11-11-2021, 04:45 PM
Brian and Mark take a look at who the Mavs are, after 11 games, and discuss some of the lineups.
How good are the Mavs?
As an initial measuring stick, the Mavs are beating the teams they’re supposed to beat. They’re not laying eggs against “bad” teams. Their losses are not hard to understand — there has been nothing that leaves us shaking our heads and asking how that happened. So we are getting a pretty good measure of how they fit into the hierarchy. Need a few more games under their belts to make an assessment.
Lineups
Some fans are very exercised about the starting lineup. In truth, the starting lineup is not that important. The closing lineup is much more critical. But there are items about the most-used lineups that merit discussion and explanation.
Bigs
There is a lot of anti-DP feeling among certain fans, and, in fact, those lineups are not working all that well. However, they’re likely the best solution at this point in time. Why?
The Mavs’ number one objective with respect to the bigs at this point is to conservatively load-manage KP, both in terms of minutes and in terms of what he is asked to do on the court. They specifically want to avoid making him play center full-time. If they want to go with two-big lineups for this purpose, then DP is their choice, by process of elimination. Maxi is injured. Boban is a situational option. Willie is not really in his bag. Moses does not yet have the trust of the coaches. DP is the best of several unideal choices.
Short of playing one-big lineups, which the Mavs are reluctant to do a lot of with KP in that role, there doesn’t seem to be a more viable solution at this point.
Maxi is not likely to be available for some time. Kidd promised that he would give an update on his condition after 7-8 days, but there is nothing to indicate that he will be back on any kind of imminent basis. Even when he is back, we are all familiar with the down side of ramping up Maxi’s minutes too high.
The Mavs are not ready to declare the Powell lineups a failure. There is a past history indicating that they can work, although the league now clearly recognizes Powell’s lob threat and teams now devote effort to stopping it. Nico says he thinks the plans they had for the offense this season should be given a minimum of twenty games to work, and Kidd agrees. They can’t expect Powell to be something he’s not, so they need to build the best combos they can, in light of that.
Non-bigs
The most obvious offensive fly in the ointment in the most commonly used lineups is DFS. His terrible shooting is affecting the spacing and bringing the rest of the offense down. But he is needed defensively. As far as the performance of these units, DP and Luka can’t be blamed for Dorian’s collapse on the offensive end.
Luka is not shooting as well or getting as good looks as he used to. The podders think a lot of this is due to the team’s experimentation with the offensive system. As bad as it may look now, the Mavs' view is that they have to diversify their offense if they want to maintain any hope of avoiding a first-round exit. They don’t think they have a big enough sample size yet to judge it, and so far, the experimentation is not costing them games. If it does start resulting in avoidable losses, they may have to change their tune.
Brunson is benefitting greatly from KP’s improvement, especially in the JB-KP PNR. JB acknowledges that, saying that he knows he won’t be collapsed on because KP’s defenders are usually reluctant to leave him. It remains to be seen whether that will be sustainable in the playoffs.
We should know something more in a week, when the next podcast is due.
How good are the Mavs?
As an initial measuring stick, the Mavs are beating the teams they’re supposed to beat. They’re not laying eggs against “bad” teams. Their losses are not hard to understand — there has been nothing that leaves us shaking our heads and asking how that happened. So we are getting a pretty good measure of how they fit into the hierarchy. Need a few more games under their belts to make an assessment.
Lineups
Some fans are very exercised about the starting lineup. In truth, the starting lineup is not that important. The closing lineup is much more critical. But there are items about the most-used lineups that merit discussion and explanation.
Bigs
There is a lot of anti-DP feeling among certain fans, and, in fact, those lineups are not working all that well. However, they’re likely the best solution at this point in time. Why?
The Mavs’ number one objective with respect to the bigs at this point is to conservatively load-manage KP, both in terms of minutes and in terms of what he is asked to do on the court. They specifically want to avoid making him play center full-time. If they want to go with two-big lineups for this purpose, then DP is their choice, by process of elimination. Maxi is injured. Boban is a situational option. Willie is not really in his bag. Moses does not yet have the trust of the coaches. DP is the best of several unideal choices.
Short of playing one-big lineups, which the Mavs are reluctant to do a lot of with KP in that role, there doesn’t seem to be a more viable solution at this point.
Maxi is not likely to be available for some time. Kidd promised that he would give an update on his condition after 7-8 days, but there is nothing to indicate that he will be back on any kind of imminent basis. Even when he is back, we are all familiar with the down side of ramping up Maxi’s minutes too high.
The Mavs are not ready to declare the Powell lineups a failure. There is a past history indicating that they can work, although the league now clearly recognizes Powell’s lob threat and teams now devote effort to stopping it. Nico says he thinks the plans they had for the offense this season should be given a minimum of twenty games to work, and Kidd agrees. They can’t expect Powell to be something he’s not, so they need to build the best combos they can, in light of that.
Non-bigs
The most obvious offensive fly in the ointment in the most commonly used lineups is DFS. His terrible shooting is affecting the spacing and bringing the rest of the offense down. But he is needed defensively. As far as the performance of these units, DP and Luka can’t be blamed for Dorian’s collapse on the offensive end.
Luka is not shooting as well or getting as good looks as he used to. The podders think a lot of this is due to the team’s experimentation with the offensive system. As bad as it may look now, the Mavs' view is that they have to diversify their offense if they want to maintain any hope of avoiding a first-round exit. They don’t think they have a big enough sample size yet to judge it, and so far, the experimentation is not costing them games. If it does start resulting in avoidable losses, they may have to change their tune.
Brunson is benefitting greatly from KP’s improvement, especially in the JB-KP PNR. JB acknowledges that, saying that he knows he won’t be collapsed on because KP’s defenders are usually reluctant to leave him. It remains to be seen whether that will be sustainable in the playoffs.
We should know something more in a week, when the next podcast is due.
![[-]](https://www.mavsboard.com/images/collapse.png)