02-14-2021, 11:12 AM
Kleber is also not playing his best defense these days, that's true.
I'm less worried about Kleber though, because:
A) he's coming back from Covid, and there's reason to hope his conditioning and general play will improve with time.
B) He shows no signs, even at his worst, of being unable to MOVE fluidly. He can run, start moving in any direction he wants, stop his momentum quickly when he wants, etc.
C) He's not on a fairly lengthy, guaranteed max contract extension and having the team built around him. The Mavs could literally dump him anytime they wanted, and the consequences would be relatively small. When a player's value as an asset FAR outreaches what he's paid and what it cost the team to originally acquire him, that tends to buy him some benefit of the doubt from fans.
I'm less worried about Kleber though, because:
A) he's coming back from Covid, and there's reason to hope his conditioning and general play will improve with time.
B) He shows no signs, even at his worst, of being unable to MOVE fluidly. He can run, start moving in any direction he wants, stop his momentum quickly when he wants, etc.
C) He's not on a fairly lengthy, guaranteed max contract extension and having the team built around him. The Mavs could literally dump him anytime they wanted, and the consequences would be relatively small. When a player's value as an asset FAR outreaches what he's paid and what it cost the team to originally acquire him, that tends to buy him some benefit of the doubt from fans.