Game 41: Dallas Mavericks (22-18) vs. New Orleans Pelicans (9-32)

[KillerLeft]

From Iztok's free section in his substack:

Dinwiddie logged 38 minutes and was tasked with guarding Murray for most of the night, while Grimes played just 18 minutes.  

This is a part of the section where he is considered with a good perimeter defender.   I have yet to see Marshall show much promise in this.   Klay is ok, but tough to ask him to be much more than average.    They are asking a ton on PJ.  PJ is probably better defending taller guys.    It certainly feels like this is a concern....along with a ton of other issues.  Luka and Ky will solve most of them, not sure if they can solve this though.

So, Marshall isn't really a "perimeter defender" if I understand your intended meaning clearly. He's a good defender, but not that type. 

Basically, he's the polar opposite of DJJ. DJJ is an (very) undersized 4 on offense and can guard 1-3 with the best of them. Marshal is clearly a 3 on offense and a slightly undersized 4 on defense. It's why I keep suggesting he's likely to end up playing those 10 minutes behind PJW in a shortened rotation. Imo, not only is he able to guard forwards, it's his best defensive role. On ball, fighting through screens - that's not him. That's supposed to be Grimes. 

For whatever reason, Grimes isn't really being asked to play that role as much as I think many of us anticipated. This is only speculative theory on my part, but this might give us a glimpse into why he has bounced around and was available more cheaply than we expected this past summer. Many of us remember the tenacious, high-minute defensive role he played in NY for Thibs that one year, but...what if that's not what he wants to do? What if Grimes fancies himself an offensive player and Thibs got sick of trying to convince him what his role should be and traded him? I mean, isn't all the excitement about him around here lately mostly due to his timely makes off the dribble and as a movement shooter? If we're pointing at guys who've made less of a DEFENSIVE impact than expected, I'd start with him, personally, though I'm nowhere near ready to move on from him. There's something there, I'm just not sure it's quite what we thought (yet).