GAMETHREAD: MIL @ DAL, Oct 11, 7:30 pm (111-118 loss)

[Hypermav]

Doncic is 10 for 11 on FT's.  Great for him.

[Jym]

Offense runs so much better with Brunson

[fifteenth]

Someone asked what's going on. Just looks like we have a lot of work to do. Glad it's preseason. 

There is video off Rick working with KP at the nail, so I know the plan isn't for him to just launch 35 footers.

And surely the actual plan isn't for 60% of our fg attempts to be 3s. 

Work in progress for sure.

[TXBamanut]

We have a long way to go....my homer buzz has officially been put in its place.  It's not bad, but it's time to be real.

[Lucky Luciano]

Jalen looks like our second most poised player on the team. Dude has some serious BBIQ

[Hypermav]

Maybe Rick wanted to win this game and save Brunson for the end.  

Man, if Boban could be just a hair more athletic.

[omahen]

Jalen looks like our second most poised player on the team. Dude has some serious BBIQ

He is much better than Barea at this point. Jackson is also good, if only he would be aggresive all the time. Delon and Curry have been awful today. At least our bench is better :-)

[Kammrath]

Man, if Boban could be just a hair more athletic.

Boban is good enough as he is. Dude can have a serious 20 minute a night impact.

[BigDirk41]

Man, if Boban could be just a hair more athletic.

Boban is good enough as he is. Dude can have a serious 20 minute a night impact.

Yeah I was excited about signing Boban this off season and I think he's going to put up some nice numbers in his limited roll. He's just so effective. He's very active down low too. We need that.

[Jym]

Still not sure what think of Wright's play 
I'd honestly prefer it if he was jacking up shots and missing them. We need an attacker to play off Luka/KP

[Kammrath]

Still not sure what think of Wright's play 
I'd honestly prefer it if he was jacking up shots and missing them. We need an attacker to play off Luka/KP

He is a GREAT cutter off the ball.....lets give it time, I think he is just learning how to play with Luka (he didn't get all summer with Luka, so he is especially new to these guys).

[Jym]

Still not sure what think of Wright's play 
I'd honestly prefer it if he was jacking up shots and missing them. We need an attacker to play off Luka/KP

He is a GREAT cutter off the ball.....lets give it time, I think he is just learning how to play with Luka (he didn't get all summer with Luka, so he is especially new to these guys).

Yeah for sure not ready to give up on him being a major contributor, but he needs to be a lot more active. Maybe give him some burn with bench guys where he's running everything

[Kammrath]

Yeah for sure not ready to give up on him being a major contributor, but he needs to be a lot more active. Maybe give him some burn with bench guys where he's running everything

Yeah, wouldn't mind that at all.

[scottsp]

For a team that hasn't been doing many things that well collectively, it shouldn't come as a surprise we continue to shoot the ball less efficiently than our opponent. Call it working out the kinks, knocking the rust off, whatever - it's disconcerting that we continue the practice of hoisting so many threes with the precision of rec league hacks.

Small sample size. I understand. Preseason. Yeah, I get it. But tonight they put up ten more threes (50) than the Bucks and still converted about the same number from long range. To this point, they're knocking down 31 percent of 3PA  (opponents are hitting better than 43 percent). This would not be so much of a concern if this weren't already the Mavericks' M.O.

Okay, so we understand the plan is to actually ramp up the carpet bombing this year. Great! That number better be closer to 36 percent when games start counting.

This team doesn't defend particularly well. It doesn't really stand out on the glass, either. In a league gravitating more towards position-less basketball with a concentration on three pointers and getting to the rim, to be even halfway competitive in the West, Dallas must climb on the strength of its shooting.

Otherwise, while Luka and KP combine for a mean two-man game, good luck fielding a .500 campaign.

[MrGoat]

Didn't think there was all that much to glean from this game to be honest, both teams had large stretches where it looked like they were half assing it. I don't buy the supposed larger emphasis on travelling until I see it in the regular season, especially the way Giannis could still get away with it as he usually does. It seems like they say there's a bigger emphasis on travelling every year. Seth is kind of made of glass so I don't mind him having a small role in preseason but I hope that changes once the games start to count.

Aside from that Luka is the truth, KP needs to stay out of foul trouble, and our defense still looks like crap. I won't call it a red flag preseason yet but it's getting close

[j0Shi]

For a team that hasn't been doing many things that well collectively, it shouldn't come as a surprise we continue to shoot the ball less efficiently than our opponent. Call it working out the kinks, knocking the rust off, whatever - it's disconcerting that we continue the practice of hoisting so many threes with the precision of rec league hacks.

Small sample size. I understand. Preseason. Yeah, I get it. But tonight they put up ten more threes (50) than the Bucks and still converted about the same number from long range. To this point, they're knocking down 31 percent of 3PA  (opponents are hitting better than 43 percent). This would not be so much of a concern if this weren't already the Mavericks' M.O.

Okay, so we understand the plan is to actually ramp up the carpet bombing this year. Great! That number better be closer to 36 percent when games start counting.

This team doesn't defend particularly well. It doesn't really stand out on the glass, either. In a league gravitating more towards position-less basketball with a concentration on three pointers and getting to the rim, to be even halfway competitive in the West, Dallas must climb on the strength of its shooting.

Otherwise, while Luka and KP combine for a mean two-man game, good luck fielding a .500 campaign.

This was a vintage last season game called "Luka and the scrubs". I agree it's preseason and the team still needs time to gel, but tbh. there's little evidence as of right now that the Mavs are a better shooting or rebounding team. These are key things to potential improvement. I don't want to sound too down, I think the team will eventually figure it out and has the pieces to make a run at the playoffs. Might need a little more time than I had hoped for.

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Still not sure what think of Wright's play 
I'd honestly prefer it if he was jacking up shots and missing them. We need an attacker to play off Luka/KP

Wright and Curry are obviously not well incorporated yet. Wright theoretically is our secondary playmaker alongside Luka, but right now is merely shooting threes inefficiently. Curry's shooting should make an impact immediately, not sure what's going on with him.

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We'll have fun with Brunson all season btw. Question is: Given the impression, should he be upgraded to become the first Mav off the bench? I thought Curry so far, but don't see why you shouldn't be able to run with Doncic and Brunson in the backcourt until Luka checks out. Currently it looks like Brunson's role was primarily to back up Luka at point. But I guess he's too good for that?

[Kammrath]

there's little evidence as of right now that the Mavs are a better shooting or rebounding team.

These are my two big concerns for sure.

Giving big roles to THJ and Barea (love the guy, but come on we have better options or need to develop better options) will be the death of this team.

[j0Shi]

there's little evidence as of right now that the Mavs are a better shooting or rebounding team.

These are my two big concerns for sure.

Giving big roles to THJ and Barea (love the guy, but come on we have better options or need to develop better options) will be the death of this team.

THJ definitely could turn into a Matthews situation where you just play a guy because he earns 20% of your cap. I do hope though that JJB is going to mentor the team more than play. One of the more obvious observations through the preseason is that you have to give Brunson all the minutes you can find.

[ThisIStheYear]

Still not sure what think of Wright's play 
I'd honestly prefer it if he was jacking up shots and missing them. We need an attacker to play off Luka/KP

My knee jerk reaction to his play:  If you’re on the floor with Luka, not a rim protecting center,  and you can’t shoot, you’re probably not a good fit. Wright has some nice all around floor skills with the ball, but doesn’t look like he has much at all to offer off the ball to help Luka.  Even as a secondary point guard, he’s not nearly as good as the rapidly improving and future all star Brunson.  He’s not even remotely big or athletic enough to compete with the two young wings (who are also vastly improved).  And he doesn’t bring  the specialized explosive offensive dimension as THJ.  He just doesn’t seem to have a role here absent an injury other than to take minutes from guys with better specialized skills.  I’d deal him at the first opportunity.  

Of course, that’s knee jerk, based on his style and projected duplication of skills with a far superior player, when you should really only have one player like that on the floor at a time, but maybe he’ll show a special, specialized trait plus the knock down shooting efficiency needed to complement Luka.

[mtrot]

It looked to me like Porzingis was just not aggressive and decisive enough tonight.  One time he was driving the lane and I was sure he was going to take it to the rim, but he eased up and passed the ball off to somebody on the perimeter who promptly clanked a three point attempt.  He has to take it in and either dunk it or draw a foul.  Also, it just looked like the Mavs were too slow and didn't know how to run plays well enough to compete.