06-10-2021, 06:39 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-10-2021, 06:40 PM by KillerLeft.)
(06-10-2021, 06:01 PM)mavsluvr Wrote: How is it that so many of the major players descended into near-unplayable status in the playoffs? Were they used incorrectly? If they just weren’t good enough, to the point that Bobi and Burke were trusted above them, is that something that wasn’t obvious until Game 3 in the postseason? If it wasn’t foreseen, why not? Etc. The partial explanations we have heard for this wholesale disintegration from official and semi-official sources have been unsatisfying, imo.
The only Mavs players who I personally think underachieved in the series were Kleber and Brunson. Everyone else played about how I expected except Luka, who continues to redefine "wow."
For Kleber, I think it's probably mostly the thing Carlisle has been telling anyone who will listen about how he has had a surprising amount of nagging injuries during a year that followed next to no off-season, right after a year during which he played more games than anyone else in the NBA. At least, that's my hope, because if he's already declining physically, that would be depressing. He's an important piece here, whether starting or coming off the bench.
Brunson is harder to call, imo. He seemed too small for this series, and the Clippers' wings are certainly quite long, athletic and experienced. However, so were Miami's, back in the day, and Barea tore them to shreds. Is it just a matter of time, as Brunson learns the tricks of surviving playoff defense as a waterbug, or is he ALSO too SLOW (in addition to being too small) to ever compensate? I'm a little scared of the answer, but I sure don't want to overreact to one series after the season that kid just had. We were all so hopeful about him just three weeks ago.