MAVS 96, CAVALIERS 114

[ItsGoTime]

I am still keeping an open mind about Kidd, since it's still only 19 games, in, but if he were to receive a grade today, I would have to say that he appears to be a significant downgrade from Carlisle. 

Carlisle apparently had turned into a crotchety old curmudgeon, and maybe it was high time for a change of personalities, but I question whether this is the right fit. 

It appears to me that Kidd wants to coach a team that relies on defense as its engine. Which is okay in a vacuum, but this roster was not built with that type of scheme in mind -- quite the opposite, in fact. 

He also prefers a more mid-range heavy offense to Carlisle's analytics-based spacing schemes, and this roster was built for something else entirely. Ironically, what the new "system" seems to have resulted in is a lot of seriously janky spacing, but still a heavy reliance on high-variance three-point shooting. 

As to which, I am starting to think the poor three-point shooting is not just a statistical outlier. It's hard to explain why they are missing so many good looks. I think it is worth considering whether, now that they are being asked to devote so much energy to actions they don't do well, they don't have much left for things that they should be good at.  

In an odd way, there might be a silver (or at least light gray) lining to this. Carlisle had a knack for putting limited players in a position to succeed, which may have papered over enough cracks to allow the front office (Cuban) to delay accepting the real limitations of this roster. Kidd doesn't seem to have that same ability (yet, anyway), and maybe the poor results will force attention to be paid. 

Kidd is still trying stuff, so it's not fair to pass a final judgment on him yet. So, we'll wait. But, with respect to the roster being one that has a lot of exploding upside if only a coach could find the magic key, we've been waiting a l-o-n-g time to see evidence of that. Now that the book has been written on how to attack them, I suspect this particular group may have already peaked. Naturally, would love to be wrong.

So much great insight in this post. Very much what I've been thinking so far! PotD!