Rock and a Hard Place

[mvossman]

This is the reason I tried to be careful to present options around Wood rather than turn this into anything absolute.  I’m not married to keeping or getting rid of him, but I do feel strongly that you have to make an effort to make the lineups around him work defensively if he’s a starter.  

Maxi made Wood work.  Green makes Wood work.  Lineups with THJ and Wood tend to work.  As you indicate, the four man combo of Wood, Luka, THJ and Green is fantastic.  In fact, add in Kleber to that group of four and any four man combination of those five guys is great.  The five-man combo’s are such small samples, but logic would dictate that Wood, Maxi, THJ, Green and Luka would be great.  

The three man combinations that group any of Powell, DFS, Reggie and SD tend to play well also.  What I think we are missing is someone who can replicate Maxi.  I gravitate to guys like Vanderbilt, PJ Washington and the McDaniels brothers.  Love Toppin and I kind of think Jericho Sims has the mobility to replicate what Maxi does on D.  Not all of these guys are Advanced Stat darlings.  Frankly, neither is Maxi.  His EPM is in the 22nd percentile and his VORP, BPM and WS are all JAG territory.  But, what he does makes lineups work.  His time has to be managed and he isn’t young.  I think the right guy who helps to make ALL of the Wood minutes work defensively (not just the 24 Maxi can play) would be really helpful to proving up the theory that Wood’s D can be good enough to allow access to the Luka/Wood PnR on offense.

I'm not sure Dorian can't play that role to replace Maxi.  The Wood/Dorian/Luka/Green combination has a 98 defensive rating and a net rating over +25 (on a fairly small sample).  I think the Wood/Luka/Green combo (99 defensive rating and net +26) will work well with any two of Maxi/Dorian/Timmy.  The Powell/Bullock/SD combination has worked well from the bench.  This team is not as bad as some folks are making it out to be.  If we can just get healthy and swap SD and Green in the lineups, we would be a dangerous team.  

Honestly I'm not sure we need to go for the big trade with a bunch of firsts.  I think we might be better off with smaller moves targeting youth and two way play.