TDL Archived: The 2nd Rnd Pick Yankee Swap

[StrandedOnBeauboisHill]

What's frustrating to me is basically this:

Here's Wood, a guy who very plainly can actually DO all of the things we thought Porzingis could do back when the original trade with NY happened. Turns out KP absolutely can't handle the ball in space and drive around people. He can't score in the post efficiently. He can't really be a plus on defense, because for every instance when his length causes problems in the paint, there are three instances of his statuesque stone feet getting your defense smoked when he's in space. He can't score efficiently from the midrange, or even create space for passable attempts...all he can do is that silly, inefficient, awkward "give up" of a turnaround shot. 

Wood has demonstrated that he can do all of that much better than I anticipated, and he's even showing signs of learning to make the right pass in 4 on 3's which I personally don't believe he could do when the season started. In short, contained within his immature, late blooming ass is a special offensive player, and I don't use that word lightly. 

It seems to me that the only thing holding him back is a lack of understanding of how consistent a good team's second or third most important player has to be, both in games and in practice. When I think of the word "coach" the association that immediately pops into my head is "teacher." 

I can understand the desire to give up on a guy who's hard to reach in most situations, but to look at it from a different angle, this team just fell on its face with one of the most disastrous big-swing trades (Porzingis) I can remember and then crippled themselves even further by bungling the Brunson situation more than I would've dared to imagine, beforehand. 

Isn't taking the time to reach the journeyman with rare talent who you were able to acquire relatively cheaply one of the only ways to recover quickly from the hell-scape that has been the Mavs' plan for the past 2-3 seasons? Don't we think, given where they are today, right now, that this is at least worth giving the kid a chance to prove he can or can't do it? 

I, personally, have enjoyed watching the recent stretches wherein Wood is played as a solo big and shooting has provided him with space. If it turns out he can't perform well enough in those circumstances to win games, then fine, but my goodness, I sure think he's doing well enough already to justify extending this experiment a little longer. If they had just started with this approach, there's a chance he'd be even better by now. There's also a chance it would've been horrific, sure, but I doubt it, and it's not like they were tearing up the Western Conference before everyone got hurt.

IMHO, not only should the Mavs be trying/hoping to make things work with Wood, they should be DESPERATE to do so. If this was playing out for another team in less dire circumstances I might feel totally differently.

I've had very similar thoughts on Wood vs Porzingis (although I would say I feel like we haven't really seen many mistakes from Wood on the 4 vs 3 situations from the get go, we just didn't get to see him in those situations much early on because of the rotations).  Right now the last few games have me somewhat optimistic that Maxi's injury may turn into a blessing in disguise for Wood's long term fit with this team.  When we first traded for Wood, my first thought was "cool, this is our Powell upgrade and now Powell can go play against second units again" but clearly Kidd and I didn't think similarly.  I saw Wood as someone who wasn't viewed as a good defender but certainly had the tools to be a good one where as Powell is a very smart defender but doesn't have the tools to make a play even when he is in the right spot.  I felt like all Wood had to do is learn how to play the back line and rotate correctly (not easy) and even if there are some small lapses he can recover to make plays enough to be an equal defender to Powell.  Feels like he's finally get a chance to showcase all that.  Last year's defense was never predicated on rim protection or size, it was always mobility so I thought surely Wood was coming here to play a lot of center.  I was really taken off guard when Kidd showed he wanted to go a different direction (and we all saw how quickly he reversed course).  

That was a lot of word vomit but I'm pretty late to this convo so...there ya go.

Also, I've been a huge advocate of going after Collins but I LOVE the idea of extending Wood and trading for Collins.  I think Wood/Collins/Maxi can all be paired together and can all go solo big which would be awesome to have.  I watched some of the Hawks game last night and the concerns around Collins' play this year seem super valid although it just feels like he's completely frozen out of the offense at this point.  That fanbase certainly wants him gone (just look at these comments: https://old.reddit.com/r/AtlantaHawks/co...efeat_the/ ).

I do wonder what they are planning on doing with Bogi.  McGee/Hardaway/Powell for Bogi/Collins works and while that's taking on a lot of long term debt for them that's pretty top heavy on the talent coming in so it may require a pick.  I have been thinking too about this idea of trading a pick that's way down the road and then after this draft we can still make a trade with earlier picks to acquire more talent.  Like trade the 2028 now and then the 2024 and 2026 this offseason with Dinwiddie and Bullock to go get whatever talent that can acquire.

I promise I didn't try to ramble just now but I just had a lot of random thoughts.