MAVERICKS 104, SUNS 112

[DanSchwartzgan]

I am truly flummoxed on the front court running mate needed for KP.  They need another player.  Maxi will help.   Powell will be a nice fourth big energy guy.  But I am really confused who this running mate needs to me.   Last night makes it even more confusing for me.    Do we need a big banger (Nurkic type), Do we need a rim runner/3 pt shooter, or do we need a physical PF who can also guard wings?   I have no idea.   I think that decision and finding the right player is one of the biggest decisions the front office needs to hit on.   If it is a center type, I think those players are easier to find.    If it is a PF type, I think it gets a little more tricky.  The PF type is really more of a true Unicorn that fits with KP and Luka.   

Isn't that the truth.  They need to be able to hit a three so they don't clog the lane for Luka and KP.  They need to be big enough to guard the other team's best big and nimble enough to guard the perimeter.  Oh, and they have to rim protect when the other team puts KP in the PnR and KP gets blown by.  

It would be nice if they could pass, rebound and create a little O, but those things would be gravy.  It is nearly impossible to get just the defensive characteristics with a three point shot let alone anything else.  Plus, if this player has much offensive talent, it will take shots from KP and KP will pout and we have a whole new set of problems.

What non All Star does those things?   

A much younger version of Horford?

De'Andre Hunter?

P.J. Washington?

M. Turner?

D. Theis?

Nurkic?

Holmes?

T. Young?

Most of those guys can't guard Jokic and those that can (Turner Holmes and Nurkic) can't guard the perimeter (or spread the floor).  What it comes back to is you have to hide KP against the other team's worst big and the best bigs on other teams come in too wide a variety to be covered by one guy.  We've tried to do it with Powell/Willie or Dorian and none of that is working.  Maxi might be a solution in limited minutes, but he's been pretty unreliable in recent years.  

You put up with all of this if KP is a 20/9 guy on efficient shooting who is contributing to winning.  For the most part, that is true and he's at his career best in PER (24), WS/48 (.172) and BPM (2.5).  The contributing to winning part is missing as he's -6.8 in On Court and -8.9 in On-Off.  Of course, all of the starters look bad at those last two metrics and we don't know how to assign blame just yet.