TDL Archived: The 2nd Rnd Pick Yankee Swap

[KillerLeft]

I'm really struggling with this narrative that Kidd has been playing him in the worst possible way.  How so?  He has his most minutes with Luka and has almost no minutes with a traditional big.  Playing him with Maxi offensively is not any different than playing him with Dorian or Bullock (3&D guys that mostly just stand in the corner).  I could see this argument if they were putting him next to McGee or Powell, but that has very rarely been the case (and shit show when it happens).

To me it looks like the Mavs really liked his offensive game but had significant concerns about his defense when they brought him in (thus the Nico comments regarding prove it to each other).  Seems like the plan was to have him come off the bench until he got comfortable both offensively and defensively and showed progress in the later.  I think there was some issues on that end for a while delaying the move to the starting lineup.  At this point the center position is clearly Wood and Powell and Kidd started Wood last night.  I believe they will stick with that as long as Wood is putting in the defensive effort.

You know, "worst possible way" is hyperbolic on my part, you're right. 

I think, as you say, that in theory, Kleber next to him on offense should function in much the same way as DFS next to him would. But, while this is only my feeling with no data, I feel like I've seen Wood be the one spacing for Kleber to set screens more often than the other way around. Now, don't get me wrong, I think the versatility that duo presents, their ability to flip flop roles on any given possession, can be a good thing. For my money, I guess I just feel like more of an effort to develop the Luka/Wood two-man game (which clearly has some innate chemistry) should've been made during Wood's minutes to this point. 

But that's relatively minor, compared to my problem on the defensive end. 

Wood said it the other day, and @"DanSchwartzgan" and I already discussed it, briefly. Wood said some things in an interview about Kleber being the "anchor" and how he was usually "low man"...Dan and I both reached the conclusion that this was another way of saying Kleber has been playing center (on defense, probably not offense so much) when the two share the court. 

I know it's not popular to say so, especially today, but this is just not how I would've approached things. My contention has been and will continue to be that asking Wood to learn how to consistently defend at forward is much more difficult for him (and by extension, the team) than allowing him to play center. To me, Kleber is the one with that versatile of a skill set on defense. And, while I could be wrong, I don't think it's a matter of Kidd thinking Wood can't do it, I think it's more about him feeling like Kleber at center is a big part of what they established last season and being reluctant to view things from a new perspective. In other words, I don't think this role was ever truly open or on the table for Wood, no matter how hard he worked, until Kleber went down recently. 

That's the divergence, as best I can tell. We all know Wood's history, how he's bounced around, and that there's probably good reason for it. We can reasonably guess that this has more to do with defensive attention to detail than anything else. 

My opinion is two fold: 1) People are taking that and running with it, even when they don't see evidence that he's getting things wrong out there (to be clear, I think he has made errors, but that the state of his defensive issues has been blown a bit out of proportion here) and 2) whatever chance he has to reach his defensive potential, whether it's passable, average, good, great, whatever, I think that path lies at the center position (and I mean on defense, not just offense). 

I am not in the camp who wants to gift Wood the world, or who was ready to proclaim him the Mavs' 2nd best player during training camp. If anything I was more on the skeptical side at first. I might be clouded, but I sure feel like my eyes are open. In fact, I think @"ItsGoTime"'s point from earlier today about what happens if/when Wood gets paid is a really good one. Something to worry about, and possibly a reason not to retain him, even. I just feel that what I've seen Wood do since coming here has been better than I expected, not worse. If anything, his offensive talents are being drastically underrated, I think, and in my opinion are worth deepening the experiment to try leaning on him a bit more to see what happens (which is definitely going to happen now, I suppose, with so many injuries). 

But yes, "worst possible way" was a bit much. You're right.