2021-2022 MAVS NEWS: 4th in West | WCF loss [ARCHIVED]

[mvossman]

Kinda did a 180. As of now I cannot tell if this years team is better than last years but the approach changed. And it shows the difference in Kidd´s and RC´s mentality. At times the Mavs offense is unwatchable. They are going through stretches where they cannot score at all. Kidd is letting them play through it and focuses on defense. As long as they are getting stops they aren´t allowing big runs even if they cannot score. Similar things happen when the Mavs go on a run. It´s not the explosive RC era offense that put up 20 in 3-4 minutes. I think Kidd called it defensive runs. Mavs are making runs even though they are shooting less than 40% from the field. They are forcing stops.

The naive solution to get the best of both worlds would feature a more RC like offense with the new defense but that´s obviously not possible. So far better defense comes at a price. Spending more energy on defense might impact the legs on offense. @"Kammrath" mentioned that as a potential reason for the even slower pace.
Most interesting topic are the lineup decisions. I think the Mavs still lack players with two-way impact. That leads to some tough decisions. Easiest example would be THJ or Bullock. One offers more on offense. The other on defense.

So far they sacrified offense and improved the defense. The latter is probably more sustainable and it is nice to be less depended on streaky shooting performances but in the end I don´t see how a team that struggles to put up 100pts against bad defenses wins a playoff series.
There is still time to improve the offense and I would imagine that Luka getting back into shape should be enough to reach borderline top 10 status. Definitely think that "Luka + secondary creator + defensive minded role players" (a little bit like Dirk in the Johnson and early RC years) is a better option than Luka leading one of the best offenses in the league but losing playoff series because they cannot get a stop.
Offense wasn´t the problem in both series against the Clippers. 113 O-rating from the 2020 series would rank 4th in the league this season. 116.5 O-rating from the 2021 series would rank 2nd in the league this season.

So based on this, some individual player questions emerge:

Brunson: Does he fit as that secondary creator?  Does his lack of defense and willingness/ability to catch and shoot 3s limit his effectiveness in this area?

KP: Assuming they can iron out his offensive mesh with Luka, is he good enough defensively?  Especially if its with both Luka and Brunson?  How much are we going to play him with a second center in the future, and how does that impact the defense?

THJ: What role does he play in this defensive mindset?  He can only really be a 6th man, and you really don't want him out there finishing games with both Luka and Brunson.  Was that worth 19 mil?  Was there a better option in free agency?

I think someone mentioned this earlier, but it seems really tough to continue with the defensive mentality with KP/Luka/THJ/Brunson as part of your primary core.  The ideal scenario would be to trade some combination of those players for a true 2 way secondary creator, get an MLE rim running/protecting big, and run with the rest of the guys who fit (DFS/Maxi/Bullock/Frank/Green/Brown).