Outside wrote:
I haven't seen them play yet. What are your thoughts on
-- Luka's conditioning
-- Luka's defense
-- Kidd's coaching
Those were factors I expected to be indicators for their success this season. There are obviously a lot of other variables -- Kyrie being a wild card on and off the floor, roster changes, whether they can rebound and play defense, etc. -- but I saw the three factors I listed as bellwethers for their success.
With a talent like Luka, I've gotta believe they'll do better than last season. The question is how much better.
Luka is in better shape, but also Kidd isn't letting him play the entire 1st and 3rd quarters which I always felt was overextending him and making recovery harder. Still not where he could be though.
Luka is making more effort defensively and there are some good things: He has great hands, anticipates well, clears the defensive glass great for a guard, is big enough to hide him on favorable matchups and he's mostly trying so far. But he's still slow of foot and late getting back and not always engaged enough off-ball. Still needs significant improvement
Kidd's coaching:
My main criticism is really odd rotations choices like starting Lively and Derrick Jones together. Then going from a really big lineup to really small ones. But he's been getting great offensive results so.....
The main thing I like is Dallas is playing a lot faster. They have been the slowest team in the league with Luka, but they are definitely trying to get some early offense instead of having to beat set defenses over and over again. And it plays well with some of the athletes in the rotation.
Rebounding still appears to be an issue. As is defense. They also still need one more quality starter. Luka, Kyrie, Williams is 3 you can really like. You can get by with a THJ or a Kleber or a Green as a 5th guy. But one more guy you know is closing games every night would really help.
