01-04-2021, 06:05 PM
(01-04-2021, 05:20 PM)mavsluvr Wrote: I think there's a lot to this. It's sort of in the nature of fan boards to scapegoat players, and this one is better than most about that, but some people are putting a lot on Powell and THJ that doesn't really belong on them. If one were to replace all of Powell's minutes with Maxi, WCS, Bobi, and Johnson, and replace all of Tim's minutes with the other guards, I see nothing to indicate that the team would be likely to have done better, and may well have done worse. The alternatives to those two players all have their own issues.
Powell's injury is what it is, and he necessarily will have to operate within those limitations. Rick and the medical team evidently think he can get closer to where he used to be, and I don't have any information to the contrary. He is actually much smarter than WCS, who seems to be a bit of a coach's nightmare -- a guy that you never know what you're going to get when he's on the floor. Tim's assignment is to be the team's second scoring option while KP is out, and he is obviously trying to broaden his game. Volume shooters inherently have up and down nights.
Part of the overall issue is, tbh, using these players in ways they're not good at. For example, iirc, they had put Tim on LaVine when Zach got going. What were they expecting? A lot better defenders than THJ have been stifled in attempts to stop LaVine. I'm not really throwing stones at Carlisle, either -- he always experiments early in the season, and some experiments inevitably are going to work better than others.
This isn't really intended to be so much a defense of Powell and THJ as a comment that the Mavs' issues aren't nearly as simple as taking a couple of complementary players off the court and substituting others for them. Maybe they will be flipped eventually, maybe they won't, but for now, I think the best course of action is in helping them try to improve, hard as that is to stomach in the short run.
I am more optimistic ab Powell even tho he hasn't looked great. I realized watching WCS this year that he is not a good basketball player which is why he got the contract he got. For what he got he is fine. We have these 2 bigs on these smaller contracts and we really need a bench big that you can rely on honestly. The difference in quality once you get to the MLE tier (even 1 yr MLE) is significant. WCS is not consistent enough to be more than a guy that fills in when other guys aren't available. He is a guy that needs to sit until he figures out how to play basketball. I expect him to not get any minutes once KP is back.
All that being said the best thing the Mavs can do is figure out an upgrade for THJ both short and long-term.