(04-05-2023, 11:55 PM)ThisIStheYear Wrote: The Mavs turned their season around? Totally missed that. They had a brief positive run around the holidays when Wood started to get more minutes before his injury culminating with that win against the Lakers, but have been pretty disappointing otherwise.
When Powell went from DNP to getting minutes, the team's energy and focus changed. It was easy to see. The whole season is disappointing, yes. We stayed afloat mostly due to most of the West having the injury bug. Losing Jalen hurt us more than I'd ever imagined. Kidd's rotations were terrible. Luka started getting more and more petulant. Green regressed. We traded away our best defensive player on an already dreadful defensive team. Now the media is trying to lay our downward slide on Kyrie which isn't fair. He's doing what he was brought here to do.
And I'm no Powell fan. I'd be fine if he never played another game for the Mavs again and if they do resign him, anything above a veteran minimum is a mistake. But just because our other big men are trash doesn't make Wood a great player.
As for Wood, he's supremely talented on the offensive end but has the attitude of someone who has accomplished something when nothing can be further from the truth. He shows flashes on the defensive end but can never keep that up consistently. It's possible Kidd fucked up that relationship, but a dude that talented shouldn't bounce around the league as much as he has. I like my Kanter comparison.