Quote:
Originally Posted by grndmstr_c
There's not a single rotation player on the team that hasn't gotten better as the season has progressed. Brendan's far from unique in that respect, and IMO sucked far less relative to his personal ceiling through the first few games than a number of Dallas' more high-profile players. Bottom line, I see no reason to go searching for alternative explanations for his improvement when everybody else on the roster gets the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the impact of having to work their way into game shape and the need to establish familiarity with their teammates.
As for the minutes that Brendan and Ian are getting, I don't disagree that Ian's making a strong push for 20+ mpg on average. That said, I think there's good reason to expect that the minute distribution for the centers may vary quite a bit depending on matchups. You mention per-game averages over the last four, but on closer inspection Brendan got the larger minute share in both OKC games in the matchup against Perkins, and had his minutes dialed back against Toronto and Minny, neither of whom have anything like a traditional big. To me that just looks like Rick taking advantage of the fact that he appears to have two very different but nonetheless capable rotation centers.
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Fair enough about treating Brendan's revival equally as the other vets. His reputation doesn't benefit him though.
The bigger point is your last sentence. Ian's rotation minutes and capabilities are now comparable, although differentiated, to Haywood's. This is only an emerging trend but if it sustains, the Mavs will be in very good shape.