GAME 6: ORL (1-6) @ DAL (3-3) | 114-105 win

[Kammrath]

Defensive on/off
Luka on court 112.8 off court 112.7
DFS  on court 118.5 off court 101
Bullock on court 116.8 off court 105
SD on court 118.1 off court 104
THJ on court 111.3 off court 113.9
Green on court 95.7 off court 120.6

Still a super small sample size but DFS having the worst defensive on/off numbers on the roster is something I wouldn´t have expected at any point of the season. He is playing most of his minutes in single big lineups. Something to watch in the coming games. Maybe asking him to guard the best opposing wing and also do a lot of heavy lifting in the paint is too much.

These numbers tell me this:

1) JG is the best perimeter defender on the Mavs so far.

2) JG off-court is the most telling: 120.6. All of SD, RB, and DFS are less than that on-court, so they are playing poorly for sure, but it is that the collective TEAM D is not working unless JG is on the court. His energy and rotations, etc., are making the team scheme work. The team scheme is failing without JG so far.

3) Luka is a problem defensively, but SD is always on the court when Luka isn't so all you are seeing there is that Luka and SD are equally the problem. Hence when you look at SD+Luka you should see a big part of the problem. I just looked and they are 118.5 DRtg together (same as SD+DFS together).

4) In 6 games there is too much noise to make judgments about SD, DFS, Luka, and RB. But so far none of them are standing out in a positive way. But my personal eye test tells me that Luka and SD are the real problems and that DFS and RB just are not good enough at this point to cover up the mess and are playing average (at best!) themselves. 

And one final point: Wood is NOT the problem on D. The numbers AND my eyes tell me this. Of course he isn't perfect, but the team continues to play solid to good D when he is playing overall.