A Few Thoughts on Mavs 118, Pelicans 97

[mavsluvr]

A Barea intervention!

Thanks for the post, it was an excellent writing. However, I think you are giving too much credit to Barea. He started the second quarter and was part of that horrible start of the quarter which resulted in a 11 point deficit. Than later he managed to correct that with good moves. But net effect was 0. First couple of minutes "his" team looked just terrible and lost.

omahen, you bring up a valid issue, but after studying it, I believed that Barea was largely responsible for the Mavs getting back into it.

For the first 3:27 that he was on the floor, the Pels went on a 13-2 run. Barea missed a layup and a three, but it wasn't his fault that his teammates gave up five free throws, turned the ball over, missed three shots, made only one basket, and were generally out of sorts (especially KP). They indeed looked terrible and lost. 

However, in the following 3:24, JJB took over, scoring or assisting on each of the next six possessions, resulting in a 15-6 Mavericks run. Watching it, I think he served his purpose of helping the young Mavs get back on track. I think KP exiting with foul trouble was sadly a good thing in that particular time frame, Luka was in at the very end when Barea hit his back-to-back threes, and of course JJB wasn't the only Mav on the court during either run. 

If, after considering all that, you still believe that Barea doesn't deserve much credit, I am not going to say you are definitely wrong. I acknowledge that there is more than one way to look at it. I see it differently than that, but even if I thought it was a closer case, after wins, I like to focus  on the positive. 

I am always open to civil and thoughtful disagreement, and I thank you for sharing your viewpoint!

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Great recap, always appreciate reading these. I want to add one thing about this game and its going to be about KP.

The TNT halftime crew really blasted Porzingis and his inability to play in the paint. Mentioned that he is too weak and timid to score in the paint, even if he has a smaller defender on him. He's 7'3" and should be salivating over a smaller guy trying to defend him down there. But instead he still gets pushed around down there and looks terrible.

This is the part where rust and time away has nothing to do with results. He is just not builit for that type of game. But neither was Dirk. Our boy Dirk worked on his inside game and post game. He got stronger. He developed his own moves.  Can the Mavs find someone to work on KP's post game in the offseason? Whether it be Dirk, Olajuwon, Kevin McHale. Somebody has to come in here and work with KP on his post and mid range game.

In the meantime I think they have to stop force feeding him the ball down there. Let him be strictly a jump shooter at this point. I think it takes him out of his game when he gets pushed around by those shorter players.  We've seen him post up guys a foot shorter than him, and he still doesn't score over them. it just doesn't look good at all.

I think you raise some good points, NW. 

Normally, I would put comments from the on-site broadcasters and the studio crew into the writeup, but they seemed so generally inane that I just dispensed with them. However, the halftime guys did raise the oft-discussed issue of KP being bad at post-ups. I thought they leaned toward attributing it to his coming off a 20-month rest and not yet being totally in game shape. 

However, you bring up the possibility that it is a more enduring problem, involving lack of strength and lack of confidence. You raise an interesting issue when you compare him to Dirk. Way back in the early Nellie days, Dirk used to play backup center. He was widely regarded as the league's best reserve 5, but was viewed as having too weak an upper body to play a leading spot at that position. (At that time, as you know, playing center involved a lot of banging around under the basket and required a lot of physical power.)

Kudos to Nellie for realizing that the center position didn't play to Dirk's best strengths. However, as you point out, power forwards  need an offensive post game, and he worked on both strength and skills to develop an excellent arsenal of moves near the basket. Who will ever forget the legendary one-legged fadeaway?! 

I don't know any reason why Kristaps can't do the same. As with Dirk, it's not likely to happen overnight. But, over time, it would add greatly to his game. Maybe, as you mention, it would be helpful if he worked with one of the greats in the offseason. Meanwhile, it looks they might get him a few reps here and there.