Playoff Series Imponderables

[mavsluvr]

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.

Thanks for the observations. 

I am hoping the Maxi disappointment was just due to temporary injury, as you suppose. I did think his fear of shooting was notable and not characteristic of his behavior during the season. Maybe that was a matter of legs, too. 

I had expressed reservations about the ability to use Brunson in the playoffs pretty much all season, due mostly to his size and good-but-not-great skills. I don't at all object to him as a bench player, or even as a sometime starter during the season. But I think you need someone bigger/faster who you can rely on in the playoffs -- maybe another starter who can overlap with Luka. I hope to be wrong -- would love to see Brunson succeed in however big a role he wants. 

I am a little surprised to hear you don't think KP underachieved. Is that because you think he did so well (as Carlisle/Cuban maintained), or because you had low expectations going in? I didn't think he would get back to Bubble KP, but I didn't foresee that he would be taken out of the action altogether. Maybe that's on me. 

Anyway, good thoughts to chew on.