(01-16-2023, 08:17 PM)cow Wrote: I was trying to leave JB out of this, but since we are here. We certainly miss the player. With the Mavs "swapping" JB for Wood, I thought there was potential for the team to be as good as the previous year, but different but also potential to be a worse team. Turns out the second is true. A lot of that has to do with JB as a player, but I can't help but think we are missing his leadership the most.
Something is off with this team. What's new? Din's role. McGee. Wood. We know about McGee's past maturity issues. We know Washington was eager to get rid of both of Din and Bertans and we know some of that had to do with their locker room. We know teams have treated Wood like a hot potato. We've heard nothing and have really seen nothing to give us indicators that these guys are causing issues. What's missing? JB.
And a little backpedaling to McGee. I'm not trying to start an apology tour for him He's mostly been dreadful, but I don't think he's really been given a fair shake and that was even before the season started. We saw clips of Mavs scrimmages with Luka calling him "Joel" which is not only disrespectful but also tells you how much use Luka has for him as a basketball player. And while Luka has often said he doesn't want to be involved in the front office, if you are going to treat potential teammates that way, maybe it's time the MBT and he consult each other before future signings. This attitude is an outlier for him so I'm willing to give him a pass, but it is just more bad vibes for this season.
I think Luka is starting to understand, try as he might, that he has no shot of winning with this team as it is constructed. His body language has been all over the place. Just compare his mannerisms on his national team this past summer to this season. It's night and day.
There's other things missing than JB. DFS wasn't playing well even before he got hurt. Bullock has been horrendous for most of the year. Having two key cogs from last year regress like that has hurt a lot. We'd have really been up a creek if we didn't get Wood. And if it's true that Wood would be willing to take the 4/77 instead of waiting to hit the open market for a chance at more that is very concerning that we haven't offered him that very reasonable extension yet.