(03-03-2021, 05:53 PM)cow Wrote: Bill Simmons killed him and called him Kris Dunn. I don't think he's playing that bad and he does show sparks of defensive greatness. I guess I just look at the deal we handed to Wright which is no where near the 2/10 that Simmons was talking about. Though you can tell that don't catch many Mavs games or aren't paying attention. They rave about THJ and he's kind of turned into an every other game/every third game type of performer.
I'm not saying J Rich is a bad player. I would rate his performance with the Mavs about 5.5-6.5, with 5 being medium.
But when they were selling him to the fans, Carlisle said they wanted a guy who could guard point guards and who could take over the ball-handling some to enable Luka to play off the ball. He hasn't really done either of those things to any great extent. Not sure he is able to give what they want from that spot in the lineup.
He doesn't seem to consistently offer anything special on either end. But there are probably teams who could use a pretty decent all-around two-way player. And I haven't given up on him improving. Playing next to Luka is probably his best opportunity to showcase himself.