10-30-2023, 02:32 PM
(10-30-2023, 12:50 PM)michaeltex Wrote: Little bit of a change of topic...
It's only been two games, both down-to-the-wire affairs, but can we read anything into 2x DNP-CD for Holmes? There was a small current of hope that he could contribute meaningful minutes at the 4-5, but I don't remember him even getting much burn in the pre-season games. Is there still a chance he could help or is he just filler for a trade?
I thought from the start that Holmes was likely the weakest, defensively, of the Lively/Powell/Kleber/Holmes group. Personally, I don't feel the need to dig too far past that.
Lively is way farther along than we even hoped (there will be times when he's lost, sure, but he's ready to be out there). Powell is much, much better than he gets credit for around here on both ends of the court and imo has always been a better player than Holmes, even before Holmes lost his role in SAC, and Kleber...well, he hasn't looked great so far this season, but I'm sure they're desperate for him to regain some semblance of his past stellar defensive form, because his ability to stretch the floor as a big is unquestionably baked into their plan for this year's team to be good. Losing that hope would represent a major, major blow to their chances of short term success - I feel pretty strongly about that.
To me, taking on Holmes was just the price of acquiring O-Max. No more, no less. It's kind of cool that he happens to play a position likely to need a little help on this roster, but that's not why they made that trade, I don't believe. More of a semi-happy coincidence. They wanted O-Max. The end, period. I'm going to assume Holmes is mostly washed (or honestly, that he was never that great to begin with) until I have reason to believe otherwise.
![[-]](https://www.mavsboard.com/images/collapse.png)