2020-2021 ROSTER TALK: Archived

[Dundalis]

To put it another way, right now it looks like the healthy starting lineup the Mavs prefer is

Luka / JRich / ___ / Powell / KP

That last spot will be filled by either THJ or DFS. If it's THJ, you're sacrificing defense. If it's DFS, you're sacrificing offense. So that's the first negative for me. Now, as you say, you can bring one off the bench. But at this point, I feel that's like adding another drop of water to the ocean. I am simply not worried about our bench at all, in fact I'm convinced they'll be one of the best in the league. We have an abundance of bench riches at every position. So I view the value added by moving one of those guys to the bench as very small, and in fact possibly a small negative if they're taking minutes from guys who might be able to contribute and build chemistry on our bench unit.

So to me OPJ (or another player like him) can solve this dilemma simply by being able to contribute similarly to either guy on both ends. Would he be amazingly better than THJ on offense? Or DFS on defense? Probably not. But you can only play 5 guys, so the fact that you can keep him on the court, in late game situations, without substituting in another guy for offense or defense, is a huge positive to me. I don't want any one-dimensional players in the starting lineup unless they're all-NBA elite at that dimension. The bench is the place for those guys.

Powell and KP together is already sacrificing defense. You need to surround KP with as many good perimeter defenders as possible to hide his defensive weaknesses in space and maximise his interior defense. And DFS is much better at the 4 than the 3. A lineup of Luka/JRich/THJ/Powell/KP is actually not really much of a defensive upgrade on last years starting unit post Powell injury. Completely defeats the purpose of the defensive minded focus. I'm not saying they won't roll with that kind of lineup when KP is back, but it would be a stupid decision if they really want to actually be a much better defensive team. The only big we have suited to playing large minutes with KP while keeping defensive flexibility is Maxi. But ideally, KP is the sole big and DFS is the starting 4. THJ at the 3, but I hope he's gone at the TDL in a trade for something better.

Also OPJ sounds great. The problem is he's useless if he's not playing, and predominantly that's what he's been doing. Not playing.