HOLY KRISTAPS: All Things Porzingis | TRADED to WAS

[SleepingHero]

Alternate take on KP.

Pitchforks are out and I get it. KP's an easy target. Highest paid Mav, supposed second fiddle averaged 13 and 5 in the playoffs. Not good enough, so Dallas lost.

Or is there more to the story? 

Remember, the Mavs weren't supposed to win this series. I think 25 of 25 ESPN pundits picked the Clippers, most in 5 or 6 games. Vegas favored them too. But Dallas stormed out to a 2-0 series lead and forced LA to make some major adjustments to their attack.

Key for Dallas was KP at center (where he does unicorn things) and the Clippers were simply overmatched. KP played well. He didn't post huge numbers, but who cares. Mavs were winning and KP was efficient with his scoring, positive +/- and the spacing was devastating to the Clippers defense. As a result, Luka rendered two of LA's key players unplayable, Beverly & Zubac.

Game 3 opened like the previous two, with Dallas racking up a huge lead against LA's starters. Then things changed. Lue said they finally figured out how to attack the Mavs by going small.

Let me reiterate this point. It looked like the Mavs might sweep the favored Clippers unless they drastically changed their strategy by pulling their center and going small. 

Now, does anyone remember the 2007 playoffs when Nelly's "We Believe" Warriors knocked off top seeded Mavs by going small? It felt SO bad because it seemed like Nelly built Dirk then exploited his only weakness. He tore Dirk down on the biggest stage. Nelly played small ball and it was Dirk's kryptonite.

Small ball was 2021 Mavs' kryptonite as well, but for different reasons. The 2007 Mavs needed Dirk to score but he couldn't get free against the Warriors switching defense. This year it was all about the Mavs defense. KP couldn't defend the rim so Carlisle had to go big, which moved KP from his unicorn position to forward where he is less effective. That also meant less Kleber and more Boban and WCS. Dallas lost 4 of the next 5 games.

So back to my original point and alternate take on KP. Dallas would have beaten the Clippers had they played straight up. They only lost when LA went small. Just like the Warriors series in '07. 

Good thing Dallas didn't just trade Dirk. Obviously, he figured out how to attack small ball. 

I'm willing to bet KP will figure it out too. He's already shown he can defend the rim. Maybe he just needs a little more time to recover from his surgery before he can do it consistently. He's still only 25. He'll get better and Dallas will add better defenders around him. If he does figure out how to play center against small ball lineups, watch out. This team is going to be a contender.

The team we had the most trouble with this year, the Sacramento Kings basically ran small ball all the time.

I think you're onto something here...