Preseason Game 2: Charlotte Hornets (0-2) vs. Dallas Mavericks (1-0) | 7:30pm CST

[DL2RimRocker]

I don’t care about the preseason.

But after getting lucky and landing Flagg, I think moving AD has to be given serious consideration. You are loaded in the front court and lacking assets for the Flagg era.

I don’t see any way Nico and Kidd trade AD though unless we’re out of the playoff race completely for some weird reason.

Unfortunately, we'll have to be at the very bottom of the pack with a few key players out for the season with injuries for Nico to even consider trading AD. They'll bank everything on Kyrie coming back to turn everything around.

 AD will probability be one of those out for the season with injury anyway, so it will be a missed  opportunity to salvage anything from the idiotic Luka trade.

[F Gump]

Once again out of desperation they are trying to make Hardy a PG, when he´s probably a 40% 3pt SG offensively, if they stopped messing around with his confidence. He´s the 2nd best (currently healthy) 3pt shooter on the team with the worst AST/TO ratio on the team. How the f*** he still does anything, but catch and shoot threes or one escape dribble is an embarrassment to the coaching staff. They probably even be able to trade him, if they used him right for a season.

Good theory ^, but an utter lack of considering the bigger picture.

With the way the roster breaks down, there are ZERO - none, zero, zilch, nada - minutes for Hardy at the wings. At the 3, Flagg starts, and Naji and PJW also get minutes there. At the 2, Klay starts, and Flagg and Christie also get minutes. If you can't understand why Hardy isn't being used at SG, that's why -- he's no better than 4th string at each of the wings, all those guys are healthy, and in these practice games, all of them need to get playing time to develop some cohesion as a team.

On top of that reality, IN THIS GAME (and for the time being) there are wide open minutes at PG behind DAR. BW is out and so is Exum. Nembhard is not ready to play with the big boys and they want to keep him in his play-against-scrubs lane (for now). So if Hardy is going to ever learn and improve as a PG (if that's even possible), this is that opportunity to learn how to play PG on the court (if that's even possible). And let me say again, if he isn't playing PG, he isn't playing at all (except in the scrub-ball minutes).

There's no downside for it being tried for now. If it doesn't work, if he gets nothing from it, so be it. But if he gets a tiny bit of benefit, and the light bulb begins to go on, then that would be great.

So they are trying it. Once BW is ready to play, this window closes. While I agree he continues to look clueless in doing PG-y things, I am still hoping something clicks at some point.

[Chicagojk]

Once again out of desperation they are trying to make Hardy a PG, when he´s probably a 40% 3pt SG offensively, if they stopped messing around with his confidence. He´s the 2nd best (currently healthy) 3pt shooter on the team with the worst AST/TO ratio on the team. How the f*** he still does anything, but catch and shoot threes or one escape dribble is an embarrassment to the coaching staff. They probably even be able to trade him, if they used him right for a season.

I was a pretty big Hardy fan the first few years.  I agree that he is not good handling the ball, playing defense or really much besides getting hot as a scorer (he at times has some real nice passes).

I was fine with the Mavs trying to stretch his game though.   To be honest, there is not really a good percentage hit rate on undersized shooting guards who can score but may not be efficient and provide little else to the game.    He has also proven not to be a great shooter....streaky but exciting.  I thought the way he could stick around is evening out his team defense and being a reliable dribbler.   I thought that was the diference him making less than 5 million over his career to maybe 30-40 million.    

With the rest of his game not really growing, his hardy party moments have gotten less exciting to me.

[myconsumerclub]

Not worried this early on. AD is just out of shape and working his way back into shape and DLo still got 5 assists to contribute even though he shot like crap. Sometimes shooting takes time to get it on track.

Looked like CHA. had something good to eat today because they were making every shot they took so when a team is that hot you cannot get down on yourself, it happens and you pray that next time the scales balance themselves out and you get even.

We still have not gotten a look at Irving, Gafford, BWill, Martin, or Exum and I still want to see what that new Banton kid looks like in a game. He may add to what we have in the rotation already.

Seriously our luck with the teams health has to improve this year but with AD making me worry due to his past I am a little less worried since we have Coop and PJ that can play there with Lively and Gaff at the 5 but with Kai Jones on the team I would have been a lot less worried.

[michaeltex]

Hardy is a lost cause, IMO. DAL tried to hand him the keys in SL a few years back and he totally spit the bit. Offense was a mess and, after a few games, it ended up just Hardy trying to fill up his stat sheet. I haven't seen anything to change my mind since and I don't understand why he's still here.

Exum's absence continues to be a concern, especially after Kidd's comments. Sure he's a known quantity as a player, but he's also a (too well) know quantity in the training room. I don't remember if there were other options, but it feels like someone got lazy with the re-signing.

Coop is exciting every time he gets on the court. I know DAL is trying to "win now" before the AD/Kyrie window closes, but any future moves must be in support of the young nucleus they lucked into are developing.

Is it just me, or does Cisse show some potential? At least as the 3rd 2-way?

[Mavs2021]

You all claim Hardy to be a shit shooter. Well guess what, at a lowly higher than three attempts per game, he´s the 3rd best 3pt shooter on this team behind Kyrie and Klay. We have no shooting problem, but our 3rd best 3pt shooter is labelled sh*t at shooting and the best is out for half the season.

Also AD does not have the same gravitational pull as Luka, in fact he has no pull at all. Teams will defend AD 1 on 1 and he´ll be chucking long twos like he´s Dirk.

I think Vegas will be proven correct, not Bill Simmons. All that in itself is not a problem, the conclusions and actions of Nico will be.

[RoyTarpleysGhost]

Undersized guys usually need to be able to do more than shoot. Whatever that Jason Terry, Jamal Crawford, Eric Gordon, Jordan Clarkson, Payton Prichard level player is. They have other skills/better developed offensive repertoires that Hardy does not have.

[KillerLeft]

Undersized guys usually need to be able to do more than shoot.  Whatever that Jason Terry, Jamal Crawford, Eric Gordon, Jordan Clarkson, Payton Prichard level player is.  They have other skills/better developed offensive repertoires that Hardy does not have.

Yeah. For Hardy to have a role in the NBA, he'd have to play PG. If he's not good enough to do that, he'll not last much longer. What we used to call "combo guards" are now called "point guards" and I'm hard pressed to think of even one example of someone that size who can't competently run an offense, at least on a part-time basis, having a role in today's game.