Andrew Bogut, 32, has no problem coming off the Dallas Mavericks’ bench.
In fact, per ESPN.com’s Tim MacMahon, he prefers it:
Center Andrew Bogut will be coming off the bench for the foreseeable future due to the problems the Dallas Mavericks have had playing him next to Dirk Nowitzki.
Bogut and Nowitzki have played only 53 minutes together, in part because of injuries forcing extended absences for both players. However, the Mavs have been miserable with them in the lineup, getting outscored by 62 points.
“There’s no point of starting with Dirk and then getting pulled 30 seconds into a game,” Bogut told ESPN after Tuesday’s shootaround. “So I went to coach and said, ‘If you’re going to continue to do that, just bring me off the bench. I won’t be offended. We’ll get on with life.'”
As Dirk Nowitzki pointed out in MacMahon’s piece, he and Bogut must learn to play together. Both of them should, in theory, be healthy at some point. You cannot stagger their minutes perfectly for entire games, every game.
But it’ll be tough to get by on defense with this combination. Bogut is at his best as a plodding rim protector who can roam around the paint. Nowitzki, however, isn’t mobile enough to defend today’s 4s and should probably have license to try clogging up the middle so he’s not forced to move too much and the Mavericks aren’t watching him get beat off the dribble.
This won’t be a predicament for much longer should Dallas decide to move Bogut’s expiring deal ahead of the trade deadline. But with only 4.5 games separating an improving squad from the West’s eighth and final playoff, there’s a stronger chance the Australian big man finishes the year where he is. That makes this a problem the Mavericks have to figure out, lest they be forced to continuously stagger two of their most important players.
