MAVS NEWS:

[DanSchwartzgan]

I thought Game 3 was Kidd's best job yet. The rotations were exactly what I thought they should be. Great lineup combinations and matchups.

You can kind of see what he’s trying to do if you look at the game flows on popcorn machine.  Forget the first few minutes of each half where the starters are in.  That’s just window dressing.  Once the substitutions start, he is pairing Lively with Flagg and AD with PJ.  The first two games, he left AD/PJ in longer (or would have if not for PJ foul trouble) and let Flagg/Lively get a quick blow and come back a few minutes later.  In this game, he took AD/PJ out first and let Lively/Flagg get a few minutes with the subs before taking them out and bringing AD/PJ back in.  

It isn’t a perfect platoon as he eventually wants to end halves with PJ/AD and Flagg (Lively appears to be the odd man out to end halves so far). Part of what worked well last night was the Lively/Flagg with the subs time when AD/PJ sat.  I like leaving Flagg/Lively in longer because Flagg defers less (and the team runs more) when AD sits.  There was a nice run in the first quarter and especially in the third with this set up.

Klay is a starter in name only.  Kidd does this with someone every year.  Christie is clearly the closer and Klay’s minutes are used to set up where he wants Christie.

Marshall and DLo are the 7th/8th men and Kidd is using the 9th spot in the rotation to give people some spot minutes.  He’s done this in the past also.  It is really an 8 man rotation right now, but he can get two more guys some run in the 9th spot.  So far, it has been slightly different guys each time.

I’m not sure what happens to Klay/Christie when Kyrie returns.  And, the ability to play AD significant minutes at the five dries up when Gafford is healthy.  Of course, there is no telling who else might be hurt by the time those things happen.