01-23-2021, 11:03 AM
(01-23-2021, 10:41 AM)omahen Wrote: Brunson is good, personaly never said otherwise. The big question is - is he good enough to be a starter next to Luka? If yes - which two out of DFS, Kleber and THJ are benched? If Mavs don't see him as a starter, than he is way too good to be relegated to play 10-15 minutes per game when Luka sits. It will be difficult to split minutes between JRich, Brunson, Burke and THJ at both guard spots even if we assume Luka is playing SF (which again leaves only a few minutes for DFS).
It is obvious Mavs have a deep team of solid guys able to step up on any given day. Great for regular season, especially one like this year. In playoffs, the rotation will likely become more top heavy and some of Burke, Brunson or DFS (depending how you want to set the rotation) will be relegated to chearleaders. Before Covid took the guys out, Brunson was playing around 15 minutes per game. JRich was at around 25-30, THJ around 25, and Burke 15-20. If you want to increase Brunson minutes you are basically sending someone out. Not to mention Green and Iwundu were not even able to crack the rotation.
This luxury of a deep team could (and imho should) be spent to improve those heavy minutes roles. Because what is an asset in the regular season will become a dead salary in playoffs. When it matters most.
I think the log jam is in the front court. It is pretty easy to narrow the ball handler rotation...sit Burke. The way Brunson gets more minutes is he plays all of the non-Luka minutes and 3-4 minutes of overlap in each half...so 14 plus 6-8.
When the rotation tightens DFS, THJ and JRich get all of the wing minutes. You can play any two of those together anytime you want. If Brunson gets 6-8 overlap minutes it means the 96 wing minutes are reduced to 88-90 (enough for the three wings to average 29-30 mpg). That number gets bigger if you assume DFS gets some time at the four.
KP is a given for 30 of the 96 "Big" minutes. Some of those probably will go to DFS as we will probably spend at least some time going small. Maxi, Powell, WCS and Johnson split the rest. I think Maxi is a given for 24-28 of those. In fact, when rotations tighten he and KP probably get 60 between them. That leaves 36 minutes to split among DFS (at the four), Powell, WCS and Johnson. That is the place where Carlisle will earn is money.