I think others very correctly pointed out Mavs problem with adjustments. Teams stopped doubling Luka (and Kyrie) daring him to score more while limiting the other guys. They are just switching the PnR, taking away most of PnR lobs to centers. Mavs made zero adjustments. Luka is scoring and doing it with reasonable if not good efficiency. But Mavs offense has become totally static, with the other guys just watching Luka and Kyrie ISO. They try to play fast, but you can't have fastbreaks if you don't stop anything on defense.
That is also why defense is a much bigger problem. Offense would look much better if Mavs would be able to make stops and score more in transition. Kidd said after Philly game they had a great film session. Based on the result against Indy, I wonder which movie were they watching, because it doesn't seem like it was the Philly game. Dune 2 perhaps? Defense against Indy was a step or two worse than against Philly. Although Philly did miss a bunch of open shots, so this perhaps made me think defense was better in that game. Mavs continue to make same mistakes and even after bringing in a couple of new guys, things didn't improve.
I don't think Mavs are really contender level good, but they should be much better than they were in this awful stretch of last 6 games. After all the moves they made, there are three possible conclusions (or of course a mixture of them):
- team is not constructed correctly and front office it to be blamed. I find this one less likely. Mavs surely lack an all defensive type, but the other guys don't look so bad on defense as the result in last games suggests. Team is probably not perfect, but shouldn't be this bad.
- everyone hates Luka or his style of play and the current result is the team reacting against him. Two issues with this theory - most of the guys are not here long enough. Luka would have to be an absolutely horrible person for new guys to turn on him so quickly. If that would be the case, I would think that stuff would come out in last 6 years, but I don't think we have anything really to support this theory. Still, if Luka is the problem for this subpar play, than Mavs need to seriously consider moving on. On the other hand, there are plenty of reports that guys enjoy Luka of the court.
- coaching. Mavs changed a bunch of players to create a team for Kidd that should look good with Luka, yet it seems on court result is getting worse instead of better. Mavs had that first season spike, but it could easily be credited partially on team created by RC and short term shock impact of coaching change. Whatever the reason, guys just don't seem to be responding to what Kidd thinks they should look like. Either the schemes are bad, either the players don't understand them, either they don't like Kidd. Whatever it is, it doesn't really matter. Mavs can choose to build around Kidd again and again changing the team to find a collection of guys that would make his schemes work. Or, they can try something else.
That is also why defense is a much bigger problem. Offense would look much better if Mavs would be able to make stops and score more in transition. Kidd said after Philly game they had a great film session. Based on the result against Indy, I wonder which movie were they watching, because it doesn't seem like it was the Philly game. Dune 2 perhaps? Defense against Indy was a step or two worse than against Philly. Although Philly did miss a bunch of open shots, so this perhaps made me think defense was better in that game. Mavs continue to make same mistakes and even after bringing in a couple of new guys, things didn't improve.
I don't think Mavs are really contender level good, but they should be much better than they were in this awful stretch of last 6 games. After all the moves they made, there are three possible conclusions (or of course a mixture of them):
- team is not constructed correctly and front office it to be blamed. I find this one less likely. Mavs surely lack an all defensive type, but the other guys don't look so bad on defense as the result in last games suggests. Team is probably not perfect, but shouldn't be this bad.
- everyone hates Luka or his style of play and the current result is the team reacting against him. Two issues with this theory - most of the guys are not here long enough. Luka would have to be an absolutely horrible person for new guys to turn on him so quickly. If that would be the case, I would think that stuff would come out in last 6 years, but I don't think we have anything really to support this theory. Still, if Luka is the problem for this subpar play, than Mavs need to seriously consider moving on. On the other hand, there are plenty of reports that guys enjoy Luka of the court.
- coaching. Mavs changed a bunch of players to create a team for Kidd that should look good with Luka, yet it seems on court result is getting worse instead of better. Mavs had that first season spike, but it could easily be credited partially on team created by RC and short term shock impact of coaching change. Whatever the reason, guys just don't seem to be responding to what Kidd thinks they should look like. Either the schemes are bad, either the players don't understand them, either they don't like Kidd. Whatever it is, it doesn't really matter. Mavs can choose to build around Kidd again and again changing the team to find a collection of guys that would make his schemes work. Or, they can try something else.