10-06-2022, 11:19 AM
(This post was last modified: 10-06-2022, 11:21 AM by KillerLeft.)
(10-06-2022, 10:36 AM)DanSchwartzgan Wrote: 2. If Wood is on your team, I ‘like’ him better with another big better than I do as a lone big…especially on defense.
It's not my intention to assign meaning to your words that isn't there, so apologies if it came across that way.
My use of "like" comes from my sense of your meaning in 1,000 conversations, including those from last year and even before. You were one of the last to give up on the idea of Powell/Porzingis playing together, for example (if you ever did). That combo did work well in some ways, but only with Porzingis playing "corner spacer" exclusively on offense, and really not very well at all (imo) on defense. I think the team going away from it justifies my opinions and can be viewed as a valuable predictor with this whole Wood experiment. Wood is closer to the athletic package that we thought Porzingis would be, but imo he cancels that out with a suspect motor and an apparent lack of interest in defense (we'll see).
And again (I almost feel like you're moving the goal posts away from this purposefully), this is NOT about "5 out." I simply disagree aggressively with the quoted statement above. We're all free to disagree, but the defensive end is where I believe the two big system gets scary in today's game.
Think of all the teams ahead of the Mavs in the West (the ones who are positioned between our Mavs and "the next step," whatever you think that is): Who is the second biggest player in their best lineup? Is that someone Wood can hang with, in terms of foot speed? Worse yet, how many of those "second biggest" guys are so good that DFS will be matched up with them, forcing Wood even further down the list? Lebron, Kawhi, etc, etc.
You'll say: that's when you play him with Kleber, and Wood guards the center, and I agree, that will work in many situations. What I flatly don't believe will work in many situations at all (again, on the defensive end, not offense) is Wood/McGee or Wood/Powell.
It's the defensive end that has me worried to see the roster balance.