DAL OFFSEASON: Trade & FA | Mavs "mostly done...but you never know."

[ItsGoTime]

I see nothing, other than the injury and the chance that he won't be the same player as a result of it, that leads me to believe their stance on him has changed. You don't have to like it, but you not liking it doesn't really change what they think, does it?

It seems like you're downplaying the injury or not directly commenting on what this particular injury is to athletic players. I really hope the FO and coach aren't. 

So do you suggest that I just grin and bear it if they do something I don't think will work, or keep doing something that hasn't been working IMO? 

Every beginning of the season I always give the team a couple months to see if their vision of the offseason was successful. It's been easier in recent years to start in on that earlier rather than later, but I still reserve full judgement til I see the oncourt product for what I believe to be ample time.

To me, now is the time to discuss what we ourselves would like to see happen, not what we think they'll do. That just becomes a prediction based discussion and is pretty boring to me. I like options, I like possibilities, I like potential (not sure why I haven't gotten into the draft much in the past...well, other than doing that sounds a lot like work...hehe). I hope things work out at the beginning of the year, and will call out the failures as they show themselves. 

I am a fan and I would like to think that some of what I get onboard with has an impact with the team, even when I know most, if not all of it doesn't (Does anyone believe the rants about breaking up the championship team made any impact?). Otherwise, I probably wouldn't stick around following 1 team, I'd probably just be one of the bandwagon guys that roots for the teams that will win for most of the year, or not be a fan at all.

The reason I brought up Powell starting as a factor was this: If it were up to me, I believe I'd be all in on a ONE BIG approach. That's where a guy like OPJ might fit in.

This is why I was very perplexed at how adamant you were about your opposition to the thought.

As you (and many of us) have pointed out, DP and WCS can definitely NOT play TOGETHER, nor can either of them play with Boban. They can both play with KP or Kleber just fine, however, especially on offense. So, if 60-80% of the game is meant to be played with two bigs, that absolutely frees up more minutes for WCS, especially in the regular season (he'd still need to earn the coach's trust to GET them, of course). I think he'd be in direct competition with Boban for the role of 4th big, or second big off of the bench, in that scenario, and I think it's pretty likely he'd win. If he's playing well, I can see him taking ALL of Powell's rest minutes eventually, even the ones Kleber gets now (Kleber can actually play with Powell OR instead of Powell. He's a nifty gadget to have). 

My thought on this is that KP can play WITH Kleber too and I think they WILL. I don't believe Kleber will lose many if any minutes at all, I think he's earned that ability although I don't think he's a good candidate for starting, he seems to do so much better coming off the bench. I also think there will be moments of DFS or some other acquired big wing to get minutes with 1 of the 5 bigs in a small ball approach. Which makes the prospect of lots of minutes to go around for Powell/WCS/Boban pretty small. Doing the math:

KP (32)/Kleber (25)/DFS or other bigger wing acquired (8)/3rd big (25) = left over 8 minutes for 2 of Powell/WCS/Boban

Now, yes, KP will be game managed on back-to-backs/times where he gets too worn out. There will be injuries that will change the total numbers, the hope is that they won't be an over-abundance of them so the rotations can get the most repetition as they can. If the unfortunate incident happens that we lose one of the 4 (minus Boban cause I think it's shown that he will only ever get spot minutes with this team), then yes, this goes out the door and that bridge would be crossed at that time.