MAVS 107, BULLS 117

[mavsluvr]

MAVS SMACKED BY BULLS IN SECOND-HALF COLLAPSE
KIDD DELIVERS SCOLDING 

Our Mavs began a stretch of 6 games out of seven on the road at the United Center in the Windy City. They were fresh off two wins at home, hoping to establish some away presence against the Bulls’ loaded squad. They hung in for a while, but ultimately succumbed to  the Chicago buzz saw. 


GAME NOTES

Both teams came in with 7-3 records. In terms of point differential, however, it was Mavs -23, Bulls +70. Brian Dameris opined that, at just 10 games in, the point differential is not yet worrisome, but that they’ll hope to improve on that as they move forward. DeRozan and Lavine are one of the highest-scoring duos in the league, so the Dallas defense looks to be up for a test. 

Maxi continued out with his back strain, as expected. Zach LaVine was playing through a thumb sprain in his off hand. Kidd elected to go with the “normal” starting lineup — Luka, THJ, DFS, KP, DP. 

FIRST QUARTER

KP is first on the board with 2 free throws. DFS hits from the corner! Gets the same shot again and misses. 8-13 7:39

Mavs shooting 2-10 so far. Bullock comes in for KP. Brunson enters for Tim. Mavs doing a good job drawing fouls. 8-8 FTAs. 13-20 5:38

Now Dallas is 2-12. Bulls 5-8 from three. Wow. WCS comes in, misses a dunk. Vucevic doing a number on us. Bullock loses the ball. Luka hits his second completed shot of the game. Brunson gets on the board with a couple of freebies. Luka-WCS lob-dunk! Sterling and Frankie enter the game. All-bench unit. Brunson rack attack! And another, with a foul! Woo-hoo! Ntilikina to the basket! KP back, hits from long distance! Sterling puts the Mavs ahead with a pull-up three! Brunson closes the period with a free throw. 33-32 after one. 

So, Mavs have come back from an 11-point deficit to a 1-point lead. Good, good. Jalen leads the Mavs with 8 points. Vooch has 9 for Chicago. Mavs earned 13 FTAs in the quarter, and completed 12 of them. 

SECOND QUARTER

JB drive again! KP slam from Frankie! Chicago coach not liking what he sees. 37-34 10:38

Lonzo has a DEEP three. Tie game. FN gives us a little rim protection! KP dashes in for a put back of a missed Brunson three! Hardaway three disallowed due to DeRozan fouling JB before the shot. KP with a jumper. Hardaway strikes again! Lonzo Ball lethal from three. Hits one over Sterling. DFS with a dramatic block! Zach LaVine called for fouling DFS on a closeout to the corner — Lavine’s third. He stays in. Hits from three. Powell dunk from JB lob. Luka-Powell! Good stuff. Luka draws a hard foul on a drive. 1-2 from the line. LaVine drives and scores. Justifies Coach Donovan's decision to leave him out there. 51-51 4:39

Powell rejects Ball. LaVine has 9 points since he picked up his third foul. Really? DeRozan over KP. Green at the basket over Luka. Bulls making a run. THJ on a give-and-go from Luka. Luka dunk off DFS OR. Waved off. 54-61 at halftime. 

Mavs end the half 1-10. KP leading Mavs scorer with 11, but accumulated 3 fouls in 2 minutes to close the half. Ball and LaVine have 15 each. Mavs 4-17 from three, Bulls 9-17. Dallas with made free throw advantage of 8. Ball 5-6 from long range. Tim-Luka-Bullock combine to go 4-19 from the floor. This Mavs offense still looks pretty shaky, tbqh. Bally Sports crew congratulate Dallas for being down only 7. Aargh. 

THIRD QUARTER

Starting lineup back out. Vooch to the basket. Powell corner three from KP! THJ off good ball movement. Season high in scoring for Ball, who just hit his sixth three of the game. Timmy with another three off the bounce. Luka draws a shooting foul posting up Green. Hardaway pull-up off brush screen from Powell! DP swats away a DeRozan dunk! 68-73 7:29

Ball corner three over Luka. Powell from the opposite corner! Wow! LaVine reverse layup. Vooch-Green alley-oop. 71-80 5:39

Bulls 11-20 from three. Ball taking a rest on the bench. Yay! Luka off the window! DFS misses an open three in transition. Luka with a rainbow! Bulls just drilling us from the three-point line. Caruso hits. Luka-DP again! Lavine appears to travel on a drive to the basket. The refs wave bon voyage to him. Caruso an open three. Vooch posts up over Willie. Boban enters! Caruso and-one over a double team.  JB turns it over. Caruso makes it 5-5. 80-95 after three. 

Bulls ended quarter on 15-4 run. Bulls shooting 52% from three. This game looks to be getting out of hand rapidly. 

FOURTH QUARTER

Caruso from three again. The Caru-show. Brunson to the basket. 87-102 8:26

Bulls score again after the Mavs fail to secure a DR. KP hits. Bulls rim score over Brunson and Luka.  KP dunk gives him a season high. Hardaway three! Rookie three over Brunson. Luka overthrows cross-court pass, turnover. Vooch hook shot over KP. 94-111 5:17

This Bulls team looks really good.  Tim with another three. Luka looks like he might have gotten a knock. He and Vooch are yukking it up, so must be okay. 99-111 4:19

Starting lineup on the floor. LaVine dances past our defenders. Lonzo with a 360 degree dunk at the basket. 101-115 1:50

LaVine teed up for complaining. Timmy takes the technical free throw, misses. Deep bench released. 107-117 FT


ANALYSIS

Allowing the Bulls to shoot 48% from three was a killer, especially when Dallas shot a league-average 36%. The Mavs gave themselves a chance in the game with a 24-14 advantage in FTAs. Maverick point differentials were -8 on points from twos, -9 on points from threes, and +7 on made free throws. There’s your ball game. 


PLAYER NOTES

DONCIC (33 min).  Luka flirted with a triple-double, at 20-8-10, along with 4 steals. He had a rough shooting night, at 6-18 (1-6 3PTA). The Slovenian led the team in FTAs, but missed three of them (7-10). Bally thinks Luka’s struggles are mostly a matter of what the coaches are asking him to do, which doesn't come naturally to him or to the rest of the roster at this point. 

Kidd had some very pointed remarks after the game. Said we always expect Luka to be superhuman, and he was just average tonight (by his own standards, which means still better than most). Criticized the team for failing to step up and for having the wrong attitude. Said if the reporters want to know why Luka’s FG% is down, they should ask Luka. Wants Luka to keep staying aggressive. They would like to start posting him up more, so that he can have a little easier time creating for himself and his teammates. Luka is having to work too hard, and others need to expect themselves to contribute.

Brian Dameris commented that that unusual speech was not directed at Luka, but rather at his teammates. Acknowledging that KP and Tim had done their parts, Kidd  was making a public observation that Bullock, DFS, and the rest of them need to get with the program and take responsibility for putting points on the board themselves, rather than acting like that’s mostly Luka’s job. Shots across the bow!

HARDAWAY (33). Timmy had a 21-point outing, and was 5-9 from long distance. Looking very smooth, and taking responsibility for carrying a scoring load. Kidd thought he was “great.”

PORZINGIS (32). KP led the team with 22 points (9-16), and double-doubled with 12 boards. Season highs in both points and rebounds. Looked as good as we’ve seen him this season. Seemed confident, diversified his attack, moved well, and provided at least some rim protection. Kidd thought he had a very good evening, and complimented him for being aggressive and stepping up offensively. 

DFS (29). Dorian had 3 steals, and played some defense, but remained a non-factor offensively, taking only 5 shots and putting up only 5 points. 

BRUNSON (29). Brunson came out aggressively, and had 12 points (4-8) and 7 assists on the night. He looked good in the first half, but totally disappeared in the second (2 points, 1 rebound, 3 assists, 12 min). The Bulls had no problem repeatedly shooting over him. Love how JB has come along this season, but think the jury is still out, at least wrt the playoffs. Can get obliterated on defense against big, long guys, and his scoring is limited  or disappears when the opponent focuses on stopping him. 

POWELL (22). I thought Dwight acquitted himself well tonight. He had 12 points (5-6), including two corner threes (!), and also collected 4 rebounds and had two dramatic blocks. His presence enables him and Luka to execute PNR and alley-oop moves that they are actually comfortable with, and Dwight is efficient offensively. Mavs Twitter-Verse to the contrary, he doesn't deserve scapegoating for this loss. 

BENCH. Except for Brunson (arguably), the bench were fairly unimpressive in this one, except for stretch toward the end of the first quarter. REGGIE was 0-4 in 23 minutes, and otherwise had 2 rebounds and a turnover. STERLING put up 5 points and 4 boards in 17 minutes. All the other 7 players received less than 10 minutes each, and combined for 10 points, 3 rebounds, 2 dimes, 1 steal, and 3 turnovers, counting 2 minutes of garbage time for BURKE, MOSES, and GREEN. 

BULLS. This was another Miami-type game. The Mavs just ran into a more talented team, and probably did reasonably well to keep their final deficit respectable. Zach LaVine was a beast, with 23 points on 8-12 shooting. It was too bad the Mavs couldn’t take advantage when he was playing through foul trouble. Lonzo Ball was a killer with 21 points, 6 boards, and 6 assists, highlighted by 7-10 three-point shooting. Just unstoppable. Nik Vucevic impressed with 18 points, 10 rebounds, and 8-14 shooting. DeMar DeRozan had a mediocre shooting night (7-20), but still managed to put up a 17-7-6 line. Alex Caruso stepped up in the second half, and had 16 points and 6 steals off the bench. This squad looks to be one of the terrors of the Eastern Conference this season. 


OBSERVATIONS

The Bally studio crew critiqued the Mavs for surprisingly coming out lackadaisically on a night when they needed to be hitting on all cylinders. Thought the team were not nearly aggressive enough, and gave up too much three-point shooting. 

Kidd said he thought the team played 22 minutes of high-level basketball. Then allowed a Bulls run to close the second half and never recovered. Disappointed that during the Bulls runs, the team didn’t make shots and didn’t take advantage of the opponents on the floor. Overall, they should have defended Ball and LaVine better, and generally didn’t demand enough of themselves. The team (coaches and players) are going to have to do better than this to be competitive. 

For me, this was another tale of two halves. Dallas got off to another slow start, but managed to catch up and take the lead. They hung in for most of the first half, got within four early in the third, and then just cratered. Kidd was correct in his position that the players (at least those not named Luka, Kris, or Tim) need to demand more of themselves. If they had played at their best, it would have been more satisfying, and at least show some progress, but it’s hard to say whether they were up to getting the win in any case, without a whole basketful of things going just right. 

There are some things to be positive about. KP looks like he is coming along really well, which could be quite big for the team. Hardaway looks to be on a very good trajectory, not just with three-point shooting, but with a variety of attacking and passing moves, and wrt leadership on the court. 

We got some more intelligence about Luka’s struggles, including that he is being asked to do a lot of things that neither he nor the team is yet comfortable with, he is having to work too hard and that is affecting his play, he can’t humanly be Superman every single night, and the guys who are shooting blanks offensively need to step up and assume their share of the load. Luka is one of the planet's smartest basketball players, and I think he will work his way out of this. As for some of the other guys — TBD. 


NEXT. The Mavs face the Spurs on Friday. This is one of the “easier” matchups in the this stretch of the season, and our boys need to take advantage. I’m betting on them to do that.

[KillerLeft]

Predictable. Better team, better coach, more momentum, playing at home. 

I'm actually not that upset, really. You could tell Chicago expected to pull away early, and that the Mavs' runs in the 1st and 2nd surprised them a bit. 

Honestly, if you would've told me Luka was going to play like that I'd have envisioned it being a much worse game. 

Nobody is shooting well, except for Hardaway (kind of). Luka does not look like Luka yet (I'm betting he will start playing better at some point). 

Porzingis didn't play as well as he did in the last two - way, way, WAY too many forced turnaround bricks for my taste, but he's showing signs of shooting the catch-and-shoot ball better and he's moving well enough. I was a little disappointed in his on-ball defense against Vucevic and his rebounding left much to be desired, but overall it was still a better performance than I expected from him at any point this season. 

7-4 is not a bad place to be, considering how this team is playing right now.

[Omega_Supreme]

Predictable. Better team, better coach, more momentum, playing at home. 

I'm actually not that upset, really. You could tell Chicago expected to pull away early, and that the Mavs' runs in the 1st and 2nd surprised them a bit. 

Honestly, if you would've told me Luka was going to play like that I'd have envisioned it being a much worse game. 

Nobody is shooting well, except for Hardaway (kind of). Luka does not look like Luka yet (I'm betting he will start playing better at some point). 

Porzingis didn't play as well as he did in the last two - way, way, WAY too many forced turnaround bricks for my taste, but he's showing signs of shooting the catch-and-shoot ball better and he's moving well enough. I was a little disappointed in his on-ball defense against Vucevic and his rebounding left much to be desired, but overall it was still a better performance than I expected from him at any point this season. 

7-4 is not a bad place to be, considering how this team is playing right now.

I agree with most of this. 

What is most alarming with KP is the fact that he cannot lift us when Luka is having one of these games. 

• Rebounding was close between both teams
  
• Chicago hit a few more threes
  
• Turnovers were almost the same 
  

Now check out the Big 4 numbers 

KP, Luka, THJ, Brunson = 75 Points 

Derozan, Lavine, Vuc, Ball = 79 Points 

The difference in this game was Caruso. DFS and Bullock both had bad games and could not offset Caruso's 16.

[ItsGoTime]

Porzingis didn't play as well as he did in the last two - way, way, WAY too many forced turnaround bricks for my taste, but he's showing signs of shooting the catch-and-shoot ball better and he's moving well enough. I was a little disappointed in his on-ball defense against Vucevic and his rebounding left much to be desired, but overall it was still a better performance than I expected from him at any point this season. 

Team leading and season high 12 rebounds is not enough for you, esp when Powell got 4? I want him to get at least 1 block per game, that disappoints me in his game tonight.


7 assists from JB is great! More of that!

[KillerLeft]

Team leading and season high 12 rebounds is not enough for you, esp when Powell got 4?

I guess not. It's not really the totals I'm interested in, it's the tough ones he doesn't exert enough effort to get to when the game is in doubt. 

I'll not deny that the numbers look good or claim that there's a better rebounder log jammed behind him in the rotation, I just want him to fight for available possessions a little bit harder.

[ItsGoTime]

I guess not. It's not really the totals I'm interested in, it's the tough ones he doesn't exert enough effort to get to when the game is in doubt. 

I'll not deny that the numbers look good or claim that there's a better rebounder log jammed behind him in the rotation, I just want him to fight for available possessions a little bit harder.

Fair enough. I'd propose that he just doesn't have the strength to fight that hard for rebounding position so he has to use his height and long arms. Getting 3 offensive rebounds says he fought a bit though to me. Also, Favors, Theis or Holmes would have gobbled up those effort rebounds, too bad we didn't get one of them last offseason. Edit: Fully engaged Luka gobbles up effort rebounds too...son of a!

[hakeemfaan]

The Bulls should be the template for the Mavs.  A year ago whether they won or lost, we would be considered as favorites going in.  Now they unquestionably are.  

2 signings have made a huge difference. Lonzo ( who many of us here were begging the Mavs to chase as a perfect running mate for Luka) and Caruso. 

Target a big guard who can defend and some bench players that can make a difference.  With Luka here, the Mavs just have to be judicious for a quick retool. I am still hopeful of Josh Green playing that Caruso role. The kid seems to defend well whenever given minutes but not sure what is going on in that this is the 2nd coach who does not play him much, on a team that needs more defenders at the guard position. 

BTW. No matter how well Powell and Maxi play, I have never liked either because to borrow a RC phrase, I want bigs who can “play with force” and these 2 ain’t it. Especially if you have made your bed with KP as your 2nd star then get some complementary bigs who are tough and physical. WCS has the ability but just gives weird vibes.  Not sure if his head is fully in every game.

[Kammrath]

2 signings have made a huge difference. Lonzo ( who many of us here were begging the Mavs to chase as a perfect running mate for Luka) and Caruso.

Yep, both players I would have taken in a heartbeat....especially Caruso.

[Dahlsim]

I agree with most of this. 

What is most alarming with KP is the fact that he cannot lift us when Luka is having one of these games. 

• ....
  

KP lifting. First off, on defense, yeah I don't see a DPOY in his future but he can be an impact player on that side if he picks and chooses his moments.  He can't go too all out all the time, foul trouble risk and injury risk is too high.  He wasn't an impact much last night.  Chicago didn't encounter nearly enough problems at the rim. 

On offense, KP needs a go to move, an unguardable move near the basket that takes full advantage of his superior length.

He's always going to get good looks from 3 because at his height, it mostly can't be bothered.  Problem is he's not proving to be elite from 3 and other teams have players that will out shoot he and Luka both if its a 3 point shooting contest. 

His mobility looks better than it was, but.  As a drive and slash 7'+ small forward, he's not unguardable.  Its in his bag but its not elite enough to be used as a reliable advantage. 

Near the basket, in the paint, he's too long to guard.  Like Boban, but much more mobile to get to a spot.  

How about a Unicorn hook shot KP?    Ok, no one is going to do Kareem's beautiful sky hook again it appears, but a baby hook, seems quite feasible and at your height, almost as unguardable.  Hook, wash, rinse, repeat. 
The opponent can know its coming and do nothing about it except watch it or send a double team freeing up your teammates.

[ballsrchr]

Well...I'm a little disappointed in the game.  I was also a little surprised to realize that 4 of the Bulls starters are guys I wanted to see traded to the Mavs.  But...c'est la vie...I guess.

Slow start, yes, but then the Mavs settled down and played some pretty good ball--for most of the first half.  Second half devolved into the clank-fest that often happens when the Mavs find themselves down more than is comfortable.  In other words they quit penetrating and started settling for shots around the perimeter...and I mean "bad" shots around the perimeter.  Bad and quick shots around the perimeter.  All that did was give the Bulls a chance for more baskets and allowed them to pull away.

So.  We now have evidence that at least two teams are better than the Mavs.  I hate to say that because I am a Mavs homer who always votes for them to win.

I still think the game plan is hurting Luka's natural ability to lead, uplift, and involve the rest of the team in winning.  I'm not sure where that will lead...but it better start leading somewhere quick...

We are still at least two players short...and the fit of who we have still isn't--right.

I guess I'll sit back and wait for Mavs management to come talk with me...

C'est la vie.

[omahen]

The Bulls should be the template for the Mavs.  A year ago whether they won or lost, we would be considered as favorites going in.  Now they unquestionably are.

This is the tragedy of our offseason. Bottom dwelling Bulls without cap space pulled an offseason where they brought in free agents DeRozan, Ball and Caruso for Young, Sato and Temple. Huge influx of talent. Mavs with near max cap space signed Bullock.

[hakeemfaan]

This is the tragedy of our offseason. Bottom dwelling Bulls without cap space pulled an offseason where they brought in free agents DeRozan, Ball and Caruso for Young, Sato and Temple. Huge influx of talent. Mavs with near max cap space signed Bullock.

Dang. How did I skip DeRozan?  Love the midrange game and he is one of the few in the league still adept at it.   The off-season was a disaster due to all the front office change and turmoil. Plus Cuban seems to have got Nico and Kidd in to hit a home run in FA. The real need instead of wasting another decade trying to hit a home run is a GM who can make smart judicious moves. Especially when you are already handed something that most teams don’t have…a transcendent talent. Can Nico do that?  Did Cuban even ask him what his philosophy is?  Unfortunately we will have to wait and see because there is nothing to go on there.

[mavsluvr]

Predictable. Better team, better coach, more momentum, playing at home. 

I'm actually not that upset, really. You could tell Chicago expected to pull away early, and that the Mavs' runs in the 1st and 2nd surprised them a bit. 

Honestly, if you would've told me Luka was going to play like that I'd have envisioned it being a much worse game. 

Nobody is shooting well, except for Hardaway (kind of). Luka does not look like Luka yet (I'm betting he will start playing better at some point). 

Porzingis didn't play as well as he did in the last two - way, way, WAY too many forced turnaround bricks for my taste, but he's showing signs of shooting the catch-and-shoot ball better and he's moving well enough. I was a little disappointed in his on-ball defense against Vucevic and his rebounding left much to be desired, but overall it was still a better performance than I expected from him at any point this season. 

7-4 is not a bad place to be, considering how this team is playing right now.

Good observations. 

I was surprised to find after the game that I wasn't all that bummed about the loss itself. I think I had more or less braced myself for it. It was more about the failure to compete, especially in the second half. The Mavs aren't the most talented team around, and they are going to lose against some of the teams that are just better than they are. But I like to see them at least make a game of it. 

I don't think Kidd was just defending Luka for show. Without giving Luka a pass, I agreed with Kidd that this is far from being all on Luka. Just watching some of these other guys clunk up the offense was painful. Missing so many shots, for one thing, but also messing up his drives by being too close, making off-ball moves that actually dragged their defenders into Luka's area, making moves that didn't seem purposeful and resulted in their arguably being positioned worse than before, settling for bad shots, etc. I understand that they are trying new stuff and all, but I really hope their is some end-game in mind for this, and they're not just scrambling around out there with no clue about what they're doing. 

Speaking of bad shots, I think when Luka gets frustrated and the team is behind, he settles for way too many. This has been a characteristic of his since he got here. Last night, he indicated that he realizes that he has talked a lot about improving his shot selection, but hasn't really done much about it, and knows he has to be better. 

We have a little more intel (via Brian Dameris) on some of these big man lineups, including continuing to start Powell. The buzz is that their number one objective for the bigs at this point is not to overtax KP. They hope they don't have to give up games on that account, but they are willing to do so in support of that goal if they have to. They need a big man who can sprint out to the perimeter to defend, and they don't want to impose too much of that on KP for load-management purposes. Out of the remaining big men, with Maxi being out, they deem Powell the least of the evils. Hmm.

[Borkhan]

Just my thoughts btw. The team is not cohesive yet, did not yet gel together. Some players are just trying to prove themselves to find a place in he team, the others are regressing without visible cause, so basically they are going in all directions. They do try, I dont deny that, but the team does not look like Spartan phalanx for example, but more like the end of the lemmings panic run.

And to be specific:

• Luka, lets face it, is this season playing like a poor man's star, but also the others are showing just occasional moments of quality.
  
• if the starting line does not work ten times, why repeat it?
  
• Cauley Stein should not play at all till he rectifies his obvious mistakes and incompetence
  
• Finney Smith is questionable, should try some other player in his place, anyone
  
• imho the first part of the season is when you experiment the most with the team and Kidd is not doing that enough. you cannot experiment at the end of the season. If you haven unproven players give them a chance to prove themselves now, and I do not mean 2 minutes per game
  

Trade will definitely not magically solve this problem because:
A. Mavs does not have enough money and picks or will for real game changers
B. Stars just dont want to go to Dallas, prefer more glitzy and media saturated places
C. Stars also want more support than Luka in a slump, KP perrenialy injured, veterans slowly fading away and rookies not yet ready for real competition; with basically unproven GM and coach to boot
D. Mavs at this moment is not a contender, even playoffs are questionable - we will see after they meet other contenders

The only pleasant surprise up till now is Brunson.

I am afraid we will throw another year of Luka's brilliance away, with a caveat, that even this brilliance is up till now not visible. I hope it is not gone.

Just had to say it, thx for listening. Sorry for my rant, but I did have a hope for a better team, not a championship one (yet) but at least capable for a second round of playoffs. As it looks right now, that is a broken dream...

[KillerLeft]

The buzz is that their number one objective for the bigs at this point is not to overtax KP.

Yeah, I think this is the exact approach LA uses with Davis. I think in both cases, the plan is to end the season with the star playing the 5, but they're trying to reduce some of the wear and tear along the way.

[omahen]

Yeah, I think this is the exact approach LA uses with Davis. I think in both cases, the plan is to end the season with the star playing the 5, but they're trying to reduce some of the wear and tear along the way.

There is a difference - before injuries hit them last season, Lakers were good enough to easily cruise to one of the top seeds even while playing such suboptimal lineups. Still, this could be one of the reasons for too much wear and tear on LeBron last season which ended in injuries. 

I am affraid Mavs don't really have enough depth to be playing around like that. Hope I am wrong.

[mavsluvr]

Yeah, I think this is the exact approach LA uses with Davis. I think in both cases, the plan is to end the season with the star playing the 5, but they're trying to reduce some of the wear and tear along the way.

Very interesting comparison. I hadn't thought of that connection, but especially with Kidd being fresh from the Lakers, it probably makes some sense that the Mavs would approach it this way.

[KillerLeft]

There is a difference - before injuries hit them last season, Lakers were good enough to easily cruise to one of the top seeds even while playing such suboptimal lineups.

Oh, I completely agree, and it would certainly not be my approach. 

To add to your point, Davis can be counted on to play well in both the optimal and suboptimal roles, provided he's healthy. Porzingis cannot be, really. If it were me coaching this team for the first time ever, I'd want to quickly find and establish the optimal approach to winning now and worry about how to ensure it was firing on all cylinders come playoff time later.

[Mavs2021]

I don´t care how good his advanced stats are. Powell is a huge liability for this team and has been for almost a decade now. He kills the spacing of the whole starting unit and he can´t defend. Every team will gladly give up the 6-8 PPG he scores on dunks, when it makes it so much easier to defend Luka, KP, THJ and DFS. There are dozens of guys that can do his job on minimum or rookie deals.

[mvossman]

The Bulls should be the template for the Mavs.  A year ago whether they won or lost, we would be considered as favorites going in.  Now they unquestionably are.  

2 signings have made a huge difference. Lonzo ( who many of us here were begging the Mavs to chase as a perfect running mate for Luka) and Caruso. 

Target a big guard who can defend and some bench players that can make a difference.  With Luka here, the Mavs just have to be judicious for a quick retool. I am still hopeful of Josh Green playing that Caruso role. The kid seems to defend well whenever given minutes but not sure what is going on in that this is the 2nd coach who does not play him much, on a team that needs more defenders at the guard position. 

BTW. No matter how well Powell and Maxi play, I have never liked either because to borrow a RC phrase, I want bigs who can “play with force” and these 2 ain’t it. Especially if you have made your bed with KP as your 2nd star then get some complementary bigs who are tough and physical. WCS has the ability but just gives weird vibes.  Not sure if his head is fully in every game.

I think Frank has a better chance of being our "Caruso".  I like the Caruso signing as well.  Would have preferred that to Bullock given that we did not sign anybody else who could pass the ball.