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Sucks for Dante, but I think its probably best to ease him back in anyway. I think either the game against Toronto or Philly should be light enough for a return and to get his legs back under him.

Its important to remember Exum isn't coming back from surgery, no knife procedures so he should be back to his self as soon as legs are ready . I do see him as a starter with Luka and Kyrie as the plus/minus skyrockets with him as the POA defender. But we also see Josh Green playing impactfully as well .....does that mean Exum losses minutes. No not at all .I think Tim Hardaway Jr loses minutes . Tim Hardaway IS NOT going to keep getting 30 minutes a night
With Gafford and Washington on board ,the defense of Exum and Green magnifies and the hot/cold streaks of THJ 's shooting magnifies more negatively.
Look for THJ to get minutes more in the 23/24 mpg range .
I've NEVER agreed with Exum needed for the backup guard for the 2nd unit since Luka and Kyrie are staggered to run the 2nd unit. The 4 guards will be Luka ,Kyrie,Exum and Green with THJ moving between guard and SF.

The Mavs have an enforcer in both PJ Washington and Gafford . ....... I watched PJ Washington go up and knock Isaiah Stewart to the ground intentionally after Stewart tryed to intimidate the Charlotte Hornets team. Stewart didnt retaliate against PJ. Message was sent by PJ.
Gafford we can see he's a man out there .Both athletic and strong.
I think Gafford starts over Lively with both basically sharing the Center position. They both make drivers think twice coming down the NBA lane. Maxi will back up PJ as I think the smallball lineups with Maxi phases out being replaced with Lively's minutes considered 4 smaller guys and Lively .

Irving still on

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Mavs got better but Kidd is still struggling to find the right group of guys. I suspect there will be a lot of different lineup changes to the playoffs. But he's always clueless so i am a bit concerned.

I said it the very 1st game after the trades ....Kleber is the new Powell for JKIdd .he has no pts ,rebs or assists. We need to keep Gafford out there

PHX is getting some soft(Lakers) calls...meanwhile, Kyrie is getting almost no calls,I don't mean Just this game(in general)

The dumbest player in the league (THJ) played the most minutes in the 1st half of any Mavs player. GJ Kidd, you're the man!

Archx wrote:The dumbest player in the league (THJ) played the most minutes in the 1st half of any Mavs player. GJ Kidd, you're the man!

That 3 after the rebound was hilarious. WTF are you doing Timmy

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The one I don't understand is THJ playing the most minutes (or tied with Luka). He's 0-4 from 3. Just in the last minute, he took a terrible contested 3, fouled away the paint and gifted 2 points. How he's somehow played then our other 3 starters (Kyrie included) is head scratching.

At halftime ,I think Luka and Kyrie are being great scorers and hohum distributers in getting Gafford in particular involved in the offense and making Nurkic look like a top tier defensive anchor in the middle . This is 2 guys taking on 4 guys in scoring and in those 4 guys is Durant and Booker

Hell of a start. Love seeing PJ hit that 3 again!

Good times when those 3s are dropping! Eww weee!

And they're 3 happy

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Big lineup worked great for Mavs they went up big, obviously Kidd didn't like it and went small to bring Suns right back.

Archx wrote:Big lineup worked great for Mavs they went up big, obviously Kidd didn't like it and went small to bring Suns right back.

This + re-inserting THJ lost us the lead. The Suns literally went on a run the second he checked in.

What a block by Gafford vs Booker.

Gafford is amazing. Absolutely no reason to play Maxi at the center and force small ball lineups if you can rotate Lively+Gaff entire game.

Two no calls on Luka in a row ...considering the calls Booker gets ,and other players, it's suspect...Luka with another T ...this is where a coach should have get pissed and gotten the T instead of the player,kind of what Rick did...I don't get how Kidd is so liked by players when he's constantly theowing them under the bus and takes no responsibily for coaching whatsoever

Gafford is amazing. Absolutely no reason to play Maxi at the center and force small ball lineups if you can rotate Lively+Gaff entire game.

This is my big take ....what happened to Gafford and Lively splitting the Center minutes ......Maxi does not belong out there as a small ball Center

There it is again ..... NO Lively or Gafford and Dallas looses control of the backboards