06-08-2021, 04:15 PM
(06-08-2021, 01:52 PM)KillerLeft Wrote: To me, this is the worst possible scenario. As @"vfromlmf" said the other day very well, "if he's a PF, there are two dozen PF's I'd rather have than KP."
You, @"Kammrath" made a great point the other day about the Clippers' smaller lineup when you pointed out that their rare length at most positions means they're not actually that small.
To ME, that is the benefit (in theory) of KP. He's a unicorn, but only at the 5, where (again, in theory) he has physical advantages in terms of speed, mobility and skill. At the 4, his length is uncommon, yes, but all three of those other things are huge, huge deficiencies.
Like the point you made regarding the Clippers, the UPSIDE to KP (in theory) is that he's faster, quicker and more skilled than other centers WITHOUT giving up any length. He's a small ball center, without being a small ball center. Is he a little too weak? Yes, but I think mostly he just looks that way because he played so soft this year. And, frankly, he looked too slow to play the 5, NOT like he had an advantage there.
EDIT: In my opinion, this whole thing revolves around whether or not the Mavs believe KP can learn how not to get played into being a negative as a DEFENSIVE center. If they can figure that much out, I have a fair amount of faith the offensive end will click, eventually. If they think he'll always be a negative as a DEFENSIVE center, then the whole operation is just a waste of time.
KL you had a good explanation of why KP at center *should have worked* but it failed and there's no going back. His way forward is going to be a PF next to a defensive/rim-rolling center. I think we have seen that even next to Powell who is not an amazing defensive presence, the Mavs have been pretty good during the KP tenure. Mavs ran the KP/Powell frontcourt last year until Powell got hurt and had a great offense (Curry obv was a part of the total offense).
This year we didn't see KP + Powell until very late in the season after Mavs had a string of losses and I thought it looked really good compared to what we had seen with Covid/injured Maxi. The playoffs disrupted that progress bc Mavs had to gameplan for their specific matchups but what I saw was KP despite all his complaints is better next to a center. The offense overall is better with a center like Powell who is setting screens and doing dirty work KP doesn't really want to do.