A New Found Respect For Dwight Powell

[mvossman]

This is what I was trying to express the other day. 

Yes, the Drummonds of the world are going to dominate the glass against the Mavs. And actually, Drummond's game tonight was the first time it bothered me in a while. I thought it came as close to affecting the outcome of the game as any "mismatch" inside has, recently. 

But...it doesn't really seem like giving up the glass is actually hurting the team that much, generally. This is an oversimplified way of stating my position, but I believe this worry stems from most of our collective viewing experience being from the 2000's. We're all still trying to recreate the 2011 team, and that's simply not how the game is played anymore. 

Being able to defend the pick and roll from the 5 position >>>>>>> being good on the glass. If you can do both, great - you're probably going to the finals. But, I feel like the Mavs made the correct choice for this season, given that they could do NEITHER with Porzingis on the floor.

I think folks over focus on Powell getting Bullied, but the bigger issue is the lack of rim protection.  Both Powell and Maxi get bullied, but the defense is way better with Maxi on the court due to his rim protection.  

For all of your bashing of KP, this team was better defensively with him on the court than off, and the team defense has gone down since the trade.  I would argue the order of priority is rim protection, P&R defense, Glass.