DFS II: Return of the Doe-Doe

[SwisherPrice]

^Yeah I agree that it all comes back to the style of play that the Mavs and Luka want. If they are still obsessed with copying the Moreyball/Harden Rockets then we will continue to see high-usage Luka and a bunch of one-dimensional shooters who live and die by the three. And that's never going to be sustainable to win 4 playoff series for a championship. Those role players are eventually going to go cold at the worst time. Players like DFS and Bullock are still useful in a rotation but not worthy of logging some of the highest minutes per game on the team like the past two seasons. 

If they ever decide to evolve past that, I think the Mavs can find some affordable players to fill these roles if they have capable scouts and a front office who know what to look for (but we know that's asking a lot).

These don't have to be players who average a ton of points or need the ball a lot of themselves - just look at the guys Miami has like Strus, Vincent, Robinson, Martin. All of those players were important for their playoff run and worked well with Butler and Bam. KCP and Bruce Brown played big roles for Denver but their skills are not just limited to standing around and shooting threes. 

Mavs Moneyball had a good piece this week on this topic: https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2023/6/12/...cks-evolve

This is why I called the Mavericks’ roster building belief pervasive — it feels like a philosophical Stockholm Syndrome. A narrative has been built about the specificity of a roster around Luka, and it usually involves a stretch big, a roll big, a couple of 3-and-D wings and another shot creator. It’s a standardized set of allocated roles. A half-decade ago, everyone was copying “Morey-Ball”, the analytics-friendly construction of a well-spaced roster built around the pick-and-roll, coined after then-Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey. Now it seems like the NBA is moving toward prizing the intersection of size, skill, athleticism and ball handling.

The truth is, Luka does need to up his game as an off-ball player. The hypothesis is that, if you surround him with many other players who can handle, pass and process the game, it will push him into it. At the very least, make use of his off-ball gravity (that exists even if he barely moves because he’s Luka-Freaking-Doncic). In 2022, this happened much more — the team spoke of something they called “the blender,” where shading toward Luka meant other players had room to drive and kick, creating the sorts of threes-or-layups shot quality we associate with the Warriors and Nuggets. It’s hard to replicate the best shooter ever and the best passing big-man ever as far as gravity, but you can still work toward that model instead of away from it. Luka with a decoy post-up, improving as a shooter off the catch, being the hub for dribble hand-offs. Have guys around him who make those actions beneficial, and maybe Luka does them.