MAVS NEWS: Luka Is Hurt, But is Trudging On | DLive's Mom Passes Away| Maxi OUT

[Mavs2021]

Yeah, it is concerning.  I brought up before the Milwaukee game why our defense was trending backwards.    Quality of opponents the last two games doesn't help.

The Mavs have a tough riddle with no easy answers.  I think how Hardaway is playing Kidd is probably making the right choice to ride him and hope for the best on defense.   The issue with Hardaway in the game, we get really small, really fast.    With Josh, Hardy, Seth all being pretty small.   So we have seen lineups with Hardaway at the 4.   We have also seen Hardaway at the 4 with either Maxi and Powell as the center.  That is an open invitation to go to the rim every possession.    We just lack that big 4 right now that could help those lineups not bleed points on defense.   Hardaway, Green, Seth and Jaden are all probably shooting guards.   Maybe you disagree on Green but he seems small guarding wings.   A lot of mouths to feed at that spot.  Hardaway with his hot start has really eaten up a lot of those minutes.  To get minutes for others it is causing us to be really small.

Excellent point that sees an under-lying problem that people still ignore, likely cause it´s the regular season and we have a badass offensive rating, but we have too many one-dimensional players, specifically dribbling and one-on-one play-making ability. Powell, Lively II, Kleber, THJ, Hardy, Curry, Green (due to reluctance), Williams struggle to put the ball on the floor and finish/create for themselves and others. Our best players at it behind Luka/Kyrie are probably Exum and DJJ. Elite teams will shut this down quickly for stretches, when they need it. Obviously overall it´s impossible to control a Luka/Kyrie duo completely.

What we see now is that the summer was a very good start, but you simply cannot fix what has been messed up for 12 years in 12 months. For a real contender you probably need two new starters at SF/PF and a new back-up PG and C. 

Maybe you can fix some of that depth/size issue with Bonga/Bitadze instead of Curry/Morris next summer. But that doesn´t solve the problem that you basically need a Anunoby/Collins-eseque upgrade at SF/PF. Too many missed boats over the last 12 years, when players like Markkanen, Collins, Randle, Hachimura became available fairly cheap.