Game 3: Memphis Grizzlies (0-4) vs. Dallas Mavericks (3-0) | 110-125 WIN!!!!!!

[mvossman]

Interesting to me that we were +10 in the non-Luka minutes without Kyrie.  10 of the 12 players who've gotten minutes this season are positive in their On-Court (Irving -1.6 and Hardy -21.4 are the exceptions).  Luka is +8.1 On Court, but his On - Off is -6.3.  That doesn't say that Luka is bad necessarily.  What has happened is we've gotten very productive minutes from bench guys like Curry, Exum and THJ.  In other words, in a small sample against bad teams we are winning the non-Luka minutes.

It appears Green is pretty established as a closer of games even if he doesn't start them.  

I think Kidd is doing a good job of getting the guys just outside the top 7/8 a few spot minutes to keep them connected.  I'm thinking mainly of Powell, Exum and Seth here.  For all the complaining people do about Jones Jr., he's only averaging 17 minutes a game.  Luka 36.7, Irving 35, GWill 32, Green 30.7 and THJ 29 are the main guys followed by Jones and the center by committee guys.

From summer league a year ago I've said the biggest thing that will make or break Hardy is decision making.  Last night was not impressive.  

Well, we've seen three versions of Lively in 3 games.  Hard to know which is the outlier and which is the norm.  I'm not too worried about the bad games (especially early).  I saw what I needed to see in the first game.  When a young player shows what he's capable of, the work isn't getting to some new level.  The work is making what he's already shown something that happens more consistently.

One of the many positive things about this last offseason was that the team got deeper, and that has showed already in these first three games.  A few comments regarding that depth:

Hardy is concerning.  I think I see why they tried to make him a playmaker in summer league.  They are trying to reduce his chucking.  So far it has not taken.

If DJJ can shoot like that regularly his value will skyrocket, both to this team and in the market.

I'm glad to see some life in Maxi after a disappointing start.  Hopefully he is just getting his sea legs.

I would like to see at least a little bit of Holmes.  We barely saw him in pre season but he didn't look terrible.

Given how deep this roster is, it will be tough to break in Omax.  Think he needs to do a stint in G League.