01-23-2021, 11:52 PM
(01-23-2021, 11:48 PM)Kammrath Wrote: My partial diagnosis (riffing off of RC's post game comments last night) is that RC is actually giving Luka a ton of freedom to grow into the leader and on-court coach for this team. I think he wants Luka to be what Kidd was for the championship team. I think Luka is not ready for that yet, or maybe it is better to say Luka is struggling in taking on that burden so far. I don't think Luka is the leader he needs to be yet for this team, and my read is that for better or worse RC is choosing to step aside and give him the room to work that out for himself (I think JJB moving on was purposeful by the Mavs to create a leadership vacuum that Luka HAD to fill).
In this game I would like to have seen Luka step up his own energy and get in the faces of his guys when the Rockets players came out much hungrier than them. Luka spends too much time talking to the refs when he should be encouraging and getting his own guys to step up with more energy. Luka cannot control the refs, but he can control his response to them, his energy on the court, and his encouragement and leadership of his team. That needs to be his on-court focus, ignore those blind fools in stripes.
Long story, short, I think the Mavs have a team leadership issue. RC is creating the space and environment for Luka to be that and Luka is still young and immature and not performing well at his leadership role yet. I am confident he will grow and get there in the coming years, but I think his failure to be the leader he needs to be is the overall issue with this team (greater than the talent holes IMO) from my humble and limited perspective.
What an interesting theory. It makes sense, for sure, and would help to connect some of the dots.