GT: Charlotte vs Mavs 2/27 (Today) 8.30PM EST

[yosemiteben]

We're gonna lose but been a fun game to watch

[yosemiteben]

Read on Twitter

[Bassman]

Baugh stunk it up again. Mark’s strong game offset by the tankaholics from our bench.

[JMAC3]

Horse **** mark is back letting Moses do whatever. This freaking guy

Didn't watch the whole game, but saw plenty of Moses scoring at in the 10 min condensed version. Seemed like Dallas was just living in the paint and most of the Brown points were from Mark having to come over to protect the rim vs constant drives getting to the rim and then Brown ate on dump offs.

Yes, Mark can be better at playing both the ball and his man, but the perimeter defense can't just constantly expect him to cover up all their mistakes.

[Liver_Pooty]

Horse **** mark is back letting Moses do whatever. This freaking guy

Didn't watch the whole game, but saw plenty of Moses scoring at in the 10 min condensed version. Seemed like Dallas was just living in the paint and most of the Brown points were from Mark having to come over to protect the rim vs constant drives getting to the rim and then Brown ate on dump offs.

Yes, Mark can be better at playing both the ball and his man, but the perimeter defense can't just constantly expect him to cover up all their mistakes.

His effort is in spurts. Everyone gets beat but he looks lazy at times.

[Liver_Pooty]

Baugh stunk it up again. Mark’s strong game offset by the tankaholics from our bench.

I don’t think mark had a strong game at all to be honest.

[Braggins]

Now 1.5 games behind the Pelicans and still tied for 2nd/3rd worst record. Worst record is likely not possible, but they need to lock up that bottom 3 record.

odds for top 5 pick
27th ~ 55.3%
28th ~ 66.9%
29th ~ 79.9%
30th ~ 100%

[yosemiteben]

Horse **** mark is back letting Moses do whatever. This freaking guy

Didn't watch the whole game, but saw plenty of Moses scoring at in the 10 min condensed version. Seemed like Dallas was just living in the paint and most of the Brown points were from Mark having to come over to protect the rim vs constant drives getting to the rim and then Brown ate on dump offs.

Yes, Mark can be better at playing both the ball and his man, but the perimeter defense can't just constantly expect him to cover up all their mistakes.

Meh, there was a lot of this:

Read on Twitter

Mark just got himself out of position a lot when he wasn't needed to help on drives.

[EmpireFalls]

Mark’s offensive game was quite impressive. Scored in a variety of ways and made some great passes.

The fact that we’re looking at a 26-18 game and saying he was bad really shows the standards he’s held to.

[Bassman]

Baugh stunk it up again. Mark’s strong game offset by the tankaholics from our bench.

I don’t think mark had a strong game at all to be honest.

I was meaning his strong offensive output. Mark misses opportunities on defense far too much, but agree his team doesn’t help him on the perimeter. He paces himself and still doesn’t challenge hard physically against rugged contact opponents. But he scored and rebounded bigly so gotta acknowledge that as something other than “weak”.

[yosemiteben]

Mark’s offensive game was quite impressive. Scored in a variety of ways and made some great passes.

The fact that we’re looking at a 26-18 game and saying he was bad really shows the standards he’s held to.

Fair point, he definitely was a highlight of the game. I just find his current skillset to be so odd. When we drafted him, I assumed he was a defensive specialist and that his offense would need to be developed, but lately it's appearing like the opposite.

[MPM]

I've realized that part of the reason I'm less tolerant of Mark's wild ups and downs is that he looks like he's 28 years old.

[Rich4114]

The box score watchers will tell you Mark got lit up by Moses Brown but I watched the entire game and that just did not happen. He had two quick fouls like in the first 2 mins and one was a questionable illegal screen. From that point on, he actually played great and even had a power move post for a dunk on Brown. They had Kyrie, Klay, Jones Jr, etc. driving to the rim and we offered no resistance.

[JMAC3]

Horse **** mark is back letting Moses do whatever. This freaking guy

Didn't watch the whole game, but saw plenty of Moses scoring at in the 10 min condensed version. Seemed like Dallas was just living in the paint and most of the Brown points were from Mark having to come over to protect the rim vs constant drives getting to the rim and then Brown ate on dump offs.

Yes, Mark can be better at playing both the ball and his man, but the perimeter defense can't just constantly expect him to cover up all their mistakes.

Meh, there was a lot of this:

Read on Twitter

Mark just got himself out of position a lot when he wasn't needed to help on drives.

NSJ getting blown by via past his prime Klay Thompson is the real issue here.

[Rich4114]

Didn't watch the whole game, but saw plenty of Moses scoring at in the 10 min condensed version. Seemed like Dallas was just living in the paint and most of the Brown points were from Mark having to come over to protect the rim vs constant drives getting to the rim and then Brown ate on dump offs.

Yes, Mark can be better at playing both the ball and his man, but the perimeter defense can't just constantly expect him to cover up all their mistakes.

Meh, there was a lot of this:

Read on Twitter

Mark just got himself out of position a lot when he wasn't needed to help on drives.

NSJ getting blown by via past his prime Klay Thompson is the real issue here.

Absolutely, he rushed up to cover Klay going to his left when Klay was already about to go right and from there he could've passed to an open corner 3 or Brown open after Mark had to cover for NSJ.

[yosemiteben]

Didn't watch the whole game, but saw plenty of Moses scoring at in the 10 min condensed version. Seemed like Dallas was just living in the paint and most of the Brown points were from Mark having to come over to protect the rim vs constant drives getting to the rim and then Brown ate on dump offs.

Yes, Mark can be better at playing both the ball and his man, but the perimeter defense can't just constantly expect him to cover up all their mistakes.

Meh, there was a lot of this:

Read on Twitter

Mark just got himself out of position a lot when he wasn't needed to help on drives.

NSJ getting blown by via past his prime Klay Thompson is the real issue here.

Can't see the beginning on the play so not sure what was going on with his positioning when the clip starts, but Miles crashed off of Naji Marshall so I'm not sure we needed to triple team Klay on that drive and abandon Moses. But yeah, NSJ ideally would have stayed in front of his man.

Changing the subject slightly, was nice seeing our guys sticking with the scouting report and letting Marshall jack up shots. He was 1-11 from the field and 0-6 from three, and we clearly designed our defense this game to help off him and leave him to take uncontested shots on the perimeter.

[fatlever]

Mark last night reminded me very much of the version of him in the month leading up to the trade. Offensively he was good after the first quarter. As has been his trend this year he was mostly invisible the first 6 minutes before getting into foul trouble. Dallas was giving him space around the free throw line which he used for a lot of those little push shots. The 16 rebounds were nice, although I didn't notice him really grabbing a lot of those in traffic on the defensive side. he still got pushed around a little bit even by another toothpick center just picked up off the waiver wire. Defensively it was again more of what we have seen. He spent most of the game floating around in no man's land, unable to really make an impact on the perimeter defensively and unable to make an impact at the rim defensively. His timing for blocks is pretty horrendous. Someone with his size and standing reach should be falling backwards into being An elite rim protector. But really it's the getting lost in no man's land that's concerning. Some of that is probably scheme. Is probably lack of parameter defense in front of him. But whatever it is it doesn't really work. I do think he would look miles better, if he was paired next to a taller power forward and had some better defenders out front. Maybe he would get lost less in no man's land in that situation. It just feels like everything he does defensively is a half step too slow. That's poor instincts or something that's affecting his mobility.

All that being said, he was still probably the best player for us last night.

[yosemiteben]

As has been his trend this year he was mostly invisible the first 6 minutes before getting into foul trouble.

He got two fouls in the first like 90 seconds though? I do think that had a pretty significant affect on how he played in Q1.

I generally agree with the rest of your points, other than to say that I thought our defense as a whole was actually quite good last night. Perhaps that is due to the fact that DAL's ORTG post-ASB is 29th though.

[Rich4114]

Mark last night reminded me very much of the version of him in the month leading up to the trade. Offensively he was good after the first quarter. As has been his trend this year he was mostly invisible the first 6 minutes before getting into foul trouble. Dallas was giving him space around the free throw line which he used for a lot of those little push shots. The 16 rebounds were nice, although I didn't notice him really grabbing a lot of those in traffic on the defensive side. he still got pushed around a little bit even by another toothpick center just picked up off the waiver wire. Defensively it was again more of what we have seen. He spent most of the game floating around in no man's land, unable to really make an impact on the perimeter defensively and unable to make an impact at the rim defensively. His timing for blocks is pretty horrendous. Someone with his size and standing reach should be falling backwards into being An elite rim protector. But really it's the getting lost in no man's land that's concerning. Some of that is probably scheme. Is probably lack of parameter defense in front of him. But whatever it is it doesn't really work. I do think he would look miles better, if he was paired next to a taller power forward and had some better defenders out front. Maybe he would get lost less in no man's land in that situation. It just feels like everything he does defensively is a half step too slow. That's poor instincts or something that's affecting his mobility.

All that being said, he was still probably the best player for us last night.

It has all but been confirmed (Greenburg) that Mark's development was stunted over the injuries. Particularly the back injury that prevented him from lifting weights. He also had the thumb injury the previous season that would've kept him out of the weight room to some degree. Add on the foot issue and he's got a long ways to go to make up the strength and conditioning he missed out on the last 2 off-seasons. I just hope he's got a fire lit within him to go hard this summer and remain healthy. I am still high on Mark, but there's good reason to be concerned and skeptical for sure.

But for last night's game, he really hit his rhythm in that 3rd quarter and the Mavs had no answer like 5 possessions in a row. He even took a mid range jumper and I'd love to see more of that since he's got the touch to do it.