RS 23/24 - Mavs @ Magic (Tonight)

[Mavrelous]

We are in the twilight zone. This exact same thing happened at the beginning of last season too.

Out of the rotation -> solid sporadic bench minutes -> praise from fans -> thrust into starting lineup -> struggles mightily -> fans turn on him -> repeat

Here's to hoping the cycle is broken

Powell is playing his ideal role, 20 MPG backup big in switch heavy defense, this defense is good for short intense spurts, but you can't rely on a team playing Luka and THJ heavy minutes to do it all the time.

[BeiBeau]

It's time to get off your high horse.

They were on injury report, because they were deciding about load management or not, and not because both were injured. Business as usual in Nba in last years. In the end they both played without any kind of problems, 35+ minutes, looking pretty good, Kyrie with far the most energy this year and were instrumental for the win.

You can be sure that they wouldn't play, if there was even minimal chance, that their injury could get worse and any kind of strain could get worse.

They were load managing Luka in many back2back last year and consequently they were 3/10 in those games. I believe they shouldn't be throwing those games away that easily. In the end few wins might be the difference between making playoffs or not.

Teams load manage on b2b because the probability of injury increases significantly.

I agree with your assessment that they both played because the team determined that their injuries were not likely to get worse. But you still don’t believe they have injuries. And based on your comments in another thread I’m not sure you believe injuries exist.

Kyrie miss 2 games with his foot injury. Luka was limping against the Hornets and went to the locker room. I don’t understand how you can pretend they both don’t actually have injuries. Even if they’re not severe enough for them to not play.

I'm watching Luka since he started playing in Madrid. You shouldn't take his limping seriously unless he goes on the bench and doesn't return. In Q3 against Hornets, he was limping and Kidd wanted to change him, but he protested and didn't limp after that, playing entire Q4.

Normally if you feel strong pain in the muscle during activity you're toasted for a week at least and you're not GTD and play without any problems whatsoever in few hours time.

I don't know what kind of injuries they supposedly have, but they looked very good yesterday, especially Kyrie, who was sprinting all the time. He played with fantastic energy and pace, that's normally not the case with injured players.

That’s all fine. But it doesn’t negate the fact that Kyrie has been listed on the injury report for a while, missed 2 games with a injury, and this was a back 2 back where injuries are both more and teams are more likely to sit. You’re the one who wanted to call me dumb for thinking the Mavs might sit Luka or Kyrie because of these nagging injuries.

You say Kyrie has been running great and I agree. But he’s also been shooting poorly all season and a lot of his shot have been short. Anybody who knows about basketball knows that is a common sign of low body injuries.

We can agree to disagree on this. This is the dumbest argument I’ve been a part of for a while.

[41Dirk41]

We are in the twilight zone. This exact same thing happened at the beginning of last season too.

Out of the rotation -> solid sporadic bench minutes -> praise from fans -> thrust into starting lineup -> struggles mightily -> fans turn on him -> repeat

Here's to hoping the cycle is broken

Powell is playing his ideal role, 20 MPG backup big in switch heavy defense, this defense is good for short intense spurts, but you can't rely on a team playing Luka and THJ heavy minutes to do it all the time.

Powell is a 20MPG backup for a lottery team.

Until Powell is under contract the cycle will never break because Kidd (but i think Cuban too) will always find a way to put him on the court.

He is our curse.

[BeiBeau]

Apologise to Powell here.

He is a serviceable player. The problem is - like we said a million times on here - is that he gets badly exposed and abused in certain roles and matchups and unfortunately he gets thrown into those far too often.

Right now offensively its a wash between him and Lively but you can immediately see what a massive defensive impact it has having Lively at the 5 instead of Powell.

Kyrie and Luka setting each other up for back to back dagger 3s was a thing of beauty btw!

We should be looking for another backup who can fit a different mold then Powell. A big bodied strong rebounder, I think that was the idea by going after Drummond in the offseason.

Anybody who thinks Powell can’t contribute to winning basketball for 10-15 minutes a night just isn’t watching. But he needs to be put in situations to succeed and more then any player in sports, Dallas always puts Powell in a position to fail.

[Archx]

From a month ago.

Slovenian National Team’s head of medical staff speaks in article concerning Lukas thigh injury; "“It’s not something that would prevent him from playing, but the physical defense on him intensifies the pain."

“The MRI they made on Luka’s thigh showed the injury for the first time, although it did not look like a major injury.”

Sekulic said his injury is weird because in the first half he would limp and in the 2nd half he would play normaly. Even doctors have no clue what's going on but it's not a tear or a major problem.

Apparently when he's taking extra hits, it becomes a problem because of additional strain. Bulls game was a good example of that when they played very physical with him. Luka said this will probably be a problem for entire season but he'll play through it. If that is smart or not, i have no clue.

[BeiBeau]

We are in the twilight zone. This exact same thing happened at the beginning of last season too.

Out of the rotation -> solid sporadic bench minutes -> praise from fans -> thrust into starting lineup -> struggles mightily -> fans turn on him -> repeat

Here's to hoping the cycle is broken

Powell is playing his ideal role, 20 MPG backup big in switch heavy defense, this defense is good for short intense spurts, but you can't rely on a team playing Luka and THJ heavy minutes to do it all the time.

Powell is a 20MPG backup for a lottery team.

Until Powell is under contract the cycle will never break because Kidd (but i think Cuban too) will always find a way to put him on the court.

He is our curse.

He makes in on the court because he is consistently one of the better options at the 5. Mathematically last season when Dwight was at the 5 Dallas was at their best. Better than if Wood, Maxi, or McGee were at the 5.

Again that is not a good thing, he was the worst starting center in the league. This season Lively has fortunately firmly taken the starting job. But Dwight was still outplaying Maxi at the 5 before Maxi’s injury.

Dwight is the best of a very bad situation. But the bad situation is not his fault.

[dirkforpres]

We are in the twilight zone. This exact same thing happened at the beginning of last season too.

Out of the rotation -> solid sporadic bench minutes -> praise from fans -> thrust into starting lineup -> struggles mightily -> fans turn on him -> repeat

Here's to hoping the cycle is broken

Powell is playing his ideal role, 20 MPG backup big in switch heavy defense, this defense is good for short intense spurts, but you can't rely on a team playing Luka and THJ heavy minutes to do it all the time.

I think 20 minutes is too much for him to be counted on on a normal basis, and im sure itll be cut back if Kleber can stay healthy or if Holmes can ever get on the court and show something of value. Regardless, hes been impressive in his minutes so far this season but I would hope that Kidd realizes in Year 3 that Dwight isnt capable of handling a larger role than that successfully

[41Dirk41]

Powell is playing his ideal role, 20 MPG backup big in switch heavy defense, this defense is good for short intense spurts, but you can't rely on a team playing Luka and THJ heavy minutes to do it all the time.

Powell is a 20MPG backup for a lottery team.

Until Powell is under contract the cycle will never break because Kidd (but i think Cuban too) will always find a way to put him on the court.

He is our curse.

He makes in on the court because he is consistently one of the better options at the 5. Mathematically last season when Dwight was at the 5 Dallas was at their best. Better than if Wood, Maxi, or McGee were at the 5.

Again that is not a good thing, he was the worst starting center in the league. This season Lively has fortunately firmly taken the starting job. But Dwight was still outplaying Maxi at the 5 before Maxi’s injury.

Dwight is the best of a very bad situation. But the bad situation is not his fault.

Come on, nobody here think that Powell has some faults.
He is just a professional basketball player and does what his coach tells him to do.
Honestly i feel embarrassed to specify it.

He reminds me some players in the first stint LeBron-Cavs like Booby Gibson or other scrubs
Mario Chalmers too

They played winning basket, yes of course...because a generational talent played in their team

[BeiBeau]

Powell is a 20MPG backup for a lottery team.

Until Powell is under contract the cycle will never break because Kidd (but i think Cuban too) will always find a way to put him on the court.

He is our curse.

He makes in on the court because he is consistently one of the better options at the 5. Mathematically last season when Dwight was at the 5 Dallas was at their best. Better than if Wood, Maxi, or McGee were at the 5.

Again that is not a good thing, he was the worst starting center in the league. This season Lively has fortunately firmly taken the starting job. But Dwight was still outplaying Maxi at the 5 before Maxi’s injury.

Dwight is the best of a very bad situation. But the bad situation is not his fault.

Come on, nobody here think that Powell has some faults.
He is just a professional basketball player and does what his coach tells him to do.
Honestly i feel embarrassed to specify it.

He reminds me some players in the first stint LeBron-Cavs like Booby Gibson or other scrubs
Mario Chalmers too

They played winning basket, yes of course...because a generational talent played in their team

If you actually didn’t blame Powell you would be more than capable of complementing Powell when he has a good game or makes a good play. But you have never done that so don’t pretend now that you have no problem with him.

Don’t back pedal. You don’t like Powell, that’s fine but own it. Don’t pretend now that it’s always been about the coaching staff and FO.

[Maverick41]

Why are we bashing Powell in this thread again? Yes his statline was not impressive. 7 points and 2 rebounds in 28 minutes? Yuck.

But if you actually watched the game, you would know that he was pivotal to our defense in the 2nd half. He made it very tough for Banchero by going straight up with his verticality many times. Not to mention his switching and just playing hard.

Like some of the posters mentioned, Powell is a solid backup big. But he's probably not a solid backup big in every match up and that's something that Nico needs to solve. It ain't Powell's fault that he has sometimes has to go against guys that are 20-50 lbs more and/or 2-5 inches taller, not to mention significantly longer arms. I agree with BeiBeau that we need to get another big that's bigger. None of our backup bigs are big enough to matchup with bigger Cs and that's a problem since we know Lively will get in foul trouble and will undoubtedly be out for some games at some point.

[dirkules_41]

Powell is playing his ideal role, 20 MPG backup big in switch heavy defense, this defense is good for short intense spurts, but you can't rely on a team playing Luka and THJ heavy minutes to do it all the time.

Powell is a 20MPG backup for a lottery team.

Until Powell is under contract the cycle will never break because Kidd (but i think Cuban too) will always find a way to put him on the court.

He is our curse.

He makes in on the court because he is consistently one of the better options at the 5. Mathematically last season when Dwight was at the 5 Dallas was at their best. Better than if Wood, Maxi, or McGee were at the 5.

Again that is not a good thing, he was the worst starting center in the league. This season Lively has fortunately firmly taken the starting job. But Dwight was still outplaying Maxi at the 5 before Maxi’s injury.

Dwight is the best of a very bad situation. But the bad situation is not his fault.

The concern there is that Wood is a mystery and Maxi and McGee barely resemble NBA level bigs right now, not sure what is going on with Maxi recently
In summary we're a second big defensive, rebounding, rim rolling big away from being able to use Powell situationally instead of by default and it would elevate this team to another level.

[Teffer10]

Powell is a 20MPG backup for a lottery team.

Until Powell is under contract the cycle will never break because Kidd (but i think Cuban too) will always find a way to put him on the court.

He is our curse.

He makes in on the court because he is consistently one of the better options at the 5. Mathematically last season when Dwight was at the 5 Dallas was at their best. Better than if Wood, Maxi, or McGee were at the 5.

Again that is not a good thing, he was the worst starting center in the league. This season Lively has fortunately firmly taken the starting job. But Dwight was still outplaying Maxi at the 5 before Maxi’s injury.

Dwight is the best of a very bad situation. But the bad situation is not his fault.

The concern there is that Wood is a mystery and Maxi and McGee barely resemble NBA level bigs right now, not sure what is going on with Maxi recently
In summary we're a second big defensive, rebounding, rim rolling big away from being able to use Powell situationally instead of by default and it would elevate this team to another level.

This....100%!!!

There are certain situations where Powell is a great fit and there are others when we need someone bigger. This team has a plethora of small ball centers and only one big ball center.

I never understood Kidd and Rick's philosophy on matching up to teams who play small ball but totally ignor the times we are completely out matched in size.

[Michaellam1987]

But personally really want to see Holmes and Omax to have some playing time on court. Basically we traded Bertans for them, but for now, they are buried on the bench, just like Bertans. So what exactly we want to achieve for the trade.

That trade also gave us use of the full MLE.

OMax wont help us this year, as hes not even close to being ready to take any minutes from Grant, DJJ, or Green.

I agree with you on Holmes though. I think he should be getting at least a couple minutes per game. Problem is that the Mavs havent had the luxury to be able to test out the end of bench guys yet because all of the games have been close. Maybe that changes tomorrow, but regardless you probably shouldnt expect much from Exum, OMax, or Holmes

Sadly enough we didnt use the full MLE. OMax, IMO is the best combination of length/strength/energy/athleticism that we can have in our whole roster.

[Mavrelous]

OMax, IMO is the best combination of length/strength/energy/athleticism that we can have in our whole roster.

He looked really bad in preseason, very far from contributing.

[Bob8]

Mavs being 6/1, while having soft schedule, are still very bad in all team defensive stats.

- 19th in DEF RTG.
- 24th in DREB%.
- 23th in BLK.
- 27th in STL.
- 26th in OPP POINTS PAINT.

DEF RTG will probably go down with more difficult schedule. But the most worrying part is, Mavs are worse this year in DREB% and OPP points PAINT. 2 areas that were the most problematic last year.

[Mavrelous]

Mavs being 6/1, while having soft schedule, are still very bad in all team defensive stats.

- 19th in DEF RTG.
- 24th in DREB%.
- 23th in BLK.
- 27th in STL.
- 25th in OPP POINTS PAINT.

They are a horrible 1st half team defensively, and good 2nd half team.
I don't know what to make of it, there are causes for optimism, and there are causes for concern for sure.

[Bob8]

Mavs being 6/1, while having soft schedule, are still very bad in all team defensive stats.

- 19th in DEF RTG.
- 24th in DREB%.
- 23th in BLK.
- 27th in STL.
- 25th in OPP POINTS PAINT.

They are a horrible 1st half team defensively, and good 2nd half team.
I don't know what to make of it, there are causes for optimism, and there are causes for concern for sure.

2 main problems we wanted addressed in off season. Limited opponents in scoring in the paint and defensive rebounding. Both worse this year. Opponents are scoring 55 points in the paint against Mavs this year.

[Mavrelous]

Mavs being 6/1, while having soft schedule, are still very bad in all team defensive stats.

- 19th in DEF RTG.
- 24th in DREB%.
- 23th in BLK.
- 27th in STL.
- 25th in OPP POINTS PAINT.

They are a horrible 1st half team defensively, and good 2nd half team.
I don't know what to make of it, there are causes for optimism, and there are causes for concern for sure.

2 main problems we wanted addressed in off season. Limited opponents in scoring in the paint and defensive rebounding. Both worse this year. Opponents are scoring 55 points in the paint against Mavs this year.

I know, but watching the games, they have some horrible paint defense quarters followed by amazing defense, SAS and ORL games being the most obvious ones, against ORL they even did it with Powell
This isn't a good rebounding team, even though they out rebounded few opponents.

[Michaellam1987]

We have to play bigger. Grant is strong and tough, can do the rebounding box out, but cannot get you many rebound. Powell/Maxi are both proven bad paint defender. And we dont have defense scheme like Miami to cover our weakness. That is why we need Omax and Lively to improve and contribute. Unless Luka and Kyrie can suddenly become at least average 1 on 1 defender and also good in team defense. Otherwise, DAL is still far away from being real player in the playoff.

[Bob8]

They are a horrible 1st half team defensively, and good 2nd half team.
I don't know what to make of it, there are causes for optimism, and there are causes for concern for sure.

2 main problems we wanted addressed in off season. Limited opponents in scoring in the paint and defensive rebounding. Both worse this year. Opponents are scoring 55 points in the paint against Mavs this year.

I know, but watching the games, they have some horrible paint defense quarters followed by amazing defense, SAS and ORL games being the most obvious ones, against ORL they even did it with Powell
This isn't a good rebounding team, even though they out rebounded few opponents.

They just crowded the paint with bodies against Orlando, because they couldn't hit anything from outside in second half. Orlando is making only 10 3s per game anyway. SAS is a young inexperienced team and were clueless how to close the game. Problem is, how you defend good teams, who can score in the paint and from the 3 points range?