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

[mvossman]

Totally agree with almost all of this.  I've slotted Wood next to Maxi in almost everything I've written.  It is a matter of semantics as to what you call their positions.  Technically, the Mav's call the guy who stands in the corner the four and the guy setting picks the five.  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 think Cow gets the idea here with his Kanter/Randle comparison.  Wood isn't the same player as either offensively.  His game is more diverse.  But, all three are probably miss-cast as a starting five largely because of their lack of D.  Dallas and Wood can get an extension done if Wood buys this.  If he insists on being a starting five somewhere, he will probably always be on a losing team.

Back to Powell.  FGump told us that it mattered that Wood was selected as "the next man up" to replace McGee when it was thought that Wood was starting.  If that is true, then does it also matter that Powell was the one actually chosen?  I still think there is a role for Powell.  I'm not talking about the playoffs.  I'm talking about right now to start the season.  

If you believe Wood will finish games and McGee will play 15-18 minutes, then you have to find a lineup for part of the 2nd and/or 4th that doesn't include Wood or McGee.  Wood will be the first big off the bench at the 6:00 mark in the first/third.  I think we know that.  He can't play 18 straight minutes, so he has to sit.  McGee can take on about five more minutes in the fourth, but there is a run in the second that has to be accounted for.  It could be Maxi/DFS, but you can't play DFS 48 minutes, so he has to sit also.  Most also theorize that Maxi needs to be available to finish games.  I think there is about a five minute run where Powell plays (probably as Luka re-enters) in the second and sets the rotation up so that DFS, Maxi, McGee and Wood are all available to finish the half.  They did the same thing with Green much of last year.  We look at it as developmental minutes (and it was).  But, it also provided a way to line up the backcourt so that everyone was fresh to finish halves.  I see them doing something like this in terms of a base substitution pattern per half:

First/Third      /  Second/Fourth (insert McGee for Powell in 4th)
McGee  Wood /  Wood-Powell   Wood
DFS      Maxi  /  Maxi-DFS        Maxi
Bullock  DFS   /  Green            DFS
SD        THJ   /  THJ-Bullock     Bullock/SD
Luka     Luka  /  SD- Luka        Luka

So we are sliding in about 5 minutes a game of Powell/DFS/Green/Bullock/Luka likely going against second units.  I could live with that.  If I do my math right, that has Wood playing roughly 25 minutes a game.  He has been playing over 30 minutes a game the last couple of years, but I can see the argument to reduce that at least in the beginning.

As far Wood being a starting center, he is probably not good enough defensively to start as the lone big, but assuming he plays well enough to warrant more minutes and starting, you could easily play him as a 4 in the starting lineup next to McGee for 6 minutes.  The rest of the big minutes would be 12 for McGee, 24 for Wood/Maxi and 6 for Powell.

I understand that Dinwiddie has earned a starting spot, but I really hope most of the minutes in those first/third lineups have Dinwiddie and Timmy swapped.