Game 7: Dallas Mavericks (2-4) vs. Houston Rockets (3-2) | 7:00pm CST

[omahen]

https://dallashoopsjournal.com/p/kevin-d...-nba-news/

"At Duke, Flagg was a 6-foot-9 do-it-all forward who could rebound, block shots, and ignite transition offense. In Dallas, head coach Jason Kidd and general manager Nico Harrison are challenging him to evolve into a more guard-oriented role — initiating offense, creating reads, and defending on the perimeter.
It’s a demanding transition, one Durant himself once faced.
Reflecting on his own journey, Durant recalled his time at the University of Texas, where he thrived in the mid-post, attacking slower defenders and controlling the glass. But in the NBA, the Seattle SuperSonics and Oklahoma City Thunder asked him to play shooting guard — requiring him to defend quicker players, create off the dribble, and master spacing on the perimeter.
“I hate to inject myself into his [situation],” Durant admitted. “But I came in college playing four, five. I came to the league playing a two. So it’s like position changes like that can really throw you off early on in your career, but I think he’s still working through it and having some good games, you know?”

That is all nice. I even don't think that Flagg is playing that badly. As someone else posted, Flagg is actually not really doing the PG role, as even Klay is posting a higher usage rate (I didn't check the numbers myself, just resaying what someone else said here). Mavs are even not being bad because of Flagg. It is true that offense is attrocious with him on the floor (just 99.6 offensive rating), however it doesn't get good without him (108.5 offensive rating) - only 5 teams have worse rating. Mavs offense is simply bad. DLo might not be best playmaker in the world, but he is not that bad either. Even with him on the floor, Mavs offense is just at 112, which would be 24th best offense in the league. It is true though, that it completely falls apart without him (93.3). This is not on players, even with all the injuries, Mavs have many offensively capable players. This is on Mavs offensive system, whatever it is. Either players are still adjusting to it and it will get better (it can hardly get worse, to be honest), or the system needs to change as it just doesn't fit.

Looking more at the stats, Klay is a big factor killing this offense. With him on the floor, Mavs offensive rating is at miserable 90. With Christie on the other hand, it is at 110 - he has similarly big on/off swing as DLo regarding the offensive rating. Another thing to notice - offensive rating is better with either Lively or Gafford on the floor (both above 110 offensive rating), but the sample is really small as they combined for only a bit over 80 minutes so far.