07-25-2024, 10:17 PM
(07-25-2024, 07:30 PM)KillerLeft Wrote: Ah, well if you mean this past playoffs, then that's actually the single worst way of approaching it (imho).
Kleber was hurt before round two (which is when they needed him the most) and played just sparingly in two games leading up to the finals. Then, in the finals, MOST players were used in increasingly erratic ways, due to Kidd realizing they were in trouble and (quite literally) desperately guessing at what might work (in vain, of course). I accounted for this several posts ago, and I vividly remember how horrible Kleber looked in those finals games as the "second" big. I might be wrong, but I doubt the Mavs' decision makers were encouraged by that.
The period to study for insight into the intent of their design, I think, is the last 27-5 (might have the loss total wrong) stretch of the regular season when they were possibly the best team in the NBA. There were quite a few changes over the course of that stretch, but they closed with Kleber at the 5 quite a bit, and it was glorious. I don't know that it speaks to their intent moving forward in terms of closing, because every day we live in a world where Dereck Lively is better than he was the day before and that was several playoff rounds ago now. But, it certainly shows what they thought was working (and what worked) then, and that was before they added Marshall, who's actually more like PJW, defensively, than he's like DJJ.
I just don't agree is probably the shortest way of saying it.
Glad to hear you weren't irked! I respect your contributions a lot, and nobody likes to feel attacked!
Honestly, I think you both may be correct based on the games you’re using to justify your points. In the last 20 or so games in the regular season the Maxi-PJ line-ups were fantastic and often used successfully to close games. Some of this though was they knew Gafford couldn’t close and they didn’t trust that Lively was ready to close.
But in the playoffs, Maxi got hurt and they were forced to close with Lively and Lively proved himself more than capable of closing. So closing lineup became PJ-Lively
Going forward they now know that Lively can close and given another year to develop may even become elite. So they want 48 minutes of Lively/Gafford at center. Maxi can still be used at center, but I think it will only happen due to injury, foul trouble, or slightly possible due to rare opposition lineups. Maxi will become the “break glass in case of emergency” center