ROSTER TALK: Mavs favs for Vogel if no HC job exists. Kyrie handshake deal?

[StrandedOnBeauboisHill]

As to the comparison:

I believe McGee is absolutely the better rebounder, but I don't think rebounding is nearly as important these days as most people believe, especially when there are guys out there sacrificing defensive position in favor of rebounding position. DAJ was the worst about this, and I sure hope McGee is more plugged into the team defense than he was. I'm worried. 

I also agree that he's a better rim protector than Powell, but that this improvement, too, comes with a lower level of defensive positioning. Think about it...is McGee going to be faster or slower than Powell when it's time to leave his man and help in the paint? After the ball is diverted out of the paint, which player would you bet on having the change of direction and motor needed to recover back out to a shooter? 

I know it's not popular, but I'm honestly not sure McGee is going to be better than Powell, just different. I sure hope I'm wrong. 

On your point regarding Powell's expiring, I totally agree. They have to be thinking of his contract as a means of building a mid-season trade. It's the only sane reason to go into the season with both of them on the roster. Maybe you'll be right and they'll make a good one that makes this conversation seem silly.

I honestly don't disagree with any of this.

I wasn't super stoked on the McGee signing and I'm not as low as Powell as most of this board and I'm with you that this may be more of a lateral move than many are hoping for but I would push back on this notion (which has gained some popularity here in certain corners) that Powell has become this great team defender.  I agree that he probably understands assignments better when he gets spread out and will hustle more than McGee but we still got smoked during Powell minutes in the playoffs and he proved to be unplayable.  

I understand McGee may prove to be unplayable too but we're in a place where our unplayable front court players will hopefully eat up even less minutes than last year if Wood proves to be valuable.  I feel the same concerns about Wood's defense as you do but I look at a lineup of Luka/Bullock/DFS/Maxi/Wood and see the best spread high PnR offense in the league that happens to have 3 very switchable defenders.  To steal a line from Kidd, I'm seeing a rotation that is going to have enough good defenders where Luka and Wood simply have to "participate" on defense.  I may prove to be too high on Wood and I know he's going to piss me off when he jogs back or takes bad shots from time to time but one thing I feel very confident about is that this offensive pairing is going to work soooooo much better than Luka/KP and will win us a ton of games.