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[StrandedOnBeauboisHill]

Not a narrative. Just a look at the lineup numbers. For whatever reason (I would assume playing too many mediocre and undersized perimeter defenders at the same time) Kyrie's minutes are hurting the Mavs on defense. Same for THJ.
Kyrie as the smallest guy on the floor is getting the easiest matchup (basically took Luka's spot) but that creates bad machups for his teammates. Against the Hornets for example he was defending Miller. Meaning that THJ/Green had to defend Ball. Luka on Hayward. Next game against the Nuggets he was defending KCP.


It's not really about Kyrie as a bad individual defender. It's about the amount of mediocre/undersized defenders you can get away with. Right now the Mavs are a pipe dream matchup for teams that want to switch hunt. So many weaknesses to exploit on the defensive end.

Leading to the big picture questions. What is the ceiling of a Luka/Kyrie duo? Can the Mavs put enough defense around them to make it work?

I don't disagree with any of this and understand that the Kyrie lineups show a negative defensive impact but the thing I would say is that it's been a super small sample size.  I would also be curious to see those on/off metrics broken into 1st and 2nd half numbers because right now what I've seen is Kyrie leading comebacks in the 3rd quarter which requires stops being made and him being a huge part of our 4th quarter minutes where we have a net rating of +27.  I also know that counting stats on defense aren't the best things to look at but 8 steals and 3 blocks over the last 3 games is nothing to scoff at, especially when we're winning so many close games.

Something that I found really interesting that Brian Windhorst brought up time and time again on the Hoop Collective last year was that while the Nuggets didn't seem like a great defensive team, their clutch time defense told a much different story and we're starting to see a similar formula play out here (not saying we're on that level obviously, just found it interesting commentary on how defense can be leveled up when needed by good teams).