A Bad Thing has happened to Dwight Powell. A Very Bad Thing.
In light of this Bad Thing that happened to Powell, Boban Marjanovic is going to have to be ready to accept an increased role. Even coach Carlisle, who hasn’t shown a willingness to give Marjanovic consistent minutes, can’t escape the reality staring him in the face: there are 25 minutes per game of center play that need to be replaced. Unless a panic trade happens, some of those minutes have to go to Marjanovic. They simply have to. There is no other option.
Marjanovic is a different player from Powell. Marjanovic doesn’t really catch lobs and he’s slow getting up and down the court. I’m also struggling to remember any Powell post-ups, while the post-up is one of Marjanovic’s preferred methods of scoring. However, it’s not like the Mavericks are losing a significant amount of spacing by moving from Powell to Marjanovic (Powell’s stretch-five game is mostly a mirage) so the adjustment shouldn’t be too difficult.
It seems kind of sick to look for positives in a situation where a player suffered a serious and painful injury, but I and a lot of other people have felt for a long time that Marjanovic is ready to be utilized more heavily. Now he will (probably) be getting that chance. Am I allowed to be happy about that? I feel like I should be stoic about it at least for a week or so until the memory of Powell lying on the court screaming is not as fresh in my memory.