02-02-2021, 07:53 AM
(02-02-2021, 04:16 AM)mavsluvr Wrote: I was gutted to see the team let the game slip away with some poor execution down the stretch, but feel that we can at least start identifying items that need work, rather than throwing up our hands because anything and everything seems to be wrong. I imagine it will be another week or two before the virus guys get fully re-acclimated,
This is the first day of the rest of the season (or something like that). For those of us saying "just wait until everyone is healthy" before making huge judgments, we are just about there. Rick can start the process of mixing and matching to see what works in a way that just hasn't been available to him. But we aren't there yet. Dallas was right on its season long average for points at 108 last night (current 108.7 ranks us 23rd) and points allowed at 109 (current 110.7 is 14th). 23rd and 14th are the expectation nor what we were doing pre-Covid. There is room to grow. Heck, just getting back to pre-KP would settle things down considerably.
The good news is pre-season JRich showed up. I've been hopeful he would look better when surrounded by better players (so far, so good). THJ and Brunson both had good games. You can tell when a game is important to Rick. He shortened the rotation to basically 8 (JJ and Burke got 6 and 3 minutes, so I'm not counting them as being in the "rotation"). THJ got starter minutes as a 6th man and Maxi got bench minutes as a starter. I'm not reading too much into the big rotation yet. Maxi played all but 3 of his 18 minutes with KP. It was almost as if Rick was protecting (or hiding) him knowing he wasn't ready for prime time yet. One of the best things about Maxi is his ability to play alongside any of the bigs on the roster. It is a waste of that ability to have him spend all of his time next to KP. But on this night, Rick was probably right. The team went -9 in the 3 minutes Maxi played without KP.
There were some stints with KP as the single big (5-Out). It was a mixed bag. When Luka was in, the team was +9 with KP as the single big. But, they were -7 with KP as the single big while Luka was sitting. You would think a lineup of KP, THJ, DFS, Brunson and JRich could hold its own. If it can't, then we've got to find someone from among WCS, Powell and Johnson that we trust to really be part of the rotation.
Much of the focus after the game was on late game execution. But, the game was lost on a 9-1 Phoenix run in the late 3rd and a 10-0 run in the early 4th. The first run came against Luka and the bench guys. The second run was against KP, two starters and two bench guys. Right now the focus is on getting the right group of starters working together. But, you can't ruin the bench in the meantime. I suspect we are in for a period of continued experimentation before we settle in on something. My bet is still that Powell will play a role somewhere in this (or we will trade for a 9th man that we really can trust).