PRESEASON GAME 1: DAL @ OKC | 98-96 win

[Razzmatazz_Hopskidillydoo]

Good performance for a 3rd string PG.
In an offense where most guys are just standing around, the PG play is designed for big PGs like Luka and Din, and yet Wright made a good imitation.
But the question with Wright is -- can he shoot the 3?

[SwisherPrice]

3rd quarter lineup was a disaster with no Dinwiddie. They need another PG for depth. They are playing with fire if they only have Luka/Dinwiddie, both with durability concerns.

[Kammrath]

Ntilikina had a real rough night.

Yeah...

[Scott41theMavs]

Good thing they can still bring in Goran Dragic... d'oh!

[Razzmatazz_Hopskidillydoo]

Let's just say Wright isn't in the original plan.. 
So it looks like the PG by committee doesn't look good.

Dorsey - NO
Frank - NO
Hardy - Maybe so if he isn't shooting most of the time

Green - Wasn't asked to bring the ball up most times, but at this point he is the next best PG after Din.

[dynamicalVoid]

Let's just say Wright isn't in the original plan.. 
So it looks like the PG by committee doesn't look good.

Dorsey - NO
Frank - NO
Hardy - Maybe so if he isn't shooting most of the time

Green - Wasn't asked to bring the ball up most times, but at this point he is the next best PG after Din.

Any chance this changes with more organized, starter-like spacing?  Or does Greens hustle on defense solidify him as 3rd best PG for you?

Seems like Hardy can score...which this team needs.  Also can handle the ball, finish at the rim even after contact and can shoot.   I dont know too much about his mistakes on defense or if he makes a lot of bad passes...but I kind of give him the hall pass tonight on shooting so much late game...he was the only one capable and it was a close game.

I zero in on ball hogging shooters...in my opinion Dorsey was the offense killer with his shots any time he touched the ball.  Maybe Hardy was too...but it didnt jump off the screen like Dorsey's bad shots.

But...I guess my question doesnt matter if the opinion is that Luka can do the scoring and we need defense around Luka.

[mvossman]

He is not a starting center on a good team...especially on the defensive end.  The data is clear.  He's an acceptable defender as a PF.  I get the thought that we play best when everyone on the floor can hit a three.  But JKidd wants a top-5 D.  He won't get it with Wood getting significant minutes as the lone big.

Powell/Wood is not getting you a top 5 D either.  The real answer is Maxi/Wood.  Personally I see Maxi playing center on D in that lineup.  He was elite defensively last year as the center and as you mention Wood does much better at the 4.  In general Wood should only be getting 5 or 10 more minutes than Maxi.  He can split those playing with McGee or as lone big.  Its really hard to see where Powell fits on this team when everybody is healthy.

[Razzmatazz_Hopskidillydoo]

Any chance this changes with more organized, starter-like spacing?  Or does Greens hustle on defense solidify him as 3rd best PG for you?

Seems like Hardy can score...which this team needs.  Also can handle the ball, finish at the rim even after contact and can shoot.   I dont know too much about his mistakes on defense or if he makes a lot of bad passes...but I kind of give him the hall pass tonight on shooting so much late game...he was the only one capable and it was a close game.

I zero in on ball hogging shooters...in my opinion Dorsey was the offense killer with his shots any time he touched the ball.  Maybe Hardy was too...but it didnt jump off the screen like Dorsey's bad shots.

But...I guess my question doesnt matter if the opinion is that Luka can do the scoring and we need defense around Luka.

Green's hustle on defense doesn't make him a PG.
And he won't be.
There's is nothing to solidfy.
Green can bring up the ball and make the right pass, but he's never going to be a PG.
Asking him to be one is just asking for trouble.
But at this point, if the Mavs do not sign a PG (or Wright), Green is the next best PG option after Luka and Din.
Seeing Wright calm the team down, just proves any real PG out there > the fake PGs the Mavs would like to run with.

About Hardy, I'm just saying he can't be the PG when all he is looking at is to score. It's a good look for him specially in the fourth where no one on the floor can score on their own. It's not ball hogging when you are the offense. Now when he gets to play with the regulars, I still expect Hardy to shoot more and pass less. He is a scorer and that's what he should be doing. Would be good to pair him with Green as Hardy looks to me like the better dribbler. These two can take turns in bringing up the ball in non-Luka and non-Din lineups.

[chaparral]

Powell/Wood is not getting you a top 5 D either.  The real answer is Maxi/Wood.  Personally I see Maxi playing center on D in that lineup.  He was elite defensively last year as the center and as you mention Wood does much better at the 4.  In general Wood should only be getting 5 or 10 more minutes than Maxi.  He can split those playing with McGee or as lone big.  Its really hard to see where Powell fits on this team when everybody is healthy.

I can see Powell playing a big role in helping to keep Maxi and McGee healthy this season.  At least up until the TDL.  But when everyone is healthy as you stated, maybe Powell only gets the 4 minutes a game like Burke did last season.

It was good to see the Mavs back in action tonight.

[Razzmatazz_Hopskidillydoo]

I didn't pay attention to Wood's rebounding and I though he was just active on the boards today.
But looking at his stats from last season, he had 10 a game.

Mavs bigs as of late have been very poor rebounders. Even KP wasn't very good at the boards.
Nice to have a big who can rebound once again.

[Jommybone]

I like the Hardy pick. This ain’t criticism. But he reminds me a whole lot of a guy we’ve seen here before. OJ Mayo ring a bell? There’s more than one similarity.

---

First-game-way-too-early take after watching Wood: not better than Powell.

[sterlingmallory]

I didn't pay attention to Wood's rebounding and I though he was just active on the boards today.
But looking at his stats from last season, he had 10 a game.

Mavs bigs as of late have been very poor rebounders. Even KP wasn't very good at the boards.
Nice to have a big who can rebound once again.

If nothing else I fully expect him to gobble up all the rebounds we used to miss. He should get 10 per game at a minimum. He's clearly a gifted offensive player as well as evidenced by us running the offense through him for a long stretch. I fully expect at least 18/10 out of him this year depending on minutes. The key for Wood as always is can he at least not be a complete liability defensively.

[dynamicalVoid]

If nothing else I fully expect him to gobble up all the rebounds we used to miss. He should get 10 per game at a minimum. He's clearly a gifted offensive player as well as evidenced by us running the offense through him for a long stretch. I fully expect at least 18/10 out of him this year depending on minutes. The key for Wood as always is can he at least not be a complete liability defensively.

I watched the game...but did not focus on this at all.  And I admit this is a big question mark in an acquisition we are expecting big things from.  We knew he has offensive talent and stats show that he is willing to rebound(garbage time on a garbage team?)...but I should have focused on defense with Wood?

How did he do tonight?

Personally...I saw a few plays where he seemed to not be fighting hard under the basket for rebounds...but its preseason.   I literally paid no attention to his defensive presence.

[cow]

I've long wanted to see if a 6th man role akin to Kanter/Randle could be successful.  Gifted bigs who could get their own, especially against weaker second units.  Maybe Wood is a good player for that test.  When Luka and Spencer are off the floor, hand him the keys and let him cook.  

Josh not being aggressive is disappointing.  

Hardy being aggressive is exciting.  I love his emotion and energy.

I know Frank is still young, but I think he has enough experience in the league to understand what he is.  

Nice game by Wright.  Not sure that it matters but he went to the same program as Dinwiddie.

[sterlingmallory]

I've long wanted to see if a 6th man role akin to Kanter/Randle could be successful.  Gifted bigs who could get their own, especially against weaker second units.  Maybe Wood is a good player for that test.  When Luka and Spencer are off the floor, hand him the keys and let him cook.  

Unless they find a way to bring in a legit backup point guard, I think this is exactly how the second unit will have to play for now. That stretch where we ran the offense through Wood was probably a pretty good preview of how we're going to play this year when Luka and Dinwiddie aren't on the floor. 

Wood looked good once he got into a groove during that stretch and I see no reason why he can't continue to do that all year. You can already see that he's a pretty dynamic scorer, able to generate offense a few different ways, whether it's shooting the three, rolling to the rim, or taking big guys off the dribble. I really like that about Wood, he allows us to give the opposing defense a different look instead of being pretty much locked into the predictable drive and kick style we were in last year with the Luka/Brunson/Dinwiddie driven team.

[Chicagojk]

I think we all have to remind ourselves at the beginning of the year Wood should not be a finished product.  It will take time.  Hopefully there is continued improvement.  Maybe not on stats, but I want to see winning plays.    His ability to rebound and stretch the floor are positives.   It is the rest of the things that will determine how hard I want to try to resign him.

Immediate flash thought... I have fears who is going to be slower down the court on defense....Luka or Wood.

[DanSchwartzgan]

Powell/Wood is not getting you a top 5 D either.  The real answer is Maxi/Wood.  Personally I see Maxi playing center on D in that lineup.  He was elite defensively last year as the center and as you mention Wood does much better at the 4.  In general Wood should only be getting 5 or 10 more minutes than Maxi.  He can split those playing with McGee or as lone big.  Its really hard to see where Powell fits on this team when everybody is healthy.

Totally agree with almost all of this.  I've slotted Wood next to Maxi in almost everything I've written.  It is a matter of semantics as to what you call their positions.  Technically, the Mav's call the guy who stands in the corner the four and the guy setting picks the five.  But, the key is having another big on the floor to help with size defensively.  Wood/McGee or Wood/Powell accomplishes that, but Wood/Maxi accomplishes it and allows Wood more freedom to be an offensive focal point.

I think Cow gets the idea here with his Kanter/Randle comparison.  Wood isn't the same player as either offensively.  His game is more diverse.  But, all three are probably miss-cast as a starting five largely because of their lack of D.  Dallas and Wood can get an extension done if Wood buys this.  If he insists on being a starting five somewhere, he will probably always be on a losing team.

Back to Powell.  FGump told us that it mattered that Wood was selected as "the next man up" to replace McGee when it was thought that Wood was starting.  If that is true, then does it also matter that Powell was the one actually chosen?  I still think there is a role for Powell.  I'm not talking about the playoffs.  I'm talking about right now to start the season.  

If you believe Wood will finish games and McGee will play 15-18 minutes, then you have to find a lineup for part of the 2nd and/or 4th that doesn't include Wood or McGee.  Wood will be the first big off the bench at the 6:00 mark in the first/third.  I think we know that.  He can't play 18 straight minutes, so he has to sit.  McGee can take on about five more minutes in the fourth, but there is a run in the second that has to be accounted for.  It could be Maxi/DFS, but you can't play DFS 48 minutes, so he has to sit also.  Most also theorize that Maxi needs to be available to finish games.  I think there is about a five minute run where Powell plays (probably as Luka re-enters) in the second and sets the rotation up so that DFS, Maxi, McGee and Wood are all available to finish the half.  They did the same thing with Green much of last year.  We look at it as developmental minutes (and it was).  But, it also provided a way to line up the backcourt so that everyone was fresh to finish halves.  I see them doing something like this in terms of a base substitution pattern per half:

First/Third      /  Second/Fourth (insert McGee for Powell in 4th)
McGee  Wood /  Wood-Powell   Wood
DFS      Maxi  /  Maxi-DFS        Maxi
Bullock  DFS   /  Green            DFS
SD        THJ   /  THJ-Bullock     Bullock/SD
Luka     Luka  /  SD- Luka        Luka

[Chicagojk]

I made a comment last week that maybe McKinley Wright could be our Trey Burke stand-in to start the season.   Burke is better, but maybe Wright could provide the same security (Wright is a better point guard though, i believe).   If Wright gets the two way, he can be with the regular team for most of the games in the early season and be an emergency option.  It at least gets you through the first two months of the season (if there are no injuries).  After that, you can evaluate if you need to invest in an upgrade via trade.   

He may not get time the last two preseason games, but the next two weeks of practices will be important to him.

[KillerLeft]

But, the key is having another big on the floor to help with size defensively.  Wood/McGee or Wood/Powell accomplishes that, but Wood/Maxi accomplishes it and allows Wood more freedom to be an offensive focal point.

I'm in lockstep with you on all of the logic as applied to what they're doing. The difference is that you seem to like it and see it as a step in the right direction while I see it as a willful turning of the back on what made their defense as good as it was last season. To me, one of the main reasons for the post-season success last season was the interchangeable nature of basically all the defenders in the playoff rotation. All of a sudden we're back to thinking about "specialists" which, imo, is not where a good team wants to be. 

You say Wood can't anchor a defense as the lone big. I think there's a lot of validity to that claim. But that doesn't mean he's automatically going to have the foot speed, direction-change agility or high motor to be a switchable forward as he plays with a center, either. That scares me so much more, personally. 

It's not about "can everyone shoot?" though that is something that we should at list give a little thought to. It's more about "are at least 4 of these guys interchangeable defenders? Can any/all of them guard the ball in transition when inevitable cross-matches occur? Can any/all of them (at least all of them except the 5, though my goal would be for him to be competent here, too) hold their own against a ball-handler if the need to switch everything arises?" 

I LOVE what he brings on offense, and while I love it MORE when he's the lone big on that end, too (spacing is important), I think there's room for both approaches there, as you suggest. If the plan is to run pick and roll with McGee or Powell, well, Wood can space the floor for that just as well as Finney-Smith or Kleber, and probably much better, really.  It's the defensive end, specifically, that keeps me up at nights. IMHO, saying "he can't play the 5 on a good team" is almost akin to saying "he can't play on a good team."

I hope I'm wrong, because they're clearly going to give it a try. He was about 50/50 at those positions in preseason game 1, by my estimate.

[mvossman]

Totally agree with almost all of this.  I've slotted Wood next to Maxi in almost everything I've written.  It is a matter of semantics as to what you call their positions.  Technically, the Mav's call the guy who stands in the corner the four and the guy setting picks the five.  But, the key is having another big on the floor to help with size defensively.  Wood/McGee or Wood/Powell accomplishes that, but Wood/Maxi accomplishes it and allows Wood more freedom to be an offensive focal point.

I think Cow gets the idea here with his Kanter/Randle comparison.  Wood isn't the same player as either offensively.  His game is more diverse.  But, all three are probably miss-cast as a starting five largely because of their lack of D.  Dallas and Wood can get an extension done if Wood buys this.  If he insists on being a starting five somewhere, he will probably always be on a losing team.

Back to Powell.  FGump told us that it mattered that Wood was selected as "the next man up" to replace McGee when it was thought that Wood was starting.  If that is true, then does it also matter that Powell was the one actually chosen?  I still think there is a role for Powell.  I'm not talking about the playoffs.  I'm talking about right now to start the season.  

If you believe Wood will finish games and McGee will play 15-18 minutes, then you have to find a lineup for part of the 2nd and/or 4th that doesn't include Wood or McGee.  Wood will be the first big off the bench at the 6:00 mark in the first/third.  I think we know that.  He can't play 18 straight minutes, so he has to sit.  McGee can take on about five more minutes in the fourth, but there is a run in the second that has to be accounted for.  It could be Maxi/DFS, but you can't play DFS 48 minutes, so he has to sit also.  Most also theorize that Maxi needs to be available to finish games.  I think there is about a five minute run where Powell plays (probably as Luka re-enters) in the second and sets the rotation up so that DFS, Maxi, McGee and Wood are all available to finish the half.  They did the same thing with Green much of last year.  We look at it as developmental minutes (and it was).  But, it also provided a way to line up the backcourt so that everyone was fresh to finish halves.  I see them doing something like this in terms of a base substitution pattern per half:

First/Third      /  Second/Fourth (insert McGee for Powell in 4th)
McGee  Wood /  Wood-Powell   Wood
DFS      Maxi  /  Maxi-DFS        Maxi
Bullock  DFS   /  Green            DFS
SD        THJ   /  THJ-Bullock     Bullock/SD
Luka     Luka  /  SD- Luka        Luka

So we are sliding in about 5 minutes a game of Powell/DFS/Green/Bullock/Luka likely going against second units.  I could live with that.  If I do my math right, that has Wood playing roughly 25 minutes a game.  He has been playing over 30 minutes a game the last couple of years, but I can see the argument to reduce that at least in the beginning.

As far Wood being a starting center, he is probably not good enough defensively to start as the lone big, but assuming he plays well enough to warrant more minutes and starting, you could easily play him as a 4 in the starting lineup next to McGee for 6 minutes.  The rest of the big minutes would be 12 for McGee, 24 for Wood/Maxi and 6 for Powell.

I understand that Dinwiddie has earned a starting spot, but I really hope most of the minutes in those first/third lineups have Dinwiddie and Timmy swapped.