Game 63: Miami Heat (35-26) vs. Dallas Mavericks (34-28)

[Smitty]

It's not about being a Powell truther or liking one player more than the other. +/- in itself is objective but obviously comes with a a lot of flaws (lineups, opponent...). The bigger the sample size the better. Or even better a big sample size used in a regression that tries to eliminate the randomness of the mentioned flaws.
But on the same team a direct comparisation between two players in the same role is pretty fair. What is your explanation? Why are the same lineups that outscored opponents with Powell on the floor not able to do the same with Gafford instead of Powell?

Powell outperforming other Mavs bigs in those metrics isn't me trying to make the case that he is a great big. I think he has been a solid backup for his entire career and the dislike of Mavs fans is more about the Mavs inability to find someone that can replace him. We have seen Powell play major minutes year after year because of that. Took a few weeks (maybe a month) and he was getting minutes over the guy that was supposed to replace him. Followed by never ending attempts to explain why players like Wood, McGee, WCS are better and just held back by coaching/teammates...whatever.

Maybe Gafford could be better than Powell in a different setup. But based on the available information I have the Mavs looked better when Powell was getting his minutes. Are lookinng better when Lively/Kleber are playing. That's objective. Once again. Feel free to explain why that is the case. There has to be a reason that explains why Gafford is looking as bad in the mentioned metrics.
Is he playing in matchups that don't favor him? If that is the case why? And what are the matchups in which he provides value?

For me to make any definitive conclusion on what Gafford can or can’t provide for this team in 11 games, less than 200 minutes is irresponsible. Would Tim be better in a different scheme, better coach. Would Green? Was McGee? I don’t know. Will Gafford be a net negative with a bigger sample size? Will this coach figure out how to make it work with the players available? 

This is my last post on the subject because it doesn’t look like we’ll find common ground. I respect your opinion though.