A Few Thoughts on Mavs 107, Jazz 112

[mavsluvr]

Rick also said something about the five-out units usually being small

This is the problem, that our 5 out is small, not the 5 out in general. That about transition defense is not correct. Some players are in the corners and some are on the top of the field in 5 out, just like in any other offensive scheme.

I believe the theory is that the five-out offense makes it easier for the defense to grab all those long rebounds and run. Even short rebounds can be problematic if no Mav is around the basket and/or the perimeter guys are not well-positioned to box out. All exacerbated by the small units. The performance in this game tends to bear all that out.

---

A lot of interesting points have been raised about the offense, and those points are well worth considering and discussing.

Having said that, it didn't seem to me that the offensive scheme was much of a problem in this game. The system was getting the Mavs good looks, and they shot well on the whole -- the shots they missed or declined to take were often open or lightly contested.  However, on the defensive end, the Mavericks sent the Jazz to the line for 22 foul shots, and gave up 28 second-chance points. There's your subpar performance.

I guess one could view the use of the five-out offense as partially responsible for the poor defense. It is employed as a way to make it easier for small lineups to score, and small lineups in general tend to perform worse on defense and rebounding than bigger ones do. And on the offensive side, all those missed free throws did hurt.

All true. But change Curry with Kleber and you still have a 5 out offense and a much better defense. The problem was that we only had two bigs and we didn't play them at the same time.

Maybe. Two things. 

Curry hit four threes, and Maxi missed six of his eight attempts. Curry makes for a stronger offense in the five-out, with the tradeoff being better defense from Maxi.  

If Carlisle had elected to play two bigs at the same time, I think they would have gone to their usual PNR offense, rather than resorting to five-out. That might well have been a better scheme, but that's another question. There were three big men available. KP is evidently on some kind of minutes watch. Maxi got into foul trouble a couple of times, which I think limited his time on the court, and he wasn't having a good night in general. Boban has always been a low-minute player, so they fielded units with only one big man, and played five out. Not saying I think Rick made all the right choices in retrospect, just saying I think I understand where he was coming from.