Game 42: Oklahoma City Thunder (34-6) vs. Dallas Mavericks (22-19) | 7:30pm CST

[KillerLeft]

maxi's performance in the fourth showed why he should be kept, especially if gafford got traded to upgrade our wing. maxi is still solid in defense and he can space the floor at the  offensive end.

Agree enthusiastically about the solid defense part, especially at the 5. When he's out there, everyone is capable of rotating and closing out to shooters, even against good ball movement. To me, that's literally the difference between a good defense and a bad one, as the good teams all move the ball well, and they're all trying everything they can to generate open 3's. He still protects the rim a little, too, although not as well as he used to. Still better than PJW does, or than someone like Collins would, however. He's a good "different gear" defensive center to have, imho. 

On offense...sadly, I'm starting to wonder if we can still say he spaces the floor with a straight face. To hold a defender, you have to look at the rim when the ball finds you. He's pretty good at moving the ball when it's appropriate to do so, but he also gets rid of it like a hot potato when he should be looking to shoot, which at this point I guaranteed every opponent knows. I think he can still shoot, but...will he? I have a growing skepticism that we'll ever see the Kleber who punished Utah for trying to play Gobert in a playoff series by knocking down 8 open 3's in a single game. It's a shame, because that Kleber was valuable on BOTH sides of the floor.