The Dallas Mavericks have been one of the pleasant surprises in the NBA so far this season as they are 9-5 despite having to deal with a plethora of injuries to key players. Part of the reason for the Mavericks success has been unheralded guys stepping up and one of those guys is Dwight Powell. Powell has been the backup power forward and center so far this season but with JaVale McGee back his minutes might come down, according to Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News.
Coming into this season the Mavericks center position was one of the biggest question marks in the entire league but they have gotten great play from starter Zaza Pachulia and Powell as his backup. McGee was supposed to figure into that rotation but he was dealing with a leg injury until he made his Mavericks debut on Sunday. In Sunday's game McGee played 11 minutes and looked healthy but Powell, who is averaging 21.5 minutes per game played a season low 13 minutes.
Powell has been the Mavericks second best player in terms of PER behind Dirk Nowitzki this year and is averaging 10.4 points and 7.1 rebounds per game but head coach Rick Carlisle still wants to find time for McGee because he brings some athleticism to the table. As of right now the 6 foot-11 Powell leads the team with 0.7 blocks per game but McGee has averaged 3.2 blocks per 36 minutes in his career and that is why Carlisle believes he needs to be in the rotation.
Carlisle will likely try to find ways to get both McGee and Powell enough minutes but based on the way Sunday's game went it doesn't seem like Powell's role will be nearly as big as it was before McGee came back. Carlisle hasn't exactly figured out how he will divvy up the minutes in the frontcourt moving forward but he sees the addition of McGee as a very good thing.
"It's a good problem to have, it just gives us more options and we'll figure all that out. It's a matter of getting him acclimated to what we're doing as much on the defensive end as the offensive end," said Carlisle.
McGee does bring some rim protection to the Mavs which is something they haven't had much of yet this year but Powell has played so great so far this season it is hard to take away some of his minutes. The frontcourt, which was once thought of as a major weak point for Dallas, now may not have enough minutes to hand out to deserving players so we will have to see how Carlisle handles this going forward.
