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

[KillerLeft]

I’ve said Wood ‘should’ continue to play with Maxi.  You’ve said he ‘can’ probably play without him.  Over three games the evidence of ‘can’ is starting to look good.  But it appears to me it isn’t Wood just being better at what he was doing.  It is Wood being allowed to do something different.  It didn’t look very impactful in two to three minute stints as subs came in and out.  But, these elongated runs without Maxi are showing me “can” may actually be true.

Totally. 

And to be totally clear, my goal is not to prevent Wood and Kleber from playing together, it's to get Wood player center, exclusively. To me, Kleber is the guy who's actually versatile and can bounce back and forth from position to position. 

And on offense, yeah, I really think Kleber's butt should be in the corner while Wood sets picks and runs actions with the ball-handlers. Frankly, I'm not sure there is a valid argument to the contrary, provided Wood actually knows the system well enough to do so. 

Back to the "together or separate" issue, I do think it's important we get to a point where Kidd doesn't view the two as joined at the hip, but only because I think the day is coming when the best strategy for winning will take the team down a 5-out path for more than just a few minutes, here and there. Not against every team, and not exclusively, but if your only two center options for that style (one more than they had last year) have to play together, well, to me that's a huge waste. They can and should play some together, just like Kleber can and should play some with Powell. I'm just looking for options that best feature everyone's strengths.

I guess I would cap it off by saying that for me, it makes all the sense in the world that Wood looks better defensively now that he's low man. That's where all of his training/instincts have been developed. Now, he might just be having a great stretch and might make that thinking seem silly a week from now, but so far this is playing out logically, imho. He might not be a winning player when the dust clears, but I feel like he has NO chance to succeed chasing forwards around, playing weak side help D, etc. I think the athletic advantage he has at the 5 is his best and only chance to be an impactful defender. And not for nothing, but I think he has protected the paint pretty damn well since Kleber went down. So much so that I'm about willing to say he's the best at it on the team when he's engaged, aware and comfortable. 

Combine all of that with his blatantly obvious offensive gifts (also compounded when matched with opposing bigs, and not forwards) and I think this approach has been begging to get a shot since the summer.