The Mavs won in New Orleans last night. Interesting game. The West is too competitive to have too many interesting games.
So the questions are:
Is KP going to continue to shake off rust and get better, and maybe smarter? If he averages in the low 20′s and ups his rebounds to 7-8 a game along with a few blocks per game is he worth a max contract? There are people who have signed max contracts that are doing better and there are some not doing better. What is the expected value? I will take five years of the above especially if it is more efficient.
Why accept KP scoring in the low 20′s? And that is because Luka and KP cannot be the only scorers on this team to be successful. We NEED balanced scoring and that has been the concern along with who is the fifth starter. Well after two games who is the third fourth and fifth starter? I do not know yet, but if Deleon Wright plays 30 minutes a game like he did last night one of those spots is taken. And that is exactly the 30 minutes of starting or bench play we need to balance out the KP and Luka duo. Having a third player of that caliber is what leads you to the playoffs. Add a fourth and you are a title contender (okay you do need more, but that is a necessity). This leaves the question to be, can Wright do this consistently? I believe he can and if he does, then optimism for this year is growing.
And if Wright does become a consistent player at this level and is the third started, who then are the 4th and 5th starters? And right now there is still a round robin of players trying to fill these positions. Apparently Coach C is rotating based on match ups as per the first two games, yes again only two games, so will it continue?
I think we will see different starters tomorrow night against Portland for two reasons, match ups and what happened in the first quarter in NOLA wasn’t too encouraging. And on a side note, I get this strange but unstanstiated feeling that Carlisle has more confidence in Lee over Hardaway, Jr. Doesn’t seem to be working out, but over the last two weeks I just got that feeling. No rhyme or reason for it, but it exists.
Dwight Powell was the penciled in starter at 5 so is he still the starter when he comes back or can Maxi score some points consistently and efficiently and take the spot away from him? More to see on this developing story. This does narrow down on of the starters to two players.
So we are back to the who is the fifth starter question? The above was pretty much what most fans and local writers were discussing when the season began a whole 2 games ago, so how much has changed on the fifth starter argument? Your choices are Lee (apparently), Hardaway Jr. (maybe), and the more realistic choices of DFS, Jackson, Jalen, and Curry. Two games ago, I was of the opinion this was Jackson’s spot to win. I have watched both games. I had to record them, but go to watch them and I am not sure about what I have seen for Jackson yet. He has disappeared into the aforementioned list, yet so have them all, except Lee who will disappear to the end of the bench if he doesn’t improve radically very quickly.
All of the list performed well in brief momets throughout the two games, and none has done anything to reduce their chances. Wright stood out last night so his only worry is consistency and it doesn’t always have to be twenty points, but mid to upper teens efficiently with the defense he played last night. He definitely earned major points defensively. He is no Leonard on the Clippers, but he is definitely above average starting level defense on the perimeter.
Which leads us to how do we determine the fifth starter if all do well for 5-10 minutes offensively? This question leads us to the worry that the round robin of starters will continue for at least a few more games. And if longer how does it affect the morale of the individual players, then the team?
Starters for Portland? Wide open. Do we match up 2 bigs and 3 guards? One commenter from last night’s articles thinks so? I see their point. And if so, Do we put KP on Whiteside? Which I do not like. Or play hack a whiteside and rotate Kleber, DFS and a bit of Boban for the first time this year? Not much more enthustiatic about this either, but maybe a shade better.
And boom, then who is the third guard with Luka and Wright? Jalen? Seth? Or Justin? The good news is if Portland consistently plays a three guard line up, we can roll out a much better and deeper rotation than they can. The key is stopping Lillard. Or maybe not. If he scores 40 in a losing effort I will take it. Basically do the best you can on him and shut down everyone else may be the key to winning. We still do not know the starter, but this will determine who plays 30+ minutes tomorrow night.
Tomorrow is one game, but it can answer many questions for us or send us back to the drawing board. I am hoping questions are answered so consistency for everyone develops as they fall into their roles.
And now more attempt at my story>
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The movement started again. There was the previous attachment, held together in one place. A spot where an intrusion had entered. Two small impacts that connected to something that rested together. Then another larger impact that connected more. There was disconnect and connect at the same time. The movement forced pressure where the connection existed, yet the full connection or pressure against changed as the movemet continued. At one point there was separation between all that was connected except at the impact spot. The connection was brought back together and then the resting began again.
There was constant movment, it was slight. Pressure increased and decreased. At times there was slight movement different from the free movement. The movement was more laterally and when it happened how the pressure rested on top would change and increase or decrease in certain sides. The pressure was always there, but the slight movement changed the balance of the pressure.
The pressure lifted. Then there was movement. It included where the impact existed. The connections from the impact spot existed, but there was no connection, Movement continued and sometimes the movement brought the connections closer together and sometimes there was a drift or slight space between the connections.
The movement stopped and two strong impacts occurred. Something went missing. There was more connection. And more movement, however, the movement changed not just in direction, but also how the pressure aligned. The resting angle changed. The pressure was different, not as strong and it was more pressure going through to the bottom. The top was different and no real pressure coming from the top. The connections were stronger and more pressure was felt. The pressure came from the connection pushing back through not coming from the top like before, yet coming from the same surface as before.
The pressure was from the same surface, but from the connections in a different way and it grew stronger over time. At some point the pressure stayed the same and never changed.
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Okay what was that all about. I wanted to write about an inanimate object so as to not use feelings or descriptive adjectives. Why? I don’t know. I wanted to try and create a story that could describe a process slowly based on the observation of the inantimate object. Again without using adjectives that we normally use to describe something or something that has senses.
I do not have any idea of how I did. I know I used the word pressure too much because that was the only feeling I could think of that described what was happening in the existence of my inantimate object.
In case you are curious, the process is to descripe a piece of paper being used in an office. First it is in stacked up boxes, over time the boxes lessen as more paper is used, until finally its turn arrives.
It is put into a printer, printed on, stapled, put in a tray, then stapled to more paper, and eventually two hole punched and filed away, where eventually the drawer is full and never to be seen again. I thought about going through the pulled out and shredded process, but stopped at the filing because I knew this story was not going where I wanted it to go. Yet I am not sure I had a place for it to go so ending it seemed appropriate. I did plan that it would end at the filing or the shredding, but if I shredd the paper I thought I might eventually add feelings or descriptive adjectives to it which was part of what I wanted to avoid.
Anyway if you are so inclined email me your thoughts.
Cheers
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