2021-2022 ROSTER TALK: [ARCHIVED]

[KillerLeft]

Third, I don’t get needing another wing anyway unless somebody’s about to be packing. Add a health Tim and newly arrived Christian to the 6-man playoff rotation and the rotation is already 8 deep. And there’s only room for 2 wings to play next to Luka and (a) 1 of Wood/Kleber plus (b) 1 of Brunson/Dinwiddie. Why isn’t Reggie, Doe-Doe, Tim, Josh, Frank enough to plug that 96-minute hole? Is a Hardaway to Orlando for Jonathan Isaac trade already in the makings? 

There's a lot here. As you say, it's based on a lot of assumption, and that's worth pointing out, so kudos. But, I think the guesses are reasonably educated on our part. 

Here's a summation (not all things I agree with):

1) Kleber is the only guy on this roster north of 6'7" who you call a "wing" with a straight face. He's not a wing, imo, but he and DFS are the closest things to a prototypical 4 on this roster at the moment. I think most of us think the roster is missing what is essentially a 6'9" DFS. Faster than Kleber, but a little bigger than DFS. 

2) you are absolutely correct that there are currently more playable wings than what they had in the playoffs with Hardaway coming back. I think many of us feel like Hardaway represents some redundancy with the sizes and skillsets of those guys. So yes, there's much speculation that Hardaway (or someone else) might get moved out so that a better-fitting player who fills a more specific need might come back. 

3) You mention Greenikina (I love you @"DanSchwartzgan"). We're all pretty split on just how useful those guys are, and whether they're worth keeping around. Even among those of us who want them around, I'd say there's disagreement about whether it's favorable to plan on depending on them in the top 8-9 man playoff rotation. Neither of them seemed ready to contribute at that level consistently, though Ntilikina did have his moments against PHX, and there is some optimism that another year of seasoning might have one of them in better position to help next time around. 

4) You're correct that the way Dallas preferred to play this past season was 2 ball-handlers, 2 wings and 1 big. That was their best approach in the playoffs, and yes, they are better positioned now to play that way now than they were then by adding Wood and Hardaway. But, what if they want to give themselves other options that are attractive enough to actually get used against good teams? I'm the biggest DFS fan there is, but even I think you might want a couple of ways to play that don't involve him being the second longest player on the court. 

If Powell is still going to get minutes, Kleber probably will play with Wood quite a bit, so that will help. But, the bottom line for me is this: The team needs a 4 to free them up to use DFS at the 3 as much as they want and to use Kleber at the 5 as much as they want.