12-15-2022, 09:51 AM
(12-15-2022, 02:46 AM)SleepingHero Wrote:
This was Wood's best game as a Mav, and it still was rife with mistakes. He was probably the only guy that was playing positive basketball the majority of the time on the court.
Mavs really missed Maxi tonight. I think they also missed Green.
It really was his best game (so my evil plan to harshly criticize him so he'd make me look bad is working). Dallas is 1-5 in games without Maxi, which are the games where Wood has gotten the most time as a solo-big besides two minute stints here and there (which rarely work). He was positive on/court only one other time when Maxi missed (the Denver game where they sat everyone). So last night was the first time it worked against a winning team playing real NBA players.
He made open 3's largely because the Cleveland bigs didn't want to chase him out to the 3 point line...smart. But, I haven't seen the usual crowing about the virtues of 5-out and "modern" lineups. The reason is probably that Cleveland's two big lineup (where neither made a 3 point shot) just choked the life out of our offense. That is what the number one D in the league looks like and it couldn't be less "modern" or 5-out.
Still, on this one night, Wood as a solo-big worked. So, the question is whether this is an anomaly based on something about the opponent or an answer that has been hiding in plain sight. I lean toward the former as Cleveland is unique. But, if I wanted to build an argument for the latter, I wouldn't base it on the +19 Wood built when Love (man he looks old) was on the floor with either Mobley or Allen. I'd base it on the +0 Wood achieved to start the second half against both Mobley and Allen. That run of +0 turned into a 12-2 run when DFS came in for Dinwiddie and Love came in for Mobley. I thought that was an impressive stint despite the fact we were already down 20. Our total offensive output for that six-plus minutes was two Wood threes and two Reggie three's. But, Luka, SD, THJ, Reggie and Wood held Cleveland to that same 12 points.
One thing we know with certainty is the Powell at center and Bertans at center minutes absolutely did not work in this game. The stretch we have coming up is just brutal. I hate the idea of seeing these guys again on the second night of a home/away < 24 hour BTB. But, if you are ever going to experiment more with Wood as a starter, Nurkic on Friday night, Cleveland on Saturday and the two games against the T-wolves seem like the time to try it.
There was some talk in threads yesterday about what it means to have flexibility in your 4/5 rotation. The fact that it even comes up means you don't have players who can dictate a style to the other team. So, you have to have players who can handle the large variance of approaches NBA teams can throw at you. Powell just isn't the answer in certain situations. The 'idea' of McGee was supposed to be, but obviously that didn't work. Maybe we'll see if Wood can be an answer in certain situations. My fear continues to be the defensive end. I thought Rob Mahoney put it well in his write-up that I posted yesterday. Wood is in a class of 'tweener bigs'. They can't defend the four or the five (so the answer to the debate about his position is neither since you "are what you guard"). Many of these 'tweener bigs' bring some offense to the table, which is why they are in the league in the first place. Seems like the definition of a bench big to me. We will see if Kidd changes anything based on last night or if it was simply desperation that caused him to start Wood as a solo-big in the second half.