2021-2022 ROSTER TALK: [ARCHIVED]

[KillerLeft]

This team has basically two startling-level players, Luka and KP(on his good days). Playing with Luka and Carlisle massively inflated some players' apparent talent, and the result is that the Mavs overpayed a bunch of bench players without understanding what was going on. So now with a bad coach it's apparent what this team actually is, one of the most talent-starved franchises in the entire league.

This team needs to be blown up, which means at least 2 years of pain... but it sure seems like that would happen anyway. Nico has to be much, much better than Donnie was, or Luka will be gone, and sooner than we think.

I agree with some of this, but not all of it. 

I think this is a team going through a coaching change (always harder than we think it's going to be) and going to a less experienced coach, no less. He's learning on the job with a new, young team. 

I think that Carlisle helped Luka shine in previous years by customizing the schemes to be as catered to him as possible (not that Luka isn't amazing in his own right, or that he wouldn't be great with any coach), and I think some of these guys did look better than they might actually be, but that's because of great play from Luka and customized roles, as you say. 

But, if that's true, then it works both ways. I think what we're seeing now is them looking worse than they really are for the exact, opposite reason. The entire mission for this coach, since accepting the job, was to prove the world wrong about Porzingis. They've sort of kind of done that, but to the detriment of pretty much everyone else. These are kind of the results I would've predicted with that approach, but I'll admit there have been times when it seemed like it could be more successful than I would've believed, so it has frustrated me more than I expected. I'm trying so hard to believe in the direction Kidd has chosen. 

They're not there yet, and that's clear. Maybe the answer is to switch some players out. Maybe the answer is to fire the coach. But maybe (and I know this is a tough pill to swallow for some) we just need to be patient and let them work some of this out. When the GM got fired in a messy, publicly embarrassing way and then the franchise's all time best coach quit, giving up the chance to coach what will probably be the most talented player he'll ever have access to, that should've told us something. People expecting an immediate improvement in team play (even if they end up being good changes in the long run) were pretty misguided, imo. Change takes energy, faith, and above all else, TIME.