11-20-2024, 06:17 PM
(This post was last modified: 11-20-2024, 06:20 PM by KillerLeft.)
(11-20-2024, 06:01 PM)Scott41theMavs Wrote: I said after the first two games or so that our 8-man was Luka, Kyrie, Klay, PJ, Lively, Gafford, Marshall, and Grimes.
There is no excuse for Grimes not to be above Hardy and Dinwiddie in the rotation, unless the owners have told Nico to tell Kidd to keep his minutes low for contract negotiation purposes. But that's the contrary of actually trying to win this year, as Grimes is pretty essential. It will be interesting to see the A/B between Grimes and Exum when the latter returns (wondering how much longer we have to wait for that).
I've been mulling the idea of a thread that deep dives into the rotation. Many people add up total minutes by position, which is a terrible approach. Pretty much everyone goes down to 9 players in the playoffs, and actually, most go to 8, as you suggest above.
I think your 8 is one of the more likely of the good options, but I can't shake the feeling that if Kleber is healthy (huge if, obviously) he should be in there. He's one of those 5 "plus defenders" I keep talking about, after all, and he has looked pretty good this year, so far. Would he be your #9? Because if not, we reach a very difficult choice, indeed, and one for which my preference would not be popular, whatsoever.
And, setting that issue aside, the rotation you suggest above relies HEAVILY on Marshall to initiate offense. What would prevent Grimes from eating those minutes is either Dinwiddie or Hardy being needed to handle the ball. And, just in case you're not adequately scared by that, realize that there's already a growing number of Mavs fans who think the missing piece this year is ANOTHER ball-dominant bench guard to play backup PG.