MAVS NEWS:

[Smitty]

Missed games the last two seasons:

Luka: 16 & 12 | AVG. 14
Kyrie: 22 & 24 | AVG. 23
Klay: 13 & 5 | AVG. 9
PJW: 9 & 9 | AVG. 9
Lively: 27 | AVG. 27
Gaff: 4 & 8 | AVG. 6


I think it's safe to say Kyrie will miss 20+ games again this upcoming season. Others will miss time as well... I wanted to look at the starters and see what we can expect from a missed games perspective and imagine how the depth will help this team in the regular season. I think most of us agree that a top 4 seed in the West is critical, that the likelihood of making another run to the Finals as the road dog in each series is very unlikely.

With Luka out: Dinwiddie starts
Din | Exum
Kyrie | Hardy
Klay | Grimes
PJW | Naji
Lively | Gafford

With Kyrie out: Dinwiddie starts
Luka | Exum
Din | Hardy
Klay | Grimes
PJW | Naji
Lively | Gafford

With Klay out: Grimes starts
Luka | Exum
Kyrie | Din
Grimes | Naji
PJW | Maxi
Lively | Gafford

With PJW out: Naji starts
Luka | Exum
Kyrie | Din
Klay | Grimes
Naji | Maxi
Lively | Gafford

With Lively out: Gafford starts
Luka | Exum
Kyrie | Din
Klay | Grimes
PJW | Naji
Gafford | Maxi

One thing I'd like to note on Luka. He might not miss as many games as Kyrie but he definitely plays a lot of games banged up. Near the end of the season he's almost always playing on one leg. We had a discussion about the rotation and what it looks like when everyone is healthy and a lot want Luka's minutes to go down to 30-32 MPG, which is just unrealistic. However, I think the more realistic path to help Luka with the nagging injuries is to lower his usage percentage. He's been at an unsustainable rate the last 5 years at 36.0% or more. Even Lebron, who's a freak athlete and ball dominant has only averaged 31.5% in his career with a high of 33.8%.
Now that the team has skill and depth, it's important that Kidd and the coaching staff find a way to reduce the workload for Luka when he's on the floor. Adding Klay and Grimes who are movement shooters and Naji/Dinwiddie that can handle the ball, it looks like the Mavs have the personnel to make the necessary changes to the offense. IF Luka's usage doesn't go down significantly this year, I'm blaming the coaching staff! And by significantly, I mean that he needs to be around his rookie year number of 30.5%.