PRESEASON GAME 1: DAL @ OKC | 98-96 win

[KillerLeft]

But, the key is having another big on the floor to help with size defensively.  Wood/McGee or Wood/Powell accomplishes that, but Wood/Maxi accomplishes it and allows Wood more freedom to be an offensive focal point.

I'm in lockstep with you on all of the logic as applied to what they're doing. The difference is that you seem to like it and see it as a step in the right direction while I see it as a willful turning of the back on what made their defense as good as it was last season. To me, one of the main reasons for the post-season success last season was the interchangeable nature of basically all the defenders in the playoff rotation. All of a sudden we're back to thinking about "specialists" which, imo, is not where a good team wants to be. 

You say Wood can't anchor a defense as the lone big. I think there's a lot of validity to that claim. But that doesn't mean he's automatically going to have the foot speed, direction-change agility or high motor to be a switchable forward as he plays with a center, either. That scares me so much more, personally. 

It's not about "can everyone shoot?" though that is something that we should at list give a little thought to. It's more about "are at least 4 of these guys interchangeable defenders? Can any/all of them guard the ball in transition when inevitable cross-matches occur? Can any/all of them (at least all of them except the 5, though my goal would be for him to be competent here, too) hold their own against a ball-handler if the need to switch everything arises?" 

I LOVE what he brings on offense, and while I love it MORE when he's the lone big on that end, too (spacing is important), I think there's room for both approaches there, as you suggest. If the plan is to run pick and roll with McGee or Powell, well, Wood can space the floor for that just as well as Finney-Smith or Kleber, and probably much better, really.  It's the defensive end, specifically, that keeps me up at nights. IMHO, saying "he can't play the 5 on a good team" is almost akin to saying "he can't play on a good team."

I hope I'm wrong, because they're clearly going to give it a try. He was about 50/50 at those positions in preseason game 1, by my estimate.