moocow007 wrote:Gravy wrote:MadGrinch wrote:The wild thing is Thibs did what is expected of him which was be a defensive guy ...but did it much better than expected , he turned the Knicks into a defensive powerhouse , they went from 23rd to 3rd in defense ...without Frank, so what did he need to play him for?
the team only went from 28th to 23rd on offense and most of that improvement was Derrick Rose.
The Mavs on the other hand are led by a generational talent on offense in Luka who literally had the most efficient offense in nba history at the time in 2020, but also a defense that 18th in the league , last season that defense slipped to 20th .
in addition KP has been mediocre , a sore spot for the Mavs especially in the playoffs,
as a player Frank's skillset matches up, he can sit in a corner and make 3s and has been among the league's best in corner 3s the last 2 seasons , he's good defender and the Mavs have poor defenders at the point guard , in addition KP has proven chemistry with him, the player line ups featuring them both were the Knicks best. KP was even campaigning for Frank to start as a rookie alongside him.
I honestly think whereas Frank was superfluous as a Knick, he starts for the Mavs, or he doesn't play at all, it makes little sense to play him with Brunson with whom they would need more offense from other spots and Ntiikina provides that inconsistently , but with Luka and KP he wouldn't need to do anything offensively besides shoot corner 3s and feed KP the ball,
so i think it works out for him and them.
You believe they would start Frank over Tim Hardaway or Reggie Bullock?
I can't see them doing that at all...at all. They signed him to basically a 1 year slightly above minimum deal to see what they have (with the remaining years team options). Unless he's going to suddenly go against everything we've seen about him and explode in preseason and training camp, there's about as much chance Deuce McBride has of starting for the Knicks as Frank starting for the Mavs.
the money doesn't matter , his contract is a reflection of leverage , not ability or usefulness.(frank and mitch robinson make within 13k of each other this season) Their point guards (brunson, trey and tyrell terry) are all poor defenders its unlikely they view any of them as starters as they combined for 13 starts last season.
common basketball tactics put a 3 and D guy at guard to guard point guards out there with this line up , the closest to that player type on the roster is Frank, its not about who is better, its about who is better at what you need them to do.