Quote:
Originally Posted by jthig32
This is the million dollar question. A few thoughts:
First of all, I'm not sure how great Marion is defensively anymore. He has his spurts but it feels to me like he's slipped significantly this year. So I think it's possible to upgrade over Shawn defensively this offseason (Deng being the obvious option).
There's also a *ton* of room for improvement in the backup bigs. You can upgrade massively in that area by replacing Wright and Blair's minutes with a quality defender.
If Shawn leaves and you replace him with a true 3, you could also help your defense by finding a true backup 4 that can defend. Shawn loses a lot of his defensive and rebounding advantages when he plays 4.
But in the end, there's only so much you can do to help the starting lineup if it includes Calderon and Monta. I think Calderon has played well enough that he can be traded as a semi-asset. If you can get a PG that fits better and is above average defensively, you can compensate the spacing issues caused by losing Calderon by getting a starting 3 that can shoot and has to be defended on the wing.
It's going to be a very interesting offseason, methinks.
Oh, and for the resident Jose homer, I actually agree that Jose is significantly underrated by the general Mavs fan base. He's been really important this season. But you're shooting your argument in the foot when you complain about Dirk getting more praise and you run Monta down to that degree.
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Agree on Marion and definitely on how underrated Calderon has been. I honestly think he has been solid for most of the season. He disappeared at times, but he is a warrior and I love his emotion on the court.