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Game Thread | 2021-2022 Season | Game #76 | Mavericks @ Cavaliers | March 30, 2022 | 7:00 p.m.

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Markennen is such an underwhelming rebounder on top of the rest of it.

Since Allen went out and he's been moved to PF his rebounding has jumped all the way up to...6.1 a game.


Questionable spot-up shooter, below average rebounder, slow footed.

Meh. We gotta upgrade the wing spot. He's not the guy.
I'll go back to beating the same dead horse I've been beating since the trade. I actually think Laurie is a pretty good player, but I just don't know how he fits. Laurie is just not quick enough to guard 3's on the perimeter. The longer the season goes, and the the more tired he gets, the more it stands out. He's a big guy and 7 foot 240 is a lot to haul around the court all season. A long as Allen is the 5 & Mobley at the 4, Laurie is out of position at the 3. I think best case scenario (if we keep him) is still to find a starter level 3 and Laurie moves to the KLove offense off the bench role. Right now we have a glut of 4's - Love, Mobley, Laurie and a glut of 2's - Okoro, LeVert, & Sexton (if he returns). But we only have 1 playable level pg, 1 true center, and no starter level sf. This is all pretty obvious stuff and I'll be shocked if there isn't a move or two this off season.
 
I think best case scenario (if we keep him) is still to find a starter level 3 and Laurie moves to the KLove offense off the bench role.
Don't think that's gonna work. Lauri isn't "instant offense", a microwave shooter like Love is. He's someone who fills gaps and takes the shots that come to him. Love and Lauri do some overlapping things but IMO they're very different as players.

The fact that he doesn't need the ball (he's way down on the team USG% list, unlike Love) but is capable of scoring pretty efficiently when he does get it is a big reason why he's in the starting lineup. Along with just spacing the floor, of course.

He's not good at creating 1-on-1 offense from a static situation against a set defense (to say the least), which is more or less what he should be doing off the bench. I think the coaches went through this same thought process in training camp and that's how he ended up starting.

The team is in such disarray right now worrying about fit is pretty useless. We'll see who's on the roster next season and go from there.
 
Doncic is WAY too big for Okoro.
correct - you have to guard Doncic with size/length. He doesn't beat people with speed. This is also going to be the case with Cunningham who we will be battling 4 times a year for the next decade.
 
Before everyone writes Lauri off as some kind of defective player, you probably should consider the possibility that he's playing through some pretty significant impairments right now because he's practically all we have left. He was just barely getting over the ankle sprain and then he bangs the shit out of his knee/thigh, enough to sit out a big chunk of that game. Those injuries don't heal in one or 2 days. I don't think he has his legs under him right now but he's playing through it because he has to, and he's a true veteran and a true pro. You can see it hurting his shots, his mobility, his jumping ability. But people talking about him here don't seem to consider that possibility and talk about his performance as though he is completely healthy.
 
correct - you have to guard Doncic with size/length. He doesn't beat people with speed. This is also going to be the case with Cunningham who we will be battling 4 times a year for the next decade.
Stevens is the perfect defender for Cunningham also.
 
correct - you have to guard Doncic with size/length. He doesn't beat people with speed. This is also going to be the case with Cunningham who we will be battling 4 times a year for the next decade.
A big part of Luka's game is seeing over the defense in any given situation. That's how he finds his guys in corners.

So you need to both stay home on the shooters AND harass Doncid with length, playing the passing lanes and killing his visibility as much as possible. You're never going to stop this guy from scoring OR passing, but Luka has a tendency to get frustrated when he can't play at his relaxed pace. That's when you can win.

Obviously this is something JBB doesn't realize at all, since we were playing right into Luka's hands from the jump. Guarding him with a smaller guy and doubling at the first sign of trouble is just insane.
 
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Stevens is the perfect defender for Cunningham also.
Stevens/Wade are the right kind of defender for sure. Wade did a really nice job on both Doncic and Cunningham earlier this year (along with Durant and Tatum). Both of those guys will be sticking on the team because they can effectively guard almost every position. The problem is I don't think either of them is really starter material at sf on offense.
 
A big part of Luka's game is seeing over the defense in any given situation. That's how he finds his guys in corners.

So you need to both stay home on the shooters AND harass Doncid with length, playing the passing lanes and killing his visibility as much as possible. You're never going to stop this guy from scoring OR passing, but Luka has a tendency to get frustrated when he can't play at his relaxed pace. That's when you can win.

Obviously this is something JBB doesn't realize at all, since we were playing right into Luka's hands from the jump. Guarding him with a smaller guy and doubling at the first sign of trouble is just insane.
My same thought during the Luka minutes. Really, defensively they should have been playing the Mavs like they should have been playing the Lakers, but they made the same mistakes.

Granted, there is no LeBron/Luka Stopper on this roster, but you can give your best shots.
This front office is capable of making the right calls on personnel. I think the bottom of the Cavs bench is great for what purpose they're supposed to serve. Problem is, they've had to play a lot more than anticipated due to injury, and even out of position.

The starters really need to be shapen up. We know, Garland, Mobley, Allen... those 3 pretty much are set where they are. The reserve 1/2/3/reserve 4 (I think Lauri should probably be in this place depending on what happens with Love) is where the issues reside.
 
Stevens/Wade are the right kind of defender for sure. Wade did a really nice job on both Doncic and Cunningham earlier this year (along with Durant and Tatum). Both of those guys will be sticking on the team because they can effectively guard almost every position. The problem is I don't think either of them is really starter material at sf on offense.
The problem is that a Garland/Mobley centric starting lineup can't have a high usage SF who needs the ball to be effective... BUT is still needs to be a guy who knows what it feels like to be expected to deliver in crunch time and isn't afraid of the moment. That's a tough equation, and everyone's looking for guys like that.

Right now on the Cavs, Lauri is the best option when everyone's back and Allen and Mobley are holding down the middle. As I've posted before, my preference would be to move Allen into a backup 5 role in the long run, Markkanen to the 4 and Player X to the 3, but we'll see what happens.
 
Stevens/Wade are the right kind of defender for sure. Wade did a really nice job on both Doncic and Cunningham earlier this year (along with Durant and Tatum). Both of those guys will be sticking on the team because they can effectively guard almost every position. The problem is I don't think either of them is really starter material at sf on offense.
I agree they're not starters but I could see using them heavily as defensive substitutions to slow down guys like Luka and Cade. I am skeptical that JBB will ever be that flexible or intuitive in adjusting his rotations, it's more of an "in a perfect world" observation on my part.
 
Some late thoughts:

We keep running into teams that put on a clinic on how to play to their strengths. Dallas is a group that has been built from the ground up to function around Luka's magic. There's total buy-in from everyone. They have a couple of rim runners, but the rest are, in essence, outside shooters happy to live on the perimeter and move the ball after Luka gets an advantage and passes out of a double team. There's no room on the Mavs roster for any freelancers who suddenly decide to go 1-on-3 and put up bad shots.

The shooters know they'll be getting their shots, and they make them when they get them.

However, these guys defend too. Kevin Love flat out would not play for Dallas, no matter how many threes he makes. Just out of the rotation and that's that. For us, he often plays almost 30 minutes. That's certainly a difference.

It's kind of unbelievable to me that we defended Luka in the exact way he should not be defended. But I guess that's JBB for you. We constantly doubled him, helping off the shooters once again, as if we didn't realize that Doncic WANTS to be doubled. That's his game. It's the same mistake we made with LeBron, and apparently we're going to make it again and again.

With Luka, you let him score his 50 if you have to. Sometimes he's on, sometimes he's not. You may get lucky and have him going 12-38 out there. But you fucking stay home on the shooters. If JBB doesn't realize something as simple as this, we really have no hope.

And how about putting your trust in Kevin Love's broken down ass in a critical part of the game instead of playing the young, 7'2'' energy guy who had been doing a good job? Jesus Christ. Yeah, I know the Mavs were putting Moses into every pick and roll they could. That's what smart teams do. But damn, at least he was moving out there, rebounding, rim running and giving us a different look against an athletic team. Love is just as horrible at PnR defense but he also can't get off the ground and wasn't making his shots either. So why on earth would you go with him?

Speaking of Love, seeing him get ready to dive on the floor for a loose ball was high comedy. It was about the same speed as a tectonic plate moving. I was expecting him to put on a pair of fucking knee pads.
It’s funny that last year Dallas trying it’s best to swing a deal for Love but his contract got in the way. So Dallas definitely felt he could have helped them!
 
Before everyone writes Lauri off as some kind of defective player, you probably should consider the possibility that he's playing through some pretty significant impairments right now because he's practically all we have left. He was just barely getting over the ankle sprain and then he bangs the shit out of his knee/thigh, enough to sit out a big chunk of that game. Those injuries don't heal in one or 2 days. I don't think he has his legs under him right now but he's playing through it because he has to, and he's a true veteran and a true pro. You can see it hurting his shots, his mobility, his jumping ability. But people talking about him here don't seem to consider that possibility and talk about his performance as though he is completely healthy.

The so-so spot up shooting and the weakness on the glass isn't new. He's been that all year.


If they could swap him out for a more versatile defender who is just a more reliable open shooter it'd make a big difference.

Even if they lose some size and a little bit of shot creation that Markennen has, it'd be worth it.
 

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