THE CRUCIFIX: Cato: Wood isn't thrilled w/ his role...Will depart in the summer

[Dundalis]

Well, if Wood is traded for Covington/Crowder and Kyrie leaves, it's still the same. The roster would still be incredibly thin. Crowder wouldn't make any difference. They'd be in a hole regardless if Kyrie leaves.

For the shot at a championship, I'm not saying these guys would get to the WCF by virtue of having Luka-Kyrie-Wood, no, it's not automatic. But having Wood instead of Covington increases their chances. The only elite in the West is Denver, everybody else is beatable.

I guess I just value defense way way more than you do in the playoffs, which is fine, difference of opinion. I am as confident as you the combo will do amazing offensively. But in the playoffs, IMO even all time level offensive play simply does not overcome near league worst defense. I feel like historically there is plenty of evidence of that.

PJ Washington is not an elite defender. Some might even claim, he is a bad defender

I haven't seen him that much but I also read this article which says completely different about his defense, including quoting impressive defensive metrics backing it up. Scroll down a bit to the defensive impact headline.

PJ Washington is an Essential Piece of the Hornets' Future - Sports Illustrated Charlotte Hornets News, Analysis and More

I also think if you are the sole high level defender on a horrible defensive team, it can suppress your defensive impact. Which I guess you could say would be the case coming here, but it's possible we are underperforming at least a little bit, with Maxi still out and given how good we were last season. We need that POA defender particularly who can guard bigger wings/smaller bigs, which neither Josh or Reggie can IMO. Maxi is much better in more of a switchable, defensive QB role than a POA defender.

I need to step back a moment and breathe in the contempt contained in the bolded for the offensive combination of Luka and Kyrie ("Lukyrie hate detected"). We aren't talking about the Bron-Wade/Durant-Harden/et al. "pick your poison" situations. We're talking about juggernautic unstoppability in the fourth quarter. Then you throw in Green and Hardy. I wouldn't be surprised if the Mavs average 45 points in the fourth quarter in the playoffs. In other words, defense is gravy when the other team has no prayer of stopping you. I fear exactly one team in the West, and that's the team we play tonight, if they can string together the health and cohesion that has eluded them. As long as Luka and Kyrie are both healthy, I'd gladly put down a grand that no team in the West outside of the Clippers is beating us in a seven game series. The Celtics would give us problems in the Finals.

That's great, but I value defense WAY more in the playoffs than you seem to. IMO all time offense does not make up for bottom 6 defense in the playoffs. And historically I think that is pretty well proven. Show me the last time a super elite offense won anything with one of the worst rated defenses in the league.

Also Green and Hardy meaning anything significant in terms of offensive contributions is typical fan excitement over 1 game. The likelyhood we will even see anything like that again this season from them is low, they need to be doing that on a consistent basis minimum for them to be relevant as pieces that are gonna propel this team in any significant way offensively in the playoffs. Green will likely get the opportunity, but I feel like he will revert to his normal passiveness with the superstars on the court, and Hardy in particular I bet gets nothing but junk time with Kyrie and Luka on the floor and probably barely sees one minute in the playoffs. Not because I don't want him to get lots more game time, I def do, but because realistically that's what I think is gonna happen with Kidd.