Mavs 107, Kings 121

[Kammrath]

His conclusions --

-- The team is too dependent on Luka for scoring. Luka creates good looks for his teammates, and they too often don't convert. 

-- The team relies on at least two of KP, Hardaway, and Brunson -- maybe also Richardson -- to have 20-point games from night to night. That often works, but also often doesn't, and is a hallmark of a lower seed playoff team.

-- Richardson, signed as the stopper of point guards, is not used to guard those players. Instead, you have situations like DFS on Fox. 

-- The team is not deep enough. Carlisle has relied mostly on seven players since the ASB. Luka and KP have been given occasional rest games, but the others have mostly played around 30 mpg, and fatigue is surfacing as a factor in performances. 

-- A deadline trade produced Melli and Redick, who are barely getting playing time. 

--  DFS and other players are being asked to do too much, both in terms of physical output and roles played. 

--  Three-point percentage has plummeted. 

Above all, his essential takeaway is that the roster has not improved, as a practical matter, since 2019, except for Luka's individual growth.

My responses....

1) I think a GREAT team can rely on Luka generating looks, just like Nash did for the great Suns teams. But Luka's talent around him either doesn't fit or is frankly not very NBA worthy.

2) KP is unreliable and inconsistent within the current system and next to Luka. THJ is inconsistent and always has been. JB is not given a consistent enough/big enough role to offer the consistency that the Mavs need from him.

3) JR is NOT a good defender and that has been proven over and over this season. When leaned upon as a stopper he will not come through most nights. DFS is also NOT a stopper. Leaning on either for that role leads to the breakdown of the whole D at the point of attack and KP has NOT been good playing behind these guys this season at all.

4) Whether the talent is not deep enough or whether RC is unwilling to play deeper players is debatable to me. But the result of fatigue feels pretty unquestionable at this point.

5) Yeah the deadline produced ZERO movement of the needle, so to speak. It was basically a trade just to do a trade. 

6) DFS should be a 15-20 min NBA player not a 32 min player. Having such a solid, but average player log so many KEY minutes brings down the team. DFS isn't alone in being asked to be much more than he is as a player.

7) This team does not have truly good shooters on it. THJ is probably the best from deep and he is crazy inconsistent. JB is good, but needs more space to get off his shot. I think Maxi's performance is an outlier.

8) Yes, the roster that is played by RC (cannot speak to what is buried on the bench) has not been improved in any meaningful way since the KP trade. The failure to develop rookies year after year is the main culprit in my opinion and it has snowballed over the last decade to this point.