2024 NBA Playoffs: Western Conference Finals: #3 Minnesota Timberwolves vs #5 Dallas Mavericks (DAL leads 3-0)

[Profound23]

I used to see quite a few Dallas fans complaining about Coach Kidd. The criticism started to dry up after the Mavs obtained Gafford and Washington at the trade deadline and started winning more. And with Dallas now up 3-0 in the WCF, I haven't heard a peep for awhile. Are Dallas fans pretty much on board with Coach Kidd now? I think he is doing a good job.

Kidd has grown a lot as a coach. He has had so many end of game mental breakdowns as coach.

I think the best thing is he once played with Nash so he has a good idea how to use two players like Luka and Kyrie correctly when most would fail with two players like that.

[flranger]

Bron looking at the Mavs like a drunk sailor just getting off the boat checking out the working girls

[cupcakesnake]

It's pretty disappointing to me that the Wolves were playing like this historic playoff defense, and now are giving up lob dunks in crunch time, on the way to Dallas putting up a 121 Ortg in this series. It's not how I wanted to go out.

The 3-point shooting luck for sure sucks. Dallas prioritizes protecting the paint and we're shooting 35% from 3 and Towns (our biggest shooting threat) is at 13%. We'd be in this series with a few more made 3s.

This honestly should have been the series for Towns. Chuck 12 3s a game and force Dallas to break their rim protection scheme. Instead he's missing shots and driving into the teeth of the defense to embarass himself. He's basically out there on offense confirming all the hate he's gotten.

It's our defense that bums me out though. We were able to solve the unsolvable Denver offense multiple times in a series, but the Mavs are out there in complete control, moving us around, getting our paint protectors into one-on-one matchups, and then dunking on us with Lively/Gafford. Our offense is technically fine overall. We could win games with a 117 Ortg if we were holding them down a bit more. But we're not. We're getting trapped in their game of: do you want to give up a lob dunk or a wide open corner 3? So humiliating.

[Mavrelous]

Draymond wants Rudy to fail so much he's coaching Gafford

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[Forbes]

I used to see quite a few Dallas fans complaining about Coach Kidd. The criticism started to dry up after the Mavs obtained Gafford and Washington at the trade deadline and started winning at a higher percentage. And with Dallas now up 3-0 in the WCF, I haven't heard a peep for awhile. Are Dallas fans pretty much on board with Coach Kidd now? I think he is doing a good job.

Playoff coach Kidd and regular season coach Kidd are very different displays of coaching.

He does have some things I don’t like especially when the other team starts a run and he lets the players figure it out before finally calling a timeout after we get torched. There is no benefit to letting guys stop a run by trying to score or trying to get a defensive stop when you can just call a timeout to slow the other teams momentum. I do believe he felt it a couple times in the OKC series and has started calling the timeout earlier.

I think right now he is very in tune with the team and knows how to get the best out our currently players. Which bodes well for next season with hopefully an improved bench.

[Archx]

Yeah. 50 years from now people will study this phenomena of Kidd's coaching differences between regular season and playoffs. It's like he doesn't even care but suddenly turns into Phil Jackson when playoffs start. Would be better if Mavs just hire some other regular season coach and put Kidd in hybernation nap and wake him up when it's time.

[Dundalis]

I used to see quite a few Dallas fans complaining about Coach Kidd. The criticism started to dry up after the Mavs obtained Gafford and Washington at the trade deadline and started winning more. And with Dallas now up 3-0 in the WCF, I haven't heard a peep for awhile. Are Dallas fans pretty much on board with Coach Kidd now? I think he is doing a good job in this series.

His first season proved he's a defensive coach, that 2022 Mavs team had no business being as good defensively as it was and making the WCF. You give him quality defensive pieces, he can get them playing to their max potential defensively. But I still don't think he's a very good offensive coach, and if he doesn't have the right defensive pieces like last season, he's not gonna do anything for you. He's kind of the opposite of what Carlisle was when he was here.

[Exp0sed]

I used to see quite a few Dallas fans complaining about Coach Kidd. The criticism started to dry up after the Mavs obtained Gafford and Washington at the trade deadline and started winning more. And with Dallas now up 3-0 in the WCF, I haven't heard a peep for awhile. Are Dallas fans pretty much on board with Coach Kidd now? I think he is doing a good job in this series.

His first season proved he's a defensive coach, that 2022 Mavs team had no business being as good defensively as it was and making the WCF. You give him quality defensive pieces, he can get them playing to their max potential defensively. But I still don't think he's a very good offensive coach, and if he doesn't have the right defensive pieces like last season, he's not gonna do anything for you. He's kind of the opposite of what Carlisle was when he was here.

idk, there isn't a single coach who can get it done in the playoffs without having the "right defensive pieces"

I think some of the early criticisms on Kidd were warranted, he used to make unfathomable personell and lineup decisions and seemed clueless in alot of regards. he has clearly learned a thing or two by now and he's also actually playing his best players (not playing THJ is a big one and it just happened now). also seems to have a great rapport with Luka and the rest which is at least 50% of what current NBA HC are tasked with. maybe he really doesn't care in the rs, who knows. Mavs fans are def not complaining anymore and as a neutral fan, like I said he used to do and say mind-boggling bs but now when u watch a Mavs game, you can see that he's making good adjustments and understands what he's doing. maybe he's just gotten better and maybe it's als having someone like Luka makes a coach's life alot easier? I mean, Jokic made Malone look am elite NBA coach - Coaching is much simpler when u have a team oriented, high I.Q superstar to work with.

he was a pretty rookie coach a few years back, it's not outside the realm of possibility that he's gotten better as well

[lambchop]

Yeah. 50 years from now people will study this phenomena of Kidd's coaching differences between regular season and playoffs. It's like he doesn't even care but suddenly turns into Phil Jackson when playoffs start. Would be better if Mavs just hire some other regular season coach and put Kidd in hybernation nap and wake him up when it's time.

The playoffs are simpler than the regular season though. Yes, the chess matches are complex in the playoffs, however, coaches can also limit the amount of players they play, they don't have to worry about fatigue in terms of playing back to backs and how fatigue can accumulate over time. Kidd was essentially able to remove Hardaway and Exum from the playoff rotation over time. He doesn't even have Maxi, but it's not a big deal cause they don't need that many guys out there anyway.

Their offense looks pretty simple too. It's on the defensive end where he has implemented some nice tactics. It looks a bit like what the Mavs were doing against LBJ in 2011. This particular matchup against this particular is even more difficult, because Kidd has a ton of experience dealing with slashing SGs/perimeter dudes, like Kobe, MJ, LBJ, Tmac etc. that whole generation. So he can draw from that when instructing his team. In addition, Tyson Chandler is also around the team providing his input.

We'll see how they look against Boston, given that the Celtics are a somewhat more modern basketball team compared to the Wolves.

[MrGoat]

Mavs going to sweep. Like they did against the Lakers before beating the Heat.

Always the underdogs

Now you just need the Cowboys to get their act together!

F the Cowboys. The Arlington Renegades won the XFL title last year

[Archx]

Yeah. 50 years from now people will study this phenomena of Kidd's coaching differences between regular season and playoffs. It's like he doesn't even care but suddenly turns into Phil Jackson when playoffs start. Would be better if Mavs just hire some other regular season coach and put Kidd in hybernation nap and wake him up when it's time.

The playoffs are simpler than the regular season though. Yes, the chess matches are complex in the playoffs, however, coaches can also limit the amount of players they play, they don't have to worry about fatigue in terms of playing back to backs and how fatigue can accumulate over time. Kidd was essentially able to remove Hardaway and Exum from the playoff rotation over time. He doesn't even have Maxi, but it's not a big deal cause they don't need that many guys out there anyway.

Their offense looks pretty simple too. It's on the defensive end where he has implemented some nice tactics. It looks a bit like what the Mavs were doing against LBJ in 2011. This particular matchup against this particular is even more difficult, because Kidd has a ton of experience dealing with slashing SGs/perimeter dudes, like Kobe, MJ, LBJ, Tmac etc. that whole generation. So he can draw from that when instructing his team. In addition, Tyson Chandler is also around the team providing his input.

We'll see how they look against Boston, given that the Celtics are a somewhat more modern basketball team compared to the Wolves.

There are slight variations on offense specially because the player rotations are different. But yeah, for the most part, it's Luka and Kyrie reading the defenses. Well Kyrie is mostly 1v1 while Luka is doing the rest.

[Castle Black]

I blame Denver for this mess. Never should’ve choked that 20-point lead in Game 7 smh. A Mavs - Nuggs series prob goes 6 games minimum.

[MrGoat]

I used to see quite a few Dallas fans complaining about Coach Kidd. The criticism started to dry up after the Mavs obtained Gafford and Washington at the trade deadline and started winning more. And now with Dallas up 3-0 in the WCF, I haven't heard a peep for awhile. Are Dallas fans pretty much on board with Coach Kidd? I think he is doing a good job coaching this series.

You know what, just for fun, I'm going to give you a controversial take that may even piss off some other Mavs fans to hopefully spark some conversation. Here goes:

Maxi Kleber's injury was a blessing in disguise.

The last time I really blasted Kidd's coaching was in game 4 against the Clippers where Kidd left Gafford and Lively on the bench in favor of Kleber at the 5 for the entire 4th quarter and Harden murdered them in the paint en route to tying the series back up 2-2.

I argued with a lot of other Mavs fans that kept defending the decision (probably the same ones I'd been arguing with for years that we needed to upgrade from Dwight Powell) because I thought that was an indefensible coaching decision.

Without Kleber Kidd has been forced to rely more on Lively and it has become evident what a defensive force he already is. If Kleber was available during some of that OKC series Kidd might have trashed the series by putting him in at the wrong times. The Mavs picked up on offense yesterday to make up for his loss but make no mistake, they need the big rookie back

(Kleber may be more useful against Boston, but like KP he has a tendency to be rusty as hell after coming off an injury)

[Yuri36]

I blame Denver for this mess. Never should’ve choked that 20-point lead in Game 7 smh. A Mavs - Nuggs series prob goes 6 games minimum.

Not even sure about that, Mavs on paper are an even worse matchup for Denver than Minny in reality.

[Black Jack]

Has anyone found out yet why Luka and kyrie are being allowed to cook defenders in single coverage? It's just amazing how bad Minny's defensive schemes are.

Another question, Dray, Luka seem to really hate Rudy. Why is that?

[Archx]

Has anyone found out yet why Luka and kyrie are being allowed to cook defenders in single coverage? It's just amazing how bad Minny's defensive schemes are.

Another question, Dray, Luka seem to really hate Rudy. Why is that?

Because Luka is too good at finding open shooters. He's been doing it for years. But my best guess is, Wolves didn't want to do what OKC did, let "others" beat you. They felt confident with McDaniels and Gobert guarding the perimeter and the paint.

[GeorgeSears]

The thing about KAT's shooting is that as bad as it is (4-32) it's knocked his overall 3P% down to 35%, still higher than Luka's. Which goes to show you just how hot he was in the first two rounds (more specifically, 7 games). What makes the problem worse is that he's also lost in space defensively. Effectively, giving the TWolves nothing on both ends.

[Cactus Jack]

Mavs going to sweep. Like they did against the Lakers before beating the Heat.

Always the underdogs

Now you just need the Cowboys to get their act together!

F the Cowboys. The Arlington Renegades won the XFL title last year

Did not know that. Looks like Jerry has some competition then.

[___Rand___]

I used to see quite a few Dallas fans complaining about Coach Kidd. The criticism started to dry up after the Mavs obtained Gafford and Washington at the trade deadline and started winning at a higher percentage. And with Dallas now up 3-0 in the WCF, I haven't heard a peep for awhile. Are Dallas fans pretty much on board with Coach Kidd now? I think he is doing a good job.

Playoff coach Kidd and regular season coach Kidd are very different displays of coaching.

He does have some things I don’t like especially when the other team starts a run and he lets the players figure it out before finally calling a timeout after we get torched. There is no benefit to letting guys stop a run by trying to score or trying to get a defensive stop when you can just call a timeout to slow the other teams momentum. I do believe he felt it a couple times in the OKC series and has started calling the timeout earlier.

I think right now he is very in tune with the team and knows how to get the best out our currently players. Which bodes well for next season with hopefully an improved bench.

It's not just the time out calling he's improved on. His adjustments in game have been excellent. His adjustments from game to game are really good too. This is something we haven't seen from Kidd before. On top of that, he has clearly motivated Kyrie who is playing hard on both ends. And we haven't heard a single controversial thing from Kyrie all year. Kyrie has been quoted as saying "(coach) gets me". Oh did I mention Luka is playing defense? Kidd has done WONDERS this year.

[Mr B]

If I was a betting man I'd put money on Wolves winning Game 4. One loss for Mavs doesn't go against the script and in fact, helps DAL as they'll be able to host another playoff game which is good for millions of dollars. Too tempting to pass up. Plus they have the loss of Lively for political cover.

scratch that, I got my series mixed up. I'd put money on the Pacers to force a game 5 in Boston because of Porzingis being out and BOS getting to host a home playoff game which is worth millions of dollars and a small market team in the luxury tax needs that. I think DAL sweeps the Wolves but I wouldn't bet on it since Lively is out and Game 5 would be in MN.

Don't think theres any confirmation on Lively, but def gives Wolves an opportunity to steal one. Thing is I think Dallas role players are much better at home, and I think if they can play Gafford big minutes and limit Powell's time, Gaff is not as good as Lively, but still good enough at Lively's main strengths to where it prob won't make too much difference.

Dallas sweep and then the break to give Luka rest, as well as time for both Lively and Kleber to get healthy should make a damn good finals series. Kleber could be a huge addition for the Mavs in that series, especially with Celtics potentially getting KP back.

Results came back good on his neck but they haven’t said if he’ll play Tuesday or not. My guess is he will play.

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