Game 57: New Orleans Pelicans (13-42) vs. Dallas Mavericks (30-26)

[SirMyztiq]

Solid W. PJ, Naji, Christie all played extremely well.

[Scott41theMavs]

Goodness me, OMax, Spencer, Klay, and Dante a combined 5-28. Thank goodness for the other guys.

[Scott41theMavs]

Zero mins for Hardy? We may be witnessing the end of his tenure here.

Too bad we gave him that contract.

[F Gump]

Zero mins for Hardy? We may be witnessing the end of his tenure here.

I don't think it's a doghouse thing with Hardy - I think he's just not good enough, and now it's essentially too late. His time to really work on improving the holes in his game was the first few months before the break. Kidd's moved into semi-playoff mode now, where the rotation gets shortened a bit because wins are vital, and Hardy has 6 good players considerably ahead of him in the PG-SG-SF mix (Kyrie, Klay, Exum, Christie, Marshall, SD). When Martin heals he'll be buried even further.

On the subject of rotations, I found the NO lineup really interesting, and wasn't sure what to make of it. Other than McCollum at 6-3, the rest were all big, with Zion the smallest of the other 4! I think of Zion as a PF, but at 6-6 he played next to 6-11, 6-11, and 6-8. Was he their SF?

[ThisIStheYear]

Max is so much better than expected.  What a big surprise. Where the Hell did that guy come from?

[LukaMVP]

hardy is unplayable without luka imho. our team moves the ball much better now than they did which is why our offense looks so smooth, and Luke's absence & departure hasn't impacted our offense that much, if any, but when you have hardy on court it would be all negated. hardy could make some sweet passes but more often than not he tends to be the finisher. some players just benefit from playing next to luka and hardy is one of them imho.

din laid an egg in scoring tonight but he still managed to help his team with his assists. Christie has been so good and consistent like a vet star, and he even has the ability to create his own shots. Christie will be a bridges type of guy for us at least tbh.

[Chicagojk]

Mavs keep finding ways to win. They are playing so hard.

They just have little room for error. Going to be a tough ask against healthy above average to good teams with so little good big players.

[Scott41theMavs]

Mavs keep finding ways to win.  They are playing so hard.

They just have little room for error.  Going to be a tough ask against healthy above average to good teams with so little good big players.

They won't have to win *all* of the games. Just a decent percentage.

[Chicagojk]

He wasn't great last night and gets a tad exposed if he plays big minutes, but I would love Alvarado on this Mavs team. 4 million contract next year followed by a player option. Probably not a realistic option, but I love those little pests.

[audiosway]

I don't think it's a doghouse thing with Hardy - I think he's just not good enough, and now it's essentially too late. His time to really work on improving the holes in his game was the first few months before the break. Kidd's moved into semi-playoff mode now, where the rotation gets shortened a bit because wins are vital, and Hardy has 6 good players considerably ahead of him in the PG-SG-SF mix (Kyrie, Klay, Exum, Christie, Marshall, SD). When Martin heals he'll be buried even further.

On the subject of rotations, I found the NO lineup really interesting, and wasn't sure what to make of it. Other than McCollum at 6-3, the rest were all big, with Zion the smallest of the other 4! I think of Zion as a PF, but at 6-6 he played next to 6-11, 6-11, and 6-8. Was he their SF?

Kidd is showing the guys on the team what is expected if they are going to get minutes. Play hard for 48 minutes, move the ball, and play defense. If you can't do that you can't play. Simple as that. I love it. That's the reason that Miami is always so good with or without named players.

[LukaMVP]

hardy and Josh green were both viewed as our assets once upon a time. the nets wanted them in the Kyrie trade negotiation but the mavs ended up sending DFS to Brooklyn. should have sold those guys while their values were relatively high tbh.

[mvossman]

hardy and Josh green were both viewed as our assets once upon a time. the nets wanted them in the Kyrie trade negotiation but the mavs ended up sending DFS to Brooklyn. should have sold those guys while their values were relatively high tbh.

I don't think that is how it played out.  I don't think either of those guys were considered as valuable as DFS.  I believe Durant asked specifically for DFS (and then asked to be traded himself soon after).

[F Gump]

I don't think that is how it played out.  I don't think either of those guys were considered as valuable as DFS.  I believe Durant asked specifically for DFS (and then asked to be traded himself soon after).

It is correct that there was never a scenario in doing the Kyrie trade where DFS could have been replaced by a Green-Hardy package. I think that idea was floated somewhere post trade in a forum or by tweet or speculative blog, but it was transparently nonsense, because it couldn't have even been considered.

The issue was salary. As it was, the Mavs had a challenge in matching the very large Kyrie contract (almost 39M), and DFS contract (almost 13M) was a necessary piece to add to SD's 19.5M salary. Had they replaced DFS with Green-Hardy (total salary of about 4M), the salary match would have failed badly.

There may have also been demands for this player or that, but getting to a salary match was a big issue in making that deal work.

[ballsrchr]

He wasn't great last night and gets a tad exposed if he plays big minutes, but I would love Alvarado on this Mavs team.  4 million contract next year followed by a player option. Probably not a realistic option, but I love those little pests.

I love those little pests also...mainly because I was one of them--many years ago--back in the stone age--when the balls were stuffed with grass--and we wore goat skin loincloths.