MAVS 108, PELS 92

[Kammrath]

The tender subject of +/- came up in the post-game interview. Jalen and Bullock had +/- numbers in the twenties, while KP and Luka were slightly negative, and Kidd was asked to comment on how he evaluates +/-. 

Kidd made a dismissive gesture, said he doesn’t look at stat sheets on the bench, and warned that +/- numbers “can lie to you.” Said what he watches for is how the guys are playing, and whether they are playing the “right way,” and doesn’t care about “whether one guy is plus something and another guy is minus something.” 

This may represent a difference from Carlisle, who occasionally referenced box-score plus-minus as a tool he used to help decide on lineups and adjustments. The board’s passionate +/- aficionados will probably scorn Kidd’s devil-may-care approach, and may want to send him an e-mail and set him straight. 

That's EXACTLY how a good coach should handle it. Don't talk about those realities publicly, deal with them behind closed doors. Kidd should especially defend Luka and KP publicly as we know they can be sensitive. Great job Kidd on handling this IMO.

But I can almost guarantee Kidd sees that Luka is not playing the "right way" in a lot of his minutes these days. But that should not be dealt with publicly. And if the coaches are asking Luka to play differently than he has for most of his career (as many have speculated), then they have to deal with all of it more patiently.