10-07-2022, 07:42 AM
(10-06-2022, 11:19 AM)KillerLeft Wrote: We're all free to disagree, but the defensive end is where I believe the two big system gets scary in today's game.
You'll say: that's when you play him with Kleber, and Wood guards the center, and I agree, that will work in many situations. What I flatly don't believe will work in many situations at all (again, on the defensive end, not offense) is Wood/McGee or Wood/Powell.
It's the defensive end that has me worried to see the roster balance.
We are talking past one another now (I'm arguing the sky is blue and you are arguing the grass is green).
All I'm saying and have been saying is I think Powell will get some minutes. You interpret that to mean Powell will get some minutes with Wood. I don't believe I've ever said that. You seem to be arguing that a switch-heavy defensive scheme is the best way to go in the modern NBA. Great, that is a philosophical argument, not a Mav's personnel argument. In an ideal world you are right. If you have the personnel to handle any combination the other 29 teams can throw at you then switch-heavy is absolutely the way to go. Very few teams can do that which means that nearly everyone has to play at least some of their minutes a different way.
If you are arguing (which you seem to be) that Wood as the lone big allows you to play a switch-heavy style defensively, I think you are going to be disappointed. Wood is not Maxi. He's horrible in space on a switch. Since you brought up KP, Wood is probably not any better in space than KP was (but at least KP could recover occasionally and block a shot). The only argument for Wood as the lone big is an offensive argument. Dallas might employ Wood as a lone big as an occasional specialty lineup, but he's not a good enough defender to make it any more than that. People often point out that he's been effective on bad teams and wonder if that will translate to a good team. The O will certainly translate. Dallas will provide him much more space than he's ever had. The questionable transference is at the defensive end. Bad teams needed his O and were willing to live with his D. It won't be that way here.
Where Powell comes into this is by extension. If Wood spends 1/2 - 1/3 of the game as a lone big, there are no minutes for Powell...end of story. Big combinations of McGee/DFS, McGee/Maxi and Wood/Maxi will eat up the rest of the minutes. But, if the team doesn't like Wood as the lone big, then suddenly there are a few minutes where Powell can get in the game. My belief, at least in your 'first 20 games' is that we will see as much or more Powell as we do Wood as the lone big. It is unknowable at the moment.