GAME 2: UTA (1-1) vs. DAL (1-1)| 104-110 WIN!!!!!

[mvossman]

When you look at the season as a whole I absolutely agree. The whole body of work of the season. 

But I just think the games leading up to the playoffs and in the two playoff games Maxi has not been the better defender (or not enough better to warrant the playing time). A lot of that is my eye test speaking. 

At the end of the day, this is an opinion of mine from watching the games. I have some stats that I think validate that. You can disagree. I just think DP is the best big option right now. The coaches obviously don't. We will see how that unfolds in this series.

Understood.  The eye test is the eye test and we can agree to disagree on that and move on.

My primary issue is the way that you are using stats to support your narrative.  Its a shame there is not a way to dice up the best advanced stats (EPM and Lebron) by time chunks.  That is probably due to how noisy small sample data is (neither even showed current season info until a couple of months into the season).  I have been following them regularly for most of this season though, and if anything Powell's defensive ratings have gone down since the trade (his offense has gone up).  Maxi has been the opposite.  His defense has steadily risen since being primarily a center, and his offense plummeted this last month.