the most important games/playoffs ...

1 There's only 6 that I would really trust.
2 Playing those players in those stretches over the season does allow for that top 6 to play even more in the playoffs, assuming you've kept them healthy.
3 Maybe THJ can be #7, but I don't trust that he is. I'm hopeful, wait-n-see, but thinking player 7 (another 2-way wing, to rotate with DFS/Bullock) is not on this team. I do think players like Green and Franky do have a shot at this, at least in theory.
4 And clearly player 8, a 3rd creator, is not here.
5 So the Mavs have a traditional center available, who will probably play at least SOME minutes in big games? Not a significant concern at all imo.