07-19-2025, 07:14 PM
(07-19-2025, 07:10 PM)Smitty Wrote: I have a sneaky suspicion that Martin WILL start the season in the Mavs 10-man rotation. Really, Kidd plays 11-man rotations in the regular season. Still, when everyone is healthy, I see B-Will being the odd man out. I like him, but DLO and Exum are better and Flagg will play some point-forward also. In those instances, B-Will doesn’t provide the same off-ball advantages that DLO and Exum do.
In the end, Nico traded for Martin, and his salar/skillset tells me that he’ll play. At least to start the season. He’s by far the best POA defender on the team and has some playmaking ability. Nico/Kidd will give him the rope early, to see if the vision/trade was what they thought it’d be.
DLO 26 - Exum 16 - (Flagg 6)
Klay 24 - Christie 16 - Martin 8
Flagg 24 - Naji 16 - (Martin 8)
AD 22 - PJW 26
Gafford 20 - Lively 18 - (AD 10)
AD 32
Flagg 30
PJW 26
DLO 26
Klay 24
Gafford 20
Lively 18
Exum 16
Christie 16
Naji 16
Martin 16
This will be so rare, that it’s almost not worth talking about. I imagine there will only be a handful of games where EVERYONE is healthy, but it’s easy to see a path where these 11 all get minutes they’re used to getting, even in the ~10 games they’re all available.
I think you're on the right track (at least "right" in terms of what they're probably thinking), but I think that's shortchanging both Christie and Marshall a bit. I do agree that it's being widely assumed that Martin is end of the bench useless when, in reality, he does bring some skills the current group needs (even if it's not easy to find a way to get them on the court).
Having said that, I think it would be a mistake not to get Christie at least 20 minutes per, healthy roster or not. He represents the best on-roster chance to become the type of player they badly need, I think. Defensively, at least.