Game 33: Dallas Mavericks (19-14) vs. Golden State Warriors (15-17) 132-122 WIN

[DanSchwartzgan]

Green was great last night. The issue that the Mavs have right now is that when your bench consists of Green/Hardaway/Curry/Hardy and an undersized power forward along with Powell/kleber, you’re still very small and have a bit of a logjam. I think a lot of us look at potentially moving Green to add size and break the logjam up not because we think he’s out of favor but because he’s potentially the one with the most trade value. It’s going to be really interesting to see how they address the roster building for this trade deadline and the offseason because this team really isn’t that far off from legit contention (unless we just never get healthy) and there surprisingly seems to be a handful of ways at our disposal all of the sudden to take that next step. Trading Green could be one of the ways but a longterm bench manned by Green/Williams is appealing too if you’re willing to spend that much on the bench

I think Curry and Hardy are immaterial to the playoff rotation for a healthy team.  So, I don’t see the logjam.  it is just THJ and Green and both are needed.  

At full strength THJ currently rotates with Kyrie and Luka to provide two “scorers” on the floor.  THJ’s lack of creation and playmaking isn’t ideal for the role, but it is made up by the fact that…

Exum (who can play-make for others) and Green rotate as point of attack defenders.

GWill splits minutes with DJJ as bigger wing defenders.  Grant has gotten a few minutes as a small-ball center recently, but in this game against this team that didn’t happen.  Lively and someone will split center minutes even if Grant gets some.

To me, the rotation at full strength looks like:

Scorers (Luka, Irving and THJ)
POA Defense (Exum and Green)
Bigger Wing D (DJJ and GWill)
Center (Lively and someone….Powell has gotten the bulk of these minutes)

Everyone else is either developmental (OMax and Hardy) or here for injury protection or injured themselves.  To me, Green isn’t the one to jettison.  THJ’s spot would be better used by someone with a more diverse skill set that includes playmaking or defense or even better….both.  If we had a bigger player with that skill set, Green and Exum would be ideal for the remaining role