![]() Black isn’t a great shooter, and he isn’t currently the type to dominate the ball as a lead guard. NBA Draft 2023: The Dallas Mavericks need size, defense, and raw talent and Anthony Black brings all threeĮnter Anthony Black, who feels like the perfect guy to perfect this next trend. Defenses are too good now to have three or four spot up specialists surrounding one or two star ball handlers. You can’t just be a 3-and-D guy anymore, you need to have some off-the-bounce juice. It worked to some degree (a Western Conference Finals appearance!) but we’ve seen the limitations of it, as teams now dare those specialists to do more than shoot. We saw this firsthand in Dallas, as the Mavericks tried to flood Doncic with these specialists (Maxi Kleber, Dorian Finney-Smith, Reggie Bullock). Teams are getting too good at closeouts, or banking on the odds that a 3-and-D player won’t burn them. Teams are adjusting more than ever before, and we’re seeing that it doesn’t just take being a spot up shooting specialist to punish a defense for ignoring you. Now we’re seeing an evolution of that trend. ![]() That led to the rise and demand of the “3-and-D” player, a defensive specialist that could also spot up and knock down threes, punishing any team that tried to mimic the Warriors defensive strategy. This was highlighted in 2015, when the future-champion Warriors basically ignored the Grizzlies Tony Allen on offense during their second round series, letting Allen’s defender roam the court like a free safety in football. As the league shifted from the brutal rock fights from the mid-2000s into the pace-and-space threes era right around when the Mavericks won the title in 2011, the shift was that defensive minded specialists could no longer exist unless they brought something to the table on offense. It’s fun to watch the NBA go through phases as every playoff, a new trend emerges. If the Mavericks ended up with any of these guys, I’d have no complaints. There are three players I have fallen in love with in this draft that have a chance of being available at 10. ![]() ![]() They are based on my own readings from our own staff of experts, other draft analysts and good old-fashioned, never taken out of context YouTube highlight reels. I just wanted to qualify that these opinions aren’t very valuable. However, that doesn’t mean I don’t get to have opinions. It’s hard enough to find time to manage, edit, and create content during an 82-game regular season, but to then tack on college scouting? Looking at draft prospects? Forget it! It’s why here at Mavs Moneyball, I mostly stay out of our draft coverage, as we have a team of experts who do put in the time to watch film, watch college games, and put out well-informed analysis on what could be 19, 20-year-old mystery boxes. When you’re running a Mavericks blog and podcast, it is hard to find time to do, well, everything. ![]()
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