Trade & FA 2024-25:

[F Gump]

1 If you are looking at it from a total minutes standpoint, Luka is more than capable of playing the PF spot defensively, especially against second units. 

2  There will also be developmental minutes for Omax as well as a lot of garbage minutes where it doesn't matter who is out there.  Last season Omax and Morris combined for roughly 550 minutes and I expect Omax to get a lot more this coming season.

I think the question of minutes by position is not possible to define in any meaningful way. The Mavs will play maybe 150-200* combos in the early games, not just starters and backups in platoons, and players will slide across multiple positions within the very same play. They will change who defends whom depending on the opponent's players. Sometimes they will play zone, adding a completely different nuance.

* That estimate is based on the playoffs, when they played a MUCH tighter set of players; in only 22 games they played 154 different lineups.

And once you get a single injury, it all changes. Last year they played 643 different combos

1 As for PF, I just think the Mavs will have a normal PF-type backup to PJW, rather than an oversized PG that they can slide into the position to make do. I also observe that Luka, as a starter, is going to typically be playing against starters. So the opportunity to have him playing regular and significant minutes as a backup PF against backups - and that being their answer for a backup PF -  will tend to be limited. Just how I see it.

Another factor to consider is that Luka has also expressed a preference for the Mavs having a size advantage when he's on the floor. That happens more naturally when he plays PG not PF, so that his size advantage is not lost, and I would think they will skew more towards ways to play bully ball if they can (with a size advantage and dunks galore) rather than small ball.

2 I can't envision either OMax or Morris being a meaningful answer to excellent backup play at PF. OMax is not good, and not close, and should be in GL. When (if?) he ever gets his skills at a much higher level, by showing excellence in them at a lower level, okay -- but he is world's away right now. And we all know Morris is not an answer to playing time except in a catastrophic emergency.