RS 23/24 - Mavs vs Heat (Thursd. 730PMEST)

[ozwizard8]

Many works and better communication on the defensive rotation is needed.

2) Protect Luka, put him on the weak side, look after the oppenent standing in the corner is fine, but Luka to be always ready to cover to the 3 ball line from the corner upto to 45 degree 3 point line, and don’t be attacked close out too easily. This is more important than standing close to the paint, and goes for rebounding. You have Lively/Gafford do the rebounding work, save your energy on defense. Protect Kyrie, when he is posted up by bigger player, stimulate and advise the team what to do in advance, e.g. for elite PF/C, send double team immediately when opponent put the ball on the floor, leave him no chance to observe the defensive rotation; for elite bigger wing with right hand being the strong hand, deny the ball, have the left land drive lane being semi open, with C protecting the paint.

Luka is tasked with rebounding, and is constantly thinking of helping, it's not working, the gameplan against him and THJ has been backdoor cuts, maybe tell them to face guard? I don't know, but right now, backdoor cuts are killing the team.

In today’s game teams can find creative ways to create mismatch. For instance Celtics put Jokic in front of whoever they wanted in todays game.

There are ways to avoid this if the opposing team doesnt execute back screens and cut greatly. So you can pre-switch Luka before his man goes for a screen to ball handler.

However, Mavs also dont want Kyrie against lets say Tatum, Butler, Kawhi etc. Kyrie is too small. So when they are both on the court, Luka becomes the second worst defender and team cannot compensate screens.

Also opponents trying to worn Luka out. Rockets were very good to hide Harden ok defense. And that was the only way to preserve energy for high usage offense. Exum is good similar to Brunson Dinwiddie to take the Luka’s load without acting like a SG. Because if THJ or Kyrie gets the ball, they act like scorers not a point guard to organize offense, control the tempo. I wish Kyrie could’ve learn some pg skills and understanding. Exum’s Europe stint probably helped him.

Exum is not more skillful but when he has the ball, I have confidence on decision-making and execution. Like Murray is first and foremost tries to run the plays with Jokic. It he gets mismatch or if play breaks down he may go for hero ball. For Kyrie, its mostly hero ball.

Also watching Denver game, its clear that Luka misses solid players around. Aaron Gordon would be life saver for Luka both on offense and defense. KCP is a f’in defensive specialist. If you ask me if Gordon was out for the game Nuggets may have lost the game. Putback dunks, offensive rebounds, alley-oops. Luxury to have that kind of guy around.

[ozwizard8]

Kidd is trash

Neither thj or green deserve over 20 min a game

Lively should always start and close 9 times out of 10

Willing to give pj more time, but definitely wasn't worth a top 2 protected pick

Well we dont have KCP sitting on the bench. I’d be glad if Exum could play on high level for 30mpg for rest of the season but I am not sure if he can take that much load with the injury history.
So Green kinda makes sense to use.

[Mavrelous]

Many works and better communication on the defensive rotation is needed.

2) Protect Luka, put him on the weak side, look after the oppenent standing in the corner is fine, but Luka to be always ready to cover to the 3 ball line from the corner upto to 45 degree 3 point line, and don’t be attacked close out too easily. This is more important than standing close to the paint, and goes for rebounding. You have Lively/Gafford do the rebounding work, save your energy on defense. Protect Kyrie, when he is posted up by bigger player, stimulate and advise the team what to do in advance, e.g. for elite PF/C, send double team immediately when opponent put the ball on the floor, leave him no chance to observe the defensive rotation; for elite bigger wing with right hand being the strong hand, deny the ball, have the left land drive lane being semi open, with C protecting the paint.

Luka is tasked with rebounding, and is constantly thinking of helping, it's not working, the gameplan against him and THJ has been backdoor cuts, maybe tell them to face guard? I don't know, but right now, backdoor cuts are killing the team.

In today’s game teams can find creative ways to create mismatch. For instance Celtics put Jokic in front of whoever they wanted in todays game.

There are ways to avoid this if the opposing team doesnt execute back screens and cut greatly. So you can pre-switch Luka before his man goes for a screen to ball handler.

However, Mavs also dont want Kyrie against lets say Tatum, Butler, Kawhi etc. Kyrie is too small. So when they are both on the court, Luka becomes the second worst defender and team cannot compensate screens.

Also opponents trying to worn Luka out. Rockets were very good to hide Harden ok defense. And that was the only way to preserve energy for high usage offense. Exum is good similar to Brunson Dinwiddie to take the Luka’s load without acting like a SG. Because if THJ or Kyrie gets the ball, they act like scorers not a point guard to organize offense, control the tempo. I wish Kyrie could’ve learn some pg skills and understanding. Exum’s Europe stint probably helped him

Yeah, hiding Harden was easier since all around him contributed on defense, Luka has Kyrie and THJ who are even worse, and Green can't channel his energy in the right direction.
I keep going back to Green, he's not good at navigating screen but he's good at chasing around players away from the basket, let him apply full court pressure, tire out opposing team guards, and the high screens are much easier to recover from and don't put the big in trouble, there isn't a better use of 25MPG...

[BliscoSantos]

It wasn't prety but at least they got the win...I still think the weakest Link of this team is the coach,the lack of system...once again after the game he was blowing compliments Luka's way,well deserved,but that just shows his plan is Luka ball...i'm not against it when you're struggling but you really need some diversity...I Just don't think that's a winning recipe....the team isn't as bad as they looked recently,they Just need to implement some game plays, passing,off ball screens,movement, at least at the start of the games... everybody knows their style of Play and it's really not that hard to stop,if you have a solid coach...you could also Save some of Luka's energy and get him some easy shots if you ran some plays...if that wouldn't work you could always go back to Luka and Kyrie ISO, pick'n roll game...as for the D the players really have to stay more focused,comunicate better when switching,helping out

[ozwizard8]

It wasn't prety but at least they got the win...I still think the weakest Link of this team is the coach,the lack of system...once again after the game he was blowing compliments Luka's way,well deserved,but that just shows his plan is Luka ball...i'm not against it when you're struggling but you really need some diversity...I Just don't think that's a winning recipe....the team isn't as bad as they looked recently,they Just need to implement some game plays, passing,off ball screens,movement, at least at the start of the games... everybody knows their style of Play and it's really not that hard to stop,if you have a solid coach...you could also Save some of Luka's energy and get him some easy shots if you ran some plays...if that wouldn't work you could always go back to Luka and Kyrie ISO, pick'n roll game...as for the D the players really have to stay more focused,comunicate better when switching,helping out

Luka ball is a winning recipe as long as you have some secondary scorers, decent defense and decent rebounding.
Jokic ball is also relies on Jokic getting doubles, help defense on him. Sue to his skills and him being a center it offers more cutting oppurtunities but overall the idea is getting help defense and then punishing it.

Jokic’s starting 5 is elite.

[Archx]

Hey archx listen to this:

Watch on YouTube

Charles Barkley , Kenny Smith, (and Shaq to a great degree) basically said the same thing Ive been saying --- about Luka Ball and why ball movement is just so important for the overall health of this team. Just so people in here dont think I'm just being unfair to Luka. I just know in order for this team to meet their potential he has to be willing to give up the ball early and often and allow others guy to make decision and allow the ball to move.

Whatever i say there is no convicing you. I already gave you tone of answers and you don't agree with them, fine but even if i go back and re-post every metrics, advance stat or even give you videos you're going to stick to your own opinion, which again, it's fine, it's your opinion.

And these TNT guys, they don't watch Mavs as much as we do, they don't listen to other Mavs analysts which post on twitter or blogs or anywhere else. Barkley is entertainment and Shaq is basically the worst guy there but he's entertaining with Barkley. What they say about Mavs is simply dumb...

They wanted KP to play post, every single time Mavs game was on, they talked about it but they failed to see that KP in the post simply wasn't working for Mavs because KP was weak at that time and had a poor post game. They don't know Mavs ball as much as we do because we watch and read about Mavs all the time.

You're thinking about basketball in the most general ways possible. Playmakers share the ball, swing it around, pass, pass, pass... open look, take the shoot and score. That's cool, it works for some teams, it's what basketball is all about, but often it doesn't exactly go like that.

This isn't Euroleague, it isn't FIBA, it's the NBA. And most importantly, it's Jason Kidd. I gave you a ton of answers during the game already why it's not as simple with the Mavs as you want it to be.

Even when i saw your post how magically it started clicking when Luka started to deffer and pass the ball around and everyone got involved, that wasn't exactly true. It was a 2 ball game with Exum and Luka and on those 4 straight possessions when Mavs scored, it was Luka doing most of it. 2x FT's and 2x two man game him and Exum and then another 5th possession Luka Pnr pass to Lively to score. And after that you wrote "See what happens when EVERYONE gets involved?" But that was not everyone, it still wasn't passing around like you wanted it to be, it's just Luka creating offense as he does best.

I posted before a ton of metrics that prove Luka is basically the best half court player in the game for the past few years, he's carrying Kidd's non existant offensive schemes, he's carrying Kyrie who doesn't look that good in the past few games aswell. In the last 18 games, Mavs won 14 games with Luka ON THE FLOOR, they're otherwise losing minutes. Luka climbed from almost being last to being 3rd best On/Off on the team.

Whatever he does, IT WORKS and the worst part is, you still don't understand that Mavs are losing games on defense and not offense.
You literally said to me two times that Mavs lost to pacers due to bad ball movement on offense. They lost because Pacers forced them to play their fast pace and Mavs were lazy and inefficient on defense, leaving their shooters open while collpasing 4 guys into the paint for no reason at all, that's why they lost.
Mavs need to let Luka play his own pace and not like those TNT guys who think Luka has to push even more tempo even though they're already 7th best pace team in the league. That's simply not Mavs game and it further proves how detached from reality those TNT guys actually are when it comes to this team.

[Dirk]

Random clips... it is very easy to get open 3 pt shots on the Mavs. Can't really consistently win like this.

Bad Luke

Good Luke

[Mavrelous]

Random clips... it is very easy to get open 3 pt shots on the Mavs. Can't really consistently win like this.

Almost all of them are over helping.
The team isn't functioning on either end, they are relaying on tough shot making on offense and collapsing on defense.

[joesha1698]

Swear ive seen joshua here before. The way the posts are, the topics, everything. So what name was it under?

Dude, what's with the strange speculation? I'm merely a dude with an opinion like you. I never came here as someone else.

[joesha1698]

Hey archx listen to this:

Watch on YouTube

Charles Barkley , Kenny Smith, (and Shaq to a great degree) basically said the same thing Ive been saying --- about Luka Ball and why ball movement is just so important for the overall health of this team. Just so people in here dont think I'm just being unfair to Luka. I just know in order for this team to meet their potential he has to be willing to give up the ball early and often and allow others guy to make decision and allow the ball to move.

Whatever i say there is no convicing you. I already gave you tone of answers and you don't agree with them, fine but even if i go back and re-post every metrics, advance stat or even give you videos you're going to stick to your own opinion, which again, it's fine, it's your opinion.

And these TNT guys, they don't watch Mavs as much as we do, they don't listen to other Mavs analysts which post on twitter or blogs or anywhere else. Barkley is entertainment and Shaq is basically the worst guy there but he's entertaining with Barkley. What they say about Mavs is simply dumb...

They wanted KP to play post, every single time Mavs game was on, they talked about it but they failed to see that KP in the post simply wasn't working for Mavs because KP was weak at that time and had a poor post game. They don't know Mavs ball as much as we do because we watch and read about Mavs all the time.

You're thinking about basketball in the most general ways possible. Playmakers share the ball, swing it around, pass, pass, pass... open look, take the shoot and score. That's cool, it works for some teams, it's what basketball is all about, but often it doesn't exactly go like that.

This isn't Euroleague, it isn't FIBA, it's the NBA. And most importantly, it's Jason Kidd. I gave you a ton of answers during the game already why it's not as simple with the Mavs as you want it to be.

Even when i saw your post how magically it started clicking when Luka started to deffer and pass the ball around and everyone got involved, that wasn't exactly true. It was a 2 ball game with Exum and Luka and on those 4 straight possessions when Mavs scored, it was Luka doing most of it. 2x FT's and 2x two man game him and Exum and then another 5th possession Luka Pnr pass to Lively to score. And after that you wrote "See what happens when EVERYONE gets involved?" But that was not everyone, it still wasn't passing around like you wanted it to be, it's just Luka creating offense as he does best.

I posted before a ton of metrics that prove Luka is basically the best half court player in the game for the past few years, he's carrying Kidd's non existant offensive schemes, he's carrying Kyrie who doesn't look that good in the past few games aswell. In the last 18 games, Mavs won 14 games with Luka ON THE FLOOR, they're otherwise losing minutes. Luka climbed from almost being last to being 3rd best On/Off on the team.

Whatever he does, IT WORKS and the worst part is, you still don't understand that Mavs are losing games on defense and not offense.
You literally said to me two times that Mavs lost to pacers due to bad ball movement on offense. They lost because Pacers forced them to play their fast pace and Mavs were lazy and inefficient on defense, leaving their shooters open while collpasing 4 guys into the paint for no reason at all, that's why they lost.
Mavs need to let Luka play his own pace and not like those TNT guys who think Luka has to push even more tempo even though they're already 7th best pace team in the league. That's simply not Mavs game and it further proves how detached from reality those TNT guys actually are when it comes to this team.

I understand exactly why their losing games. I never said they lost because of ball movement. I said you could clearly see the Pacers had better ball movement (swinging the ball, multiple guys touching it , forcing us to scramble a lot) and that was a big part of why the Mavs lost. My overall point isnt to say that Dallas defense isnt bad - its to say that people underestimate how Luka's style of play contributes to an offense where on a given possession we may get 2-3 people who touch the ball. When you do that for long periods of time - it doesn't force the defense to work as hard - and its not wise to depend on 1 player to initiate all of your offense. I also maintain when more guys touch the ball (i dont care how) we're a better team and that tires out the other team and it encourages guys to play better defense.

As for the pace argument, I will concede that argument to you. At this point, its better for us to not worry about pace as much (but those lead out passes for wide open points that Luka gets from time to time) does help.

[joesha1698]

Random clips... it is very easy to get open 3 pt shots on the Mavs. Can't really consistently win like this.

Almost all of them are over helping.
The team isn't functioning on either end, they are relaying on tough shot making on offense and collapsing on defense.

They need some dawgs on defense. Its a mentality. These guys are puppy dogs. We need some pitbulls. As someone who has played basketball before- this is how i see these guys:

Josh Green - little confidence and low bball iq. easy work. he constantly looks overwhelmed on the court. not sure whats with these aussie players but they produced a lot of headcases from green, ben simmons, and bogut who could never stop putting his foot in his mouth.

Lively - big and goofy -and light in the a** -- you can easily get him off his feet. nothing intimating about him. He has a ways to go.

PJ Washington -solid athlete but he's not someone who wants to shut you down on defense. can score on him.

THJ - he's a shooter. He isnt trying to play defense like that.

Exum - smart player / decent defender / but doesnt have the athleticism or the body to really play at a very intense level. Exum looks like he is 2 plays from being injured again because of his build type.

Okay, this is frustration post, i apologize in advance, lol.

[joesha1698]

Random clips... it is very easy to get open 3 pt shots on the Mavs. Can't really consistently win like this.

Almost all of them are over helping.
The team isn't functioning on either end, they are relaying on tough shot making on offense and collapsing on defense.

Actually this was good the up until Luka left his feet (for no reason) and this forced his teammates to help and gave Jimmy a better look at the 3. So, in this clip along the defense was great. Guys just need to stay discipline.

[joesha1698]

Random clips... it is very easy to get open 3 pt shots on the Mavs. Can't really consistently win like this.

Almost all of them are over helping.
The team isn't functioning on either end, they are relaying on tough shot making on offense and collapsing on defense.

In all seriousness, after re-watching this - a lot of this comes down to guys just not finishing the play on defense. In one play Exum was just ball watching and allowed Jimmy to pass the ball right by him - there was 3 guys already in the paint - he didn't need to help at all. In another play Maxi had the ball right in front of him (to finish the defensive play) but didnt hustle for the ball or jump on it. At the end of the day, a lot of this bad defense comes down to discipline. I would chew these guys out and take them out of the game when they dont execute on that end. It's simple as that. You have to stay discipline for 24 seconds. A lot of this comes down to just inattention because a lot of the defense was good until guys just made bad decisions at the end.

[Dirk]

Hey archx listen to this:

Watch on YouTube

Charles Barkley , Kenny Smith, (and Shaq to a great degree) basically said the same thing Ive been saying --- about Luka Ball and why ball movement is just so important for the overall health of this team. Just so people in here dont think I'm just being unfair to Luka. I just know in order for this team to meet their potential he has to be willing to give up the ball early and often and allow others guy to make decision and allow the ball to move.

Whatever i say there is no convicing you. I already gave you tone of answers and you don't agree with them, fine but even if i go back and re-post every metrics, advance stat or even give you videos you're going to stick to your own opinion, which again, it's fine, it's your opinion.

And these TNT guys, they don't watch Mavs as much as we do, they don't listen to other Mavs analysts which post on twitter or blogs or anywhere else. Barkley is entertainment and Shaq is basically the worst guy there but he's entertaining with Barkley. What they say about Mavs is simply dumb...

They wanted KP to play post, every single time Mavs game was on, they talked about it but they failed to see that KP in the post simply wasn't working for Mavs because KP was weak at that time and had a poor post game. They don't know Mavs ball as much as we do because we watch and read about Mavs all the time.

You're thinking about basketball in the most general ways possible. Playmakers share the ball, swing it around, pass, pass, pass... open look, take the shoot and score. That's cool, it works for some teams, it's what basketball is all about, but often it doesn't exactly go like that.

This isn't Euroleague, it isn't FIBA, it's the NBA. And most importantly, it's Jason Kidd. I gave you a ton of answers during the game already why it's not as simple with the Mavs as you want it to be.

Even when i saw your post how magically it started clicking when Luka started to deffer and pass the ball around and everyone got involved, that wasn't exactly true. It was a 2 ball game with Exum and Luka and on those 4 straight possessions when Mavs scored, it was Luka doing most of it. 2x FT's and 2x two man game him and Exum and then another 5th possession Luka Pnr pass to Lively to score. And after that you wrote "See what happens when EVERYONE gets involved?" But that was not everyone, it still wasn't passing around like you wanted it to be, it's just Luka creating offense as he does best.

I posted before a ton of metrics that prove Luka is basically the best half court player in the game for the past few years, he's carrying Kidd's non existant offensive schemes, he's carrying Kyrie who doesn't look that good in the past few games aswell. In the last 18 games, Mavs won 14 games with Luka ON THE FLOOR, they're otherwise losing minutes. Luka climbed from almost being last to being 3rd best On/Off on the team.

Whatever he does, IT WORKS and the worst part is, you still don't understand that Mavs are losing games on defense and not offense.
You literally said to me two times that Mavs lost to pacers due to bad ball movement on offense. They lost because Pacers forced them to play their fast pace and Mavs were lazy and inefficient on defense, leaving their shooters open while collpasing 4 guys into the paint for no reason at all, that's why they lost.
Mavs need to let Luka play his own pace and not like those TNT guys who think Luka has to push even more tempo even though they're already 7th best pace team in the league. That's simply not Mavs game and it further proves how detached from reality those TNT guys actually are when it comes to this team.

Luka just has this thing where off the ball... he is just a statue. I don't think we've ever seen him/coaches get him to actually move a bit off the ball. Can't really have ball movement if it's more like taking turns "okay, i dominate the ball and get a guy a good shot or i shoot" and then "okay, i pass the ball and just stand here".

The last few games, it just hasnt looked great because the defense has been so bad that every other play the opposing team runs some actions and immediately gets an open shot. While on the other end... the shots do look more difficult (and with little ball movement).

I guess there are stats on this... but lately it has felt like... Luka shoots, misses, ball bounces to other team... who score. You can also see how his "complaining to refs" has noticeably increased and plays where he doesnt track back --- which is kind of normal since he doesnt have unlimited energy... but even in those clips, you can see him getting lost on d (not just him).

Luka is obviously "not to blame for these losses". And "the offense should not be the problem", he obviously has some bad turnovers and bad shots, but overall, he obviously is reliable and sets up good shots, sets people up and many times other guys just look clueless and end up giving him the ball back"... but... yeah... "off the ball", he has always looked strange. Even something basic like "catch and shooting", you can tell it's just not "natural" to him.

It's very weird... Sixers, Pacers, Miami... like... so simple.. a guy attacks or gets a screen and immediately everyone is out of position and a guy is open.

Kyrie looked more lively from the start yesterday. Hopefully this game - which they clearly desperately needed - can be the start of something... but my expectations are a bit low... if it wasn't for that late Luka run, with Exum hitting 2 great shots... probably a L. But prior to that, they did have a good run to go up 10.

TL;DR

The TNT guys just say stuff. It doesnt really matter. Offense shouldnt be the problem, but it is... when the other team is scoring at will and often out of your misses. We dont have enough guys shooting well and confident, so it feels like everything is a struggle.

I forgot to post earlier, but this is the recent weeks in a nutshell.

Hopefully the basketball gods reward Kidd for his stubbornness and THJr goes on a crazy run soon and suudenly everything will look amazing on offense and everyone will be connected on d.

[Archx]

Spoiler:

Hey archx listen to this:

Watch on YouTube

Charles Barkley , Kenny Smith, (and Shaq to a great degree) basically said the same thing Ive been saying --- about Luka Ball and why ball movement is just so important for the overall health of this team. Just so people in here dont think I'm just being unfair to Luka. I just know in order for this team to meet their potential he has to be willing to give up the ball early and often and allow others guy to make decision and allow the ball to move.

Whatever i say there is no convicing you. I already gave you tone of answers and you don't agree with them, fine but even if i go back and re-post every metrics, advance stat or even give you videos you're going to stick to your own opinion, which again, it's fine, it's your opinion.

And these TNT guys, they don't watch Mavs as much as we do, they don't listen to other Mavs analysts which post on twitter or blogs or anywhere else. Barkley is entertainment and Shaq is basically the worst guy there but he's entertaining with Barkley. What they say about Mavs is simply dumb...

They wanted KP to play post, every single time Mavs game was on, they talked about it but they failed to see that KP in the post simply wasn't working for Mavs because KP was weak at that time and had a poor post game. They don't know Mavs ball as much as we do because we watch and read about Mavs all the time.

You're thinking about basketball in the most general ways possible. Playmakers share the ball, swing it around, pass, pass, pass... open look, take the shoot and score. That's cool, it works for some teams, it's what basketball is all about, but often it doesn't exactly go like that.

This isn't Euroleague, it isn't FIBA, it's the NBA. And most importantly, it's Jason Kidd. I gave you a ton of answers during the game already why it's not as simple with the Mavs as you want it to be.

Even when i saw your post how magically it started clicking when Luka started to deffer and pass the ball around and everyone got involved, that wasn't exactly true. It was a 2 ball game with Exum and Luka and on those 4 straight possessions when Mavs scored, it was Luka doing most of it. 2x FT's and 2x two man game him and Exum and then another 5th possession Luka Pnr pass to Lively to score. And after that you wrote "See what happens when EVERYONE gets involved?" But that was not everyone, it still wasn't passing around like you wanted it to be, it's just Luka creating offense as he does best.

I posted before a ton of metrics that prove Luka is basically the best half court player in the game for the past few years, he's carrying Kidd's non existant offensive schemes, he's carrying Kyrie who doesn't look that good in the past few games aswell. In the last 18 games, Mavs won 14 games with Luka ON THE FLOOR, they're otherwise losing minutes. Luka climbed from almost being last to being 3rd best On/Off on the team.

Whatever he does, IT WORKS and the worst part is, you still don't understand that Mavs are losing games on defense and not offense.
You literally said to me two times that Mavs lost to pacers due to bad ball movement on offense. They lost because Pacers forced them to play their fast pace and Mavs were lazy and inefficient on defense, leaving their shooters open while collpasing 4 guys into the paint for no reason at all, that's why they lost.
Mavs need to let Luka play his own pace and not like those TNT guys who think Luka has to push even more tempo even though they're already 7th best pace team in the league. That's simply not Mavs game and it further proves how detached from reality those TNT guys actually are when it comes to this team.

Luka just has this thing where off the ball... he is just a statue. I don't think we've ever seen him/coaches get him to actually move a bit off the ball. Can't really have ball movement if it's more like taking turns "okay, i dominate the ball and get a guy a good shot or i shoot" and then "okay, i pass the ball and just stand here".

The last few games, it just hasnt looked great because the defense has been so bad that every other play the opposing team runs some actions and immediately gets an open shot. While on the other end... the shots do look more difficult (and with little ball movement).

I guess there are stats on this... but lately it has felt like... Luka shoots, misses, ball bounces to other team... who score. You can also see how his "complaining to refs" has noticeably increased and plays where he doesnt track back --- which is kind of normal since he doesnt have unlimited energy... but even in those clips, you can see him getting lost on d (not just him).

Luka is obviously "not to blame for these losses". And "the offense should not be the problem", he obviously has some bad turnovers and bad shots, but overall, he obviously is reliable and sets up good shots, sets people up and many times other guys just look clueless and end up giving him the ball back"... but... yeah... "off the ball", he has always looked strange. Even something basic like "catch and shooting", you can tell it's just not "natural" to him.

It's very weird... Sixers, Pacers, Miami... like... so simple.. a guy attacks or gets a screen and immediately everyone is out of position and a guy is open.

Kyrie looked more lively from the start yesterday. Hopefully this game - which they clearly desperately needed - can be the start of something... but my expectations are a bit low... if it wasn't for that late Luka run, with Exum hitting 2 great shots... probably a L. But prior to that, they did have a good run to go up 10.

TL;DR

The TNT guys just say stuff. It doesnt really matter. Offense shouldnt be the problem, but it is... when the other team is scoring at will and often out of your misses. We dont have enough guys shooting well and confident, so it feels like everything is a struggle.

I forgot to post earlier, but this is the recent weeks in a nutshell.

Hopefully the basketball gods reward Kidd for his stubbornness and THJr goes on a crazy run soon and suudenly everything will look amazing on offense and everyone will be connected on d.

Yeah in general i agree but Mavs are so over the place right now we can't even make out what is right and what is wrong. It's such a roller coaster ride it's actually incredible.

If Kidd was a good coach, he would figure out some stuff on offense like this.

Read on Twitter

Or specially this..

Read on Twitter

There is no reason for Kidd not to run plays like that, it works with Jokic in Denver, it's such a shame our own coach can't figure out simple stuff.

Then defense on the other hand as you mentioned, yes i say this over and over again, stuff like video down below absolutely kills my joy watching this team and it puzzles me how Kidd constantly allows this to happen. It's the very basic and simple stuff you learn from early age, how pro NBA players fail at this.

Read on Twitter

[Mavrelous]

You guys need to go back and watch clips from 19-21.
"Luka ball" was the PO goto offense and it had variations, THJ earned his contract by killing the Clippers with the exit screen on the right side, during RS Luka played off ball, slid to the corner, cut, when Kidd took over he tried some weird offense that didn't work, after the KP trade they started doing isos only offense since they had 3 guards capable of it, when Brunson bolted, Kidd is relying on Luka hero ball to win.

[Marko_MFFL]

When Luka, Exum and Lively are on the court together, good things happen for the Mavericks.

[joesha1698]

I went back and watched a game from the 22 season. Having 3 ball handlers on the court made a lot of difference. It definitely increases efficiency and decision making. It would have been huge if Spencer D came back. I really believe that. Too bad it seems like he had something against Dallas. Going forward, we really should try to keep 3 ball handlers on the court as much as we can get away with. Ball handlers/play makers/passers just see the game differently and it opens up so much stuff and makes the team harder to guard.


Here is the game I watched:

Watch on YouTube

[Archx]

When Luka, Exum and Lively are on the court together, good things happen for the Mavericks.

Lol no.. it's obviously Kyrie, THJ and Maxi Mavs play pretty special defense with those 3.

[Bob8]

When Luka, Exum and Lively are on the court together, good things happen for the Mavericks.

Lol no.. it's obviously Kyrie, THJ and Maxi Mavs play pretty special defense with those 3.

You shouldn't forget defensive specialist with 119.3 defensive rtg.