(08-20-2024, 10:43 AM)mvossman Wrote: I don't think Klay has fallen off a cliff and I think he is easily a top 5 player on this roster, but I can see the fit argument that it might make sense to bring him off the bench. But I don't see that playing out in the regular season. This is a much better, deeper team than GS and can probably withstand a minor fit issue in the starting lineup for 5 or 10 minutes a game. It will potentially be another conversation come playoff time, but we have a long time before we need to worry about that.
Exactly.. I've pointed out a number of times already that Kidd only plays the starters ~10 mpg together. It's been my biggest complaint the last three years, because the lineup data is great and other teams like the Nuggets play their best 5 (starters) nearly 20 mpg together in the regular season and even more-so in the playoffs. But, there are ~38 minutes where those 5 for the Mavs aren't on the floor together and Kidd favors bigger rotations, sometimes being forced to, due to injuries. He's proven to be successful, so I won't complain about it anymore - but I'll keep bringing it up when people seem to think that the starters will make or break this team. Yes, they'll play the most minutes together season-long, but game to game its 10 mpg vs 38 mpg. Rotations matter, so we shouldn't get to worked up if/when Gafford starts over Lively or Klay starts over a better defender in Grimes/Naji/Exum.
Starters MPG:
21-22 regular season: 9.1 mpg
21-22 post-season: 9.4 mpg
22-23 regular season: 11.8 mpg
23-24 regular season pre-TDL: 8.2 mpg
23-24 regular season post-TDL: 10.3 mpg
23-24 regular season avg: 9.4 mpg
23-24 post-season: 10.7 mpg