12-31-2023, 11:15 AM
(12-31-2023, 09:59 AM)DanSchwartzgan Wrote: Lively and Powell split all of the C minutes, so that kept Grant from getting any of those. He and DJJ used up 43 of the PF minutes. There were two brief stints (end of 2nd and late in the 4th) where the lineup was Lively, Luka, THJ, Green and Exum (+0 combined).
I thought it was interesting that Green was right back to closing the first half and was one of the higher minute players in the fourth. Despite what some posters think (one of which only posts after losses to tell us how right he was about his negative takes), Kidd appears to hold Green in high regard. It may have been opponent related as Green is a better matchup than Grant for GS's best offensive players. It could be different with a different opponent, but I'd suggest news of Green's demise is greatly exaggerated.
Kyrie's return would have taken all of Hardy's minutes in a tight rotation night like last night. The question is where would he have gotten the other 8-10 minutes to get him to 32/34? I don't think THJ would have closed halves if Kyrie was available, so I suggest at least half of those minutes would come from THJ and a couple from Luka and a couple from Exum's 34 last night.
Green was great last night. The issue that the Mavs have right now is that when your bench consists of Green/Hardaway/Curry/Hardy and an undersized power forward along with Powell/kleber, you’re still very small and have a bit of a logjam. I think a lot of us look at potentially moving Green to add size and break the logjam up not because we think he’s out of favor but because he’s potentially the one with the most trade value. It’s going to be really interesting to see how they address the roster building for this trade deadline and the offseason because this team really isn’t that far off from legit contention (unless we just never get healthy) and there surprisingly seems to be a handful of ways at our disposal all of the sudden to take that next step. Trading Green could be one of the ways but a longterm bench manned by Green/Williams is appealing too if you’re willing to spend that much on the bench