GAME 1: San Antonio Spurs (0-0) vs. Dallas Mavericks (0-0) | 8:30pm CST ESPN!

[michaeltex]

I don't want it to seem like I'm turning on Lively. I think he's a good young player. I thought he was very good his rookie year. I thought he played Wemby incredibly well that season. Since then, Wemby has gotten better and Lively has not, which is my overall point. Just because I think he's regressed, probably due to injuries and missed time, doesn't mean I think he's bad.

I think it's because of the roles they are expected to play. So far, Lively has been cast as a rim protector/rebounder/dunker. Nobody really expects him to do anything outside of the paint While he's proven pretty reliable on short roll decisions, he's not going to get the ball on the wing and drive to the basket, or at least he's not done that so far. His role has been pretty defined since he first came into the league. With the foot surgery, it doesn't sound like he had much chance to work on improving his skills this summer. Same with AD.

Wemby, OTOH, has a wider role and has spent the last few seasons developing into what we saw last night. An unblockable shooting big with good outside efficiency and enough ball handling skills to take advantage of closeouts. He's going to be a problem for everyone all season long if this keeps up. First real game since last February, so he's had a lot of time to prepare.