Mavs 108, Rockets 133

[Jason Terry]

Yes this is exactly how I view this. And having THJ with the bench unit against the opponent bench unit will cover up his defensive deficiencies and further improve our team. Build on leads, and provide comebacks.

But as you mention, if JRich/DFS cant provide the shooting well enough to draw a defender consistently, then I think THJ is better fit. We simply need Luka not to be double teamed.

When we started Luka/JRich/DFS/Maxi/WCS we played defense that I havent seen before. All the shots were heavely contested, there were steals, blocks, deflections, we stopped them all over the place. I got the impression that when KP would be back to replace WCS, this lineup would be so dominant defensively, that even if the offense doesnt run well, they could win consistently just by playing defense.

There are many ways to win. One is to just get pure shooters around KP/Luka and outscore opponents, even by having holes in defense, this is the strategy we are used to. Another one is to win with defense.

An intermediate approach would be to place just one pure shooter like THJ, and say OK, we have other four great defenders. But it doesnt work like that. The defense is only as good as your weakest link. And that is THJ.

In the above lineup, there was no weak link, its the first time I have seen us with 5 good defenders, and thats why it was just different. It was not just the regular D trying to stay in front of the players. This was active D, trying to win with defense, a completely different mindset. This is what I hope we can build on.

I think its not only matter of THJ vs JRich, but also what type of team we want to build and become around Luka and KP. In my honest opinion, we will always have a good offense with them, and we should think much more about the defense. We dont need to have the best offensive rating in the NBA. We need to find a balanced consistent winning formula.

Agreed on most of this. Hardaway is important to our success as the 3rd scoring option. But we do need to set a tone to start the game and he can be a liability defensively (can’t close out on 3’s). So it makes sense to bring him in off the bench in a superman/JET role to come in and save the day. Hardaway’s minutes would be starter level minutes as 6th man. Sub him in for any of Richardson, DFS or Maxi if they are having a bad night. 

Base lineup:
Luka-Brunson
JRich-Hardaway 
DFS-Hardaway 
Maxi-Hardaway 
KP-WCS

Where the gaps in those Hardaway minutes are filled in by our specialty players(Burke, Johnson, Powell, Green, Iwundu). This would be less of a traditional bench where 5 guys go in and more of a staggered approach. 

Seems weird to sub in THj for Maxi, but that gives us our small ball where Luka guards the 4 lineup