Playoff Series Imponderables

[mavsluvr]

Hard to say here but my 2 cents is that Carlisle and Kristaps have to settle on a role that best maximizes his advantages. Is being Ultra tall and athletic with skill still an advantage in the NBA?  I think it can be.  

For a while, anyway. The ultra-tall component goes to durability. I saw some statistics not long ago on ultra-tall guys in the NBA. The takeaway was that those guys generally last only 5-6 seasons before they have to start missing a lot of games just to stay in the same place. Kris might already be at that point -- hope not, but it's undeniably an issue. 

1) KP has to shoot better, work on his shot over the offseason.  Outside 1st at the 3 point line he needs to be a 40% ish guy at volume and I have to believe he can refine at least a single shot or so in the paint and midrange.  
He shoots the Tim Duncan fundamental bank for example.  If he worked hard enough to be consistent with it then its a real weapon in the short and midrange. Look at Embiid in the midrange. Why couldn't KP do that.  No one can really bother it.

I am not sure the question is whether KP can't do that, or whether he won't. He appears to have a pretty crystallized idea of how he wants to play, and I just don't know how committed he really is to re-working his game. He is saying some of the right things, so maybe he is getting a sense of how important adaptability is. Agree that his shooting needs to be more consistent/varied.   

2) I thought Boban with KP was solid, even better than solid, and gave the Clippers the most problems.  Carlisle let them off the Hook because he didn't go with that when the games were really on the line.  He want back to his more standard rotations which I don't have a problem with except that they are not elite.  The shooters are streaky, not elite, not as good as the Clippers as we saw.  

A strong big skilled inside oriented Center worked better than small ball wings surrounding KP or KP at 5 with a meh PF next to him.  KP at 5 doesn't look like he's up for the intense physical challenge of constantly holding the boards and challenging consistently at the rim.  With a big 5 KP can come in now and then using his length as the secondary help. 

Agree that a big part of KP's issues seem like they have something to do with his lack of physical strength. In Dirk's first few years in the league, he had a similar issue with upper body strength. One would also think that he has a fear of getting hurt again, whether he is fully conscious of it or not. The brain has a reaction below the conscious level when the body faces a situation where it has been hurt before, and it takes disciplined training for the conscious brain to overcome that. I don't know whether that has been part of his routine or not. An additional issue would be whether muscling up would have adverse affects on his already limited mobility.  

That said, I get that Coach wants to play small, like all the coaches do.  Problem is are you going to have the best talent playing the same style as the top opponents?  Will your wings be better man for man than the elite wings of the top teams?   
If not then counter matching BIG talent that is undervalued may be the Mavs best bet.

If that is indeed the case at least part of the time, it seems like more focus on getting the BIG lineups sharpened up and in sync might be a bigger priority, going into a season where practice time will not be quite so limited. 

Agree that KP is the biggest conundrum on the roster. I have come to think that the Mavs have reached the point where they will consider trading him, although I don't think they will give him up for peanuts.