NBA Summer League | Mavs end off 4-1

[DanSchwartzgan]

But with the directive of him being "the man", both, Hardy and the rest of the team, may still have operated under the idea, that Hardy should be force-fed which didn't yield perfect results.

With Hardy being out, the other guys were probably more free and could adopt more to the flow of the game, and play towards the strength of the hot guys of the day.

I think there is wisdom here.  No real flow because the priority was trying to accomplish a specific outcome that wasn’t necessarily a focus on team basketball.  Once he went out, things went back to a more natural flow.

Personally, I hated this approach to the summer.  From day one I’ve said the key to unlocking all Hardy can be is his decision making.  I think his natural instinct (from watching his play at all levels) is not a very valuable archetype in the NBA.  The league has more than enough undersized twos who are willing to take lots of shots and score lots of points on mediocre (or worse) efficiency.  Some people fawn all over his PPG and don’t realize that anyone could have taken those shots at that level of efficiency.

What (might) make Hardy special is reigning in the worst of his shots and raising his efficiency in terms of 3% and TS%.  Get him over 40% on 3’s and over 60% on TS (like he was in February and March) and you have something.  The way they handled the summer just invited him to take lots of bad shots and not play within the flow of the game.  If all we want is to develop another Jordan Clarkson, we should trade him now.  If he’s to ever be special, the path there is efficiency on good volume rather than inefficiency on high volume.  He’s never going to have prototypical size.  He’s never going to be a plus defender and he’s never going to be a PG.  I’d rather we work on the thing that might make him special rather than the thing that might make him average.