10-27-2021, 06:43 PM
A very interesting podcast this week. Mark and Brian pull the curtain back on what the team is trying to do this season, and how that relates to the play we have seen so far.
KP in Upcoming Games. They don’t know whether KP will be available for Thursday’s game. However, Mavs have three games in four days coming up, and KP would probably not play all of them, even if he were totally healthy. (That’s the podcasters’ assessment, not based on anything Kidd told them.) They might use Boban against Denver, as he has had success against Jokic and played well against Houston.
Players’ Council
Although this podcast’s listeners have been aware of the council for a while now, it apparently caught a lot of media and fans by surprise, and quite a few have had negative reactions. The council is part of an effort by Kidd to change the way people view him. He is aware that his head coaching reputation is not great, and that he was perceived as abrasive, at best. This is part of an effort to shed that image, and to transition to a more modern style of coaching. It does not at all mean that the players are coaching the team, as many fear.
Coaching Philosophy in the Modern Era
Mark spoke today with Jill Ellis, former coach of the storied US Women’s National Soccer Team, about player-coach dynamics today. She said she has learned that old-guard coaches who expect to exercise total control are a rapidly dying breed. if you’re going to coach the athlete of today, you will find that the players expect to have a voice. She had a couple of systems, one very aggressive offensively, the other mostly defensive. She would ask the players before the matches how they wanted to start out, and she learned a lot from listening to them.
Ellis thinks that the two most important things in coaching today are to establish clear roles and to make sure that everyone feels valued. MF says this is the technique that JK is trying to establish. Brian added that Cuban has admitted to finally realizing over the summer that with coaches, relationships are more important than X’s and O’s. These “honeymoon phase” methods like the Players’ Council are building a foundation for communications later on when times inevitably get tough.
Fifteen-man lineup
This also drew a lot of criticism, but ironically, this is what a lot of the fans who are complaining wanted from Rick in years past. They would talk frequently about wanting him to play young players regularly, even if only a little bit. Ironically, those are some of the same people who were up in arms about the Houston game.
Don’t expect this to happen again in a competive game. Mark has tried to tell people for years that coaches don’t give players regular three-minute spots in the rotation — that’s just not a thing. The maximum sustainable rotation is about 9-10 players, maybe 11 max, and that’s what we should anticipate.
Bench in Houston Game
Jalen played very well. Was on the court 28 minutes, which is probably going to be approximately normal for him this season. Eleven assists was impressive, since one of his previous limitations has been that he was mostly a scorer rather than a distributor. Boban was great on both ends. S Brown, not so much. Maxi and Reggie very good. Green four minutes, pretty invisible. Same for Burke and Willie. Moses looked good in short minutes. Bullock good defensively, scored well, will probably be considered for a bigger role. Moses could break the rotation if he can consistently replicate his play.
Subpar Play So Far
They are shooting poorly so far, and haven’t looked that great in general in the first three contests. There are reasons for that.
Kidd and Igor (who appears to be serving an offensive coordinator role) are running a lot of set plays, as opposed to the flow offense that Rick liked. A lot of those set plays were used by the Slovenian National Team, and Luka is familiar with them. Some of them haven’t worked that well yet, but the point is that they’re trying new things.
We know from the Carlisle days that the Luka-dominated four-out offense is fine for the regular season, but just doesn’t work in the playoffs. Luka gets too worn down, and it’s too predictable. You need another playmaker, and a vertical threat or a post threat on the floor. They are trying to institute these types of things with the players they have.
As they try things, it’s not always going to look great, especially at first. Diversification on both ends of the floor for long-term purposes is what they are after. We need to see 15-20 games before assessing. Trying to judge now is just knee-jerking. Hopefully, the experimentation won’t cost them too many wins. Expect some clunkiness before the caterpillar turns into a butterfly.
In that regard, the starting lineup so far has a negative net rating. Kidd says they are still considering lineups and stats, but they are not going to make a decision based on a three-game sample size.
It is a point of emphasis this season to win games at home against “bad” teams (something they didn’t do last season). Kidd says the regular-season goal is to achieve home court in the first round, and they will need to protect home court during the season to do that. KP has admitted that last season, the players tended to relax against “poor” competition, and lost games they should have won on that account. They want to develop the mental fortitude not to let down their hair against teams with poor records.
The analytics department, which is still robust even after Bob’s departure, has offered stats indicating that if the Mavs can even improve their defense to league average, they should substantially increase their wins. Kidd’s emphasis on deflections is one of the steps toward that end.
It may get worse before it gets better, but they are optimistic that it will get better.
https://www.patreon.com/mavspod/posts
KP in Upcoming Games. They don’t know whether KP will be available for Thursday’s game. However, Mavs have three games in four days coming up, and KP would probably not play all of them, even if he were totally healthy. (That’s the podcasters’ assessment, not based on anything Kidd told them.) They might use Boban against Denver, as he has had success against Jokic and played well against Houston.
Players’ Council
Although this podcast’s listeners have been aware of the council for a while now, it apparently caught a lot of media and fans by surprise, and quite a few have had negative reactions. The council is part of an effort by Kidd to change the way people view him. He is aware that his head coaching reputation is not great, and that he was perceived as abrasive, at best. This is part of an effort to shed that image, and to transition to a more modern style of coaching. It does not at all mean that the players are coaching the team, as many fear.
Coaching Philosophy in the Modern Era
Mark spoke today with Jill Ellis, former coach of the storied US Women’s National Soccer Team, about player-coach dynamics today. She said she has learned that old-guard coaches who expect to exercise total control are a rapidly dying breed. if you’re going to coach the athlete of today, you will find that the players expect to have a voice. She had a couple of systems, one very aggressive offensively, the other mostly defensive. She would ask the players before the matches how they wanted to start out, and she learned a lot from listening to them.
Ellis thinks that the two most important things in coaching today are to establish clear roles and to make sure that everyone feels valued. MF says this is the technique that JK is trying to establish. Brian added that Cuban has admitted to finally realizing over the summer that with coaches, relationships are more important than X’s and O’s. These “honeymoon phase” methods like the Players’ Council are building a foundation for communications later on when times inevitably get tough.
Fifteen-man lineup
This also drew a lot of criticism, but ironically, this is what a lot of the fans who are complaining wanted from Rick in years past. They would talk frequently about wanting him to play young players regularly, even if only a little bit. Ironically, those are some of the same people who were up in arms about the Houston game.
Don’t expect this to happen again in a competive game. Mark has tried to tell people for years that coaches don’t give players regular three-minute spots in the rotation — that’s just not a thing. The maximum sustainable rotation is about 9-10 players, maybe 11 max, and that’s what we should anticipate.
Bench in Houston Game
Jalen played very well. Was on the court 28 minutes, which is probably going to be approximately normal for him this season. Eleven assists was impressive, since one of his previous limitations has been that he was mostly a scorer rather than a distributor. Boban was great on both ends. S Brown, not so much. Maxi and Reggie very good. Green four minutes, pretty invisible. Same for Burke and Willie. Moses looked good in short minutes. Bullock good defensively, scored well, will probably be considered for a bigger role. Moses could break the rotation if he can consistently replicate his play.
Subpar Play So Far
They are shooting poorly so far, and haven’t looked that great in general in the first three contests. There are reasons for that.
Kidd and Igor (who appears to be serving an offensive coordinator role) are running a lot of set plays, as opposed to the flow offense that Rick liked. A lot of those set plays were used by the Slovenian National Team, and Luka is familiar with them. Some of them haven’t worked that well yet, but the point is that they’re trying new things.
We know from the Carlisle days that the Luka-dominated four-out offense is fine for the regular season, but just doesn’t work in the playoffs. Luka gets too worn down, and it’s too predictable. You need another playmaker, and a vertical threat or a post threat on the floor. They are trying to institute these types of things with the players they have.
As they try things, it’s not always going to look great, especially at first. Diversification on both ends of the floor for long-term purposes is what they are after. We need to see 15-20 games before assessing. Trying to judge now is just knee-jerking. Hopefully, the experimentation won’t cost them too many wins. Expect some clunkiness before the caterpillar turns into a butterfly.
In that regard, the starting lineup so far has a negative net rating. Kidd says they are still considering lineups and stats, but they are not going to make a decision based on a three-game sample size.
It is a point of emphasis this season to win games at home against “bad” teams (something they didn’t do last season). Kidd says the regular-season goal is to achieve home court in the first round, and they will need to protect home court during the season to do that. KP has admitted that last season, the players tended to relax against “poor” competition, and lost games they should have won on that account. They want to develop the mental fortitude not to let down their hair against teams with poor records.
The analytics department, which is still robust even after Bob’s departure, has offered stats indicating that if the Mavs can even improve their defense to league average, they should substantially increase their wins. Kidd’s emphasis on deflections is one of the steps toward that end.
It may get worse before it gets better, but they are optimistic that it will get better.
https://www.patreon.com/mavspod/posts