Ideal roles for the current roster

[fifteenth]

I think they are very unlikely to be able to play a traditional center for north of 25 minutes per game against quite a few playoff opponents.

Kleber being healthy is one of my main sources of hope as we enter the postseason.

Because of this thinking, I was a little bit hard on the Gafford trade, despite liking the player. Just seemed like a high cost for depth. Of course, now that lively is injured, I sure am glad Gafford is here.

I have shared your thinking about this for years, although I find your explanations far more expert than my own. 

But what I've seen since the trade leads me to believe that the Mavs actually play better defense and offense with either Gaf or DLive on the floor. I haven't checked out the metrics on that for confirmation, though. 

Are you seeing that as well? If you do see them playing better with Gaf or DLive on the floor in these regular season games, do you think things might be different in the playoffs? I acknowledge that that may be the case, as teams try to target centers in space. 

This stretch of games has me leaning pro center, or at least, pro these two centers. 

I'm a Maxi fan as well. But Maxi plus one of the centers has actually played well (admittedly, without looking at the numbers).