Game 2: Mavs (1-0) at Suns (1-1) 9:00 pm

[SleepingHero]

Well, seeing as they have him playing backup PG and he's on a new team coming off of a good season, trying to play next to two of the most 1-on-1 oriented players in the sport, I'd say we should give it at least 20 games before drawing any conclusions. 

The most concerning thing for me is that he hasn't looked great on defense yet. Grimes' lack of impact on that end can be rationalized somewhat by the fact that neither the Spurs nor the Beal-less Suns really have a matchup that begs for his contribution. Maybe Booker, but the Mavs actually did a decent job on him last night, save for a few instances of getting confused in transition or navigating screens, which is par for the course during early-season play. Durrant, however, is EXACTLY the type of guy I'd hope Marshall can help with, and he was barely given a chance to guard him last night. Not sure why. 

That's why I expect him to fill in for Kleber some, moving forward. I know all anyone here cares about is size, but Marshall looks a bit slow to me as a defensive 3 (against most matchups, anyway) and I believe he's big enough to guard the type of player who ACTUALLY plays the 4 these days. And, at that position, his speed/agility should be just fine.

Thank goodness the season is back because I get to read more of your rational well thought out takes.


I actually don’t disagree with anything you said. I do think Naji will eventually fill in for Maxi playing some small ball 4. And my original post was intended to be an overreaction.

But I will say I thought Marshall wasn’t that bad defensively last night. He had some solid moments on Booker where he hounded him into passing out of an iso. He matched up with Durant one or two possessions and got burned but who doesn’t get burned by KD when he’s in rhythm? 

Like Grimes though, the impact defensively hasn’t really been felt overall in the scheme. I’m leaning more towards early season rust and role learning to explain it. Minutes wise it feels like both of them haven’t really been on the court.

A week ago I didn’t think this team would make any in-season trades. Right now i think Marshall could be used as trade bait eventually (as my initial gut reaction was in the summer).