12-22-2022, 02:15 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-22-2022, 02:18 PM by KillerLeft.)
(12-22-2022, 02:03 PM)F Gump Wrote: And how you use Wood depends on what Wood will do. If Wood is going to be the single big, he MUST defend. He can't just zone out until the Mavs have the ball again. Or, conversely, if all he will do is play one end, the Mavs can't play him as the single big.
And, as even @"DanSchwartzgan" admitted the other day, since he has gotten the chance to play solo big, he basically has been defending.
What you seem to think is effort/focus based (I'm sure that's part of it, to be fair), I actually think is an indication that what a center must do on defense is actually possible for Wood to accomplish, whereas what a forward must do on defense is not.
I've said this many times, but for me, the equation becomes:
Wood is either good enough to play as a solo big on a winning team or he is not a player you want on your team. There is no "in-between" where you can magically hide him by playing him out of position. He's a big in a one-big league. Does he belong in that league? I honestly don't know yet, but I feel pretty strongly that the clock on us finding out started about a week ago, not at the beginning of the season.
(12-22-2022, 02:03 PM)F Gump Wrote: The fact that he is now playing Wood as the single big, due to injury, let's hope it has positive results after months of preparation. We'll see. But I think the past months have been far different than you see them. I don't think Wood was ready at all (and Wood doesn't seem to think so either), and whether he can do it now remains to be seen. We'll see.
Hey, you might be totally right about this. I'm not sure it matters at this point.
All that matters now is that he's getting his chance - it will either work or it won't.