01-25-2020, 12:50 PM
Dan, I generally agree with your points about the bench, but we also have to acknowledge that the bench has likely been permanently broken by Powell's injury. WCS will start if Rick chooses to be intelligent about it, but he won't play as many minutes as Powell did and Maxi will have to play more. If Rick chooses not to be bright, then we either start small like in the last game or Maxi becomes a starter. Either hurts the bench.
Regarding the Curry-Wright-Brunson logjam (any problems with our bench have to do with three of the four main guys being relatively small guards), I have a feeling that the Mavs were slotting THJ as a bench player coming into the season. The bench makes a lot more on-paper sense - and signing Wright makes a lot more on-paper sense - if the starting lineup were Luka-Wright-DFS-KP-Powell and the bench were Brunson-Curry-THJ-Maxi. I think you can throw Jackson in there in the sense that the Mavs planned on him being a lot better than he has been this year (and he was in November, to be fair). THJ turned out to be our third-best player and a smashingly good starter next to Luka. That damages the bench. I think it's clear that, by next year, one of Wright or Brunson has to be gone for value. We'll have problems on many levels otherwise.
Regarding the Curry-Wright-Brunson logjam (any problems with our bench have to do with three of the four main guys being relatively small guards), I have a feeling that the Mavs were slotting THJ as a bench player coming into the season. The bench makes a lot more on-paper sense - and signing Wright makes a lot more on-paper sense - if the starting lineup were Luka-Wright-DFS-KP-Powell and the bench were Brunson-Curry-THJ-Maxi. I think you can throw Jackson in there in the sense that the Mavs planned on him being a lot better than he has been this year (and he was in November, to be fair). THJ turned out to be our third-best player and a smashingly good starter next to Luka. That damages the bench. I think it's clear that, by next year, one of Wright or Brunson has to be gone for value. We'll have problems on many levels otherwise.