In my opinion, the Mavs should make a big push for KG this summer, regardless of whether Deron wants to come here or not. He solves so many of their biggest problems.
At the 5, which has become his best position, KG has the quickness and agility to show HARD on those high pick-n-rolls but recover to help in the paint quickly, and he's definitely top 2-3 as far as help side rim protection is concerned. He's also great (again, as a 5) in transition defensively. Does any of this sound familiar? These are pretty much the attributes that made Chandler so effective here last season, imho.
Then, it gets better. KG is SUPERIOR to chandler in two key areas: 1 on 1 post defense, where Chandler was more than adequate but not ideal, and defensive rebounding, which was Chandler's one noticeable (slight) weakness, imo. Garnett is one of the best defensive rebounders to ever play the game (I have no idea if the numbers back me up on this and I don't care - my eyes tell me what they tell me) and since that's an area where Dirk is beginning to rapidly decline, it has become the Mavs' single biggest issue on the defensive end.
I'll say this again, a bit differently: Defensive rebounding is IMPORTANT. If you told me Donnie and Cuban had discovered a way of cloning (and then signing) 1994 Jordan, I'd say "Word? That's neato, now who's gonna play center?" Getting better on the glass IMMEDIATELY should be this team's top priority if they want to win while they rebuild.
There's a lot of talk in this thread about his offense, which I find comical, frankly. I understand that Garnett is not an offensive star at this stage of his career, but answer the following questions:
- Can he shoot free throws?
- Can he hit jump shots from a variety of places on the floor?
- Can he cleanly handle a variety of interior passes?
- Is he still quick enough (at the 5) to be a threat in offensive transition?
- Does he have any effective post moves?
- Does he have experience passing out of double teams?
- When he's just retrieved an offensive rebound, does he have a decent understanding of what to do next?
If you're like me, you tagged each of those questions with a mental "Yes." So...why all the debate, pals? It seems to me KG would be an even better fit here than Chandler, who was unquestionably the best center this team has ever had.
In other words, I'd be in favor of a KG signing.