02-11-2021, 01:53 PM
@"SleepingHero"
I don't hate KP. I was ALL IN on the trade, and the extension. No revisionist history here, and I want to make that clear.
And, I'm not saying the Mavs will never be a great team with him on the roster. What I AM saying (with a fair amount of confidence, now that I've seen him here for awhile) is that they'll never be a GREAT DEFENSE with him on the roster. That's because his CONTRACT dictates that nights like last night, when he was benched for defensive purposes, will be few and far between. A less established coach than Carlisle wouldn't have even considered making that choice, for fear of completely losing the team and his job. There's a misnomer that coaches decide who to play. They do and they don't. The roster is put together in a way that sort of predetermines a pecking order, and coaches accept jobs (and go into each new season) knowing which guys they have to put in situations to succeed. On THIS team, KP is absolutely "the product" and as long as he's here, last night's approach (which was SUCCESSFUL) will be an anomaly.
So, in my view, playing the logic out to its conclusion, the Mavs have backed themselves into a particularly tight corner with Porzingis. His physical shortcomings make "showing defensive effort" much more difficult for him than for other players. Even when he's fully healthy and fully engaged (those are ALSO major issues) there will be more and more nights as he ages when his feet/knees/legs just can't do what he needs them to do in order to do HIS job on defense. That means OTHER rotation players will have to be chosen based on their ability to make his weakness less detrimental to the team. This is what Denver is trying to do for Jokic now (losing Grant has hurt them) and what our Mavericks did for Dirk for years and years.
Think about it. He's a max contract player that you have to try and hide with other players. If he's Jokic or Dirk on OFFENSE, I'm in. He is not. When he's playing his best, he's only 1-2 levels below them, sure, but those 1-2 levels are IMPORTANT, and frankly, how often will we see his best?
Mix in the FACT that his contract is what has put a clock on the roster building efforts, and I see no way around this conclusion: KP was a mistake, and probably a dead end for the team. Again, I was ALL IN on him when it all went down, so this isn't intended to bash the MBT, as I was raising the pom-poms for them HARD at the time. I just can't deny what I'm seeing out there ever since.
I don't hate KP. I was ALL IN on the trade, and the extension. No revisionist history here, and I want to make that clear.
And, I'm not saying the Mavs will never be a great team with him on the roster. What I AM saying (with a fair amount of confidence, now that I've seen him here for awhile) is that they'll never be a GREAT DEFENSE with him on the roster. That's because his CONTRACT dictates that nights like last night, when he was benched for defensive purposes, will be few and far between. A less established coach than Carlisle wouldn't have even considered making that choice, for fear of completely losing the team and his job. There's a misnomer that coaches decide who to play. They do and they don't. The roster is put together in a way that sort of predetermines a pecking order, and coaches accept jobs (and go into each new season) knowing which guys they have to put in situations to succeed. On THIS team, KP is absolutely "the product" and as long as he's here, last night's approach (which was SUCCESSFUL) will be an anomaly.
So, in my view, playing the logic out to its conclusion, the Mavs have backed themselves into a particularly tight corner with Porzingis. His physical shortcomings make "showing defensive effort" much more difficult for him than for other players. Even when he's fully healthy and fully engaged (those are ALSO major issues) there will be more and more nights as he ages when his feet/knees/legs just can't do what he needs them to do in order to do HIS job on defense. That means OTHER rotation players will have to be chosen based on their ability to make his weakness less detrimental to the team. This is what Denver is trying to do for Jokic now (losing Grant has hurt them) and what our Mavericks did for Dirk for years and years.
Think about it. He's a max contract player that you have to try and hide with other players. If he's Jokic or Dirk on OFFENSE, I'm in. He is not. When he's playing his best, he's only 1-2 levels below them, sure, but those 1-2 levels are IMPORTANT, and frankly, how often will we see his best?
Mix in the FACT that his contract is what has put a clock on the roster building efforts, and I see no way around this conclusion: KP was a mistake, and probably a dead end for the team. Again, I was ALL IN on him when it all went down, so this isn't intended to bash the MBT, as I was raising the pom-poms for them HARD at the time. I just can't deny what I'm seeing out there ever since.