07-11-2026, 06:42 PM
(07-11-2026, 04:12 PM)Smitty Wrote: I don’t disagree. I just know it was one of the more frustrating things with Kidd and the regular season. One, not starting your best 5-man lineup and even if he did, he was lowest in the league in having them play together. It was only ever the first ~5 minutes in the first and 3rd quarter. Never went back to it. Where the good teams were all near the ~20 minutes mark. It makes a difference in the W/L column…
In the Luka trade season Kidd started
Kyrie
Klay
Luka
PJ
Gafford
for a dozen games or so. The +/- numbers were horrendous. The second Lively was subbed in they were suddenly an elite 5 man lineup. That happened literally every single game.
I will die on this hill: had Kidd not started Gafford for so fricking long the whole Luka trade might never actually happen bc the record would have been MUCH better early on & therefore also the vibes around the organization.
![[-]](https://www.mavsboard.com/images/collapse.png)