GAME 79: DAL (49-30) vs. MIL (48-30)| 118-112 WIN!

[SleepingHero]

Where? In NBA2k?

Kleber and Bertans have been horrible this year.

Matter of fact they have the worst shooting years of their careers, from everywhere on the field.

Kleber 40/32/70
Bertans 35/32/80

...on wide open shots.

Josh Green is shooting better than both of them.

I'm taking Bertans' 3 year sample size over this down year as a better representation of who he actually is versus what he's putting up currently. One doesn't just put up 42% career 3pt shooting on 5 attempts a game for 3 years on luck. Does that mean he isn't overpaid? No. He is. His contract is terrible. But he still provides an incredibly needed skill from the bench. 

Further, outside of a particularly nasty 7 game stretch that had him go 4-26 from 3, Bertans has been actually incredible from 3 here. He's shooting 45% from 3 (9-20) the last 8 games. He started out shooting 40% (11-28) from 3 his first four games as well. So in the first 12 of his first 19 games, Davis is shooting 41.6% from 3 (20-48). He's still a knockdown shooter in every sense of the word. 

We've also relearned this year that even the best shooters can go through slumps as evidence from the down years of Steph and Duncan Robinson to name a couple. 

Maxi, I agree is more concerning only because he's shrunk every time we've gotten to the big stage in the playoffs. That alone gives a little more weight to his recent regression. But I like Maxi not for what he provides on offense, but for what he can bring defensively. He's still an incredible defender. My last point though was highlighting that if we want to take a next leap we have to start consolidating our one dimensional guys and Maxi's contract makes him easier to bring back a better return than Bertans (which is why I included him and not DB).

[Jommybone]

I watch Davis shoot and I think he’s hurrying it a little. I watch Maxi and think he has a bad back. One is way easier to fix than the other. But the other is right now filling the biggest hole on the roster.

[StrandedOnBeauboisHill]

I watch Davis shoot and I think he’s hurrying it a little. I watch Maxi and think he has a bad back. One is way easier to fix than the other. But the other is right now filling the biggest hole on the roster.

Davis definitely is hurrying but that's part of his skillset is having such a quick trigger and the gravity that creates around him (even when he's not hitting shots).

I look at Maxi and I think, oh man he's broken mentally right now.  But we need his defense and as long as he can knock them down in the playoffs when teams just leave him all alone then we should be ok.

[Jakeospikez]

I think Bertans has been fine on open C&S 3s. He missed a couple of open shots vs the Bucks but that isn't the norm. He's still getting closed on hard cause he's commanding respect from the opposing team, so he still helps with spacing no matter what his % is showing. He sometimes takes some really bad off balance or weird shots though, which hurt his overall percentage.

[Jommybone]

Davis definitely is hurrying but that's part of his skillset is having such a quick trigger and the gravity that creates around him (even when he's not hitting shots).

I look at Maxi and I think, oh man he's broken mentally right now.  But we need his defense and as long as he can knock them down in the playoffs when teams just leave him all alone then we should be ok.

Mentally broken? I think you may be overthinking that. You lose your confidence. You get it back. You develop a bad habit. The coaches diagnose it and you work it out. But mentally broken? I don’t believe that is a thing in basketball. Now, back tightness? Yeah. That’s a thing. See Legend, Larry. 

Bertans with a quick release? Me likey. Bertans with the fastest draw since Billy the Kidd? Not so much.