STATE OF THE MAVS: 5/8 Point

[KillerLeft]

I'm not sure if it is the players or the game plan but I'm starting to question the offensive strategy.  I couldn't agree more about your KP half a step a comment and it's why I'm leaning towards the team strategy as the issue.  There has to be a way to put KP and others in better positions to succeed on that end of the floor.

We're all agreed that the offense isn't working. 

I don't think it's the strategy, personally, I think it was the choice to completely take the offense for granted in what was an extremely short and rushed pre-season relative to normal years in an effort to completely change the defensive culture overnight. 

To my eye, the result has been that players are simply not in sync on the offensive end. Like, at all. People cutting at the wrong times, rotating at the wrong times or to the wrong place, then the passing angles are weird, the passes aren't as crisp, shots aren't in rhythm, etc, etc, etc.

What's REALLY frustrating is that all of this was showing signs of improvement right before the Covid crisis hit. Now, it's like everything has been reset to square 1.

[cow]

We're all agreed that the offense isn't working. 

I don't think it's the strategy, personally, I think it was the choice to completely take the offense for granted in what was an extremely short and rushed pre-season relative to normal years in an effort to completely change the defensive culture overnight. 

To my eye, the result has been that players are simply not in sync on the offensive end. Like, at all. People cutting at the wrong times, rotating at the wrong times or to the wrong place, then the passing angles are weird, the passes aren't as crisp, shots aren't in rhythm, etc, etc, etc.

I'm not sure KP is being used any different this year than last when he and Luka are on the floor together.  I'm not sure why they don't run a hell of a lot more pick and roll together.  I'd also like to see KP rotating to the corners more for his 3PAs.  

Another eye test thing for me is that teams have gotten better at predicting and game planning for Luka's cross court corner passes.  Seems those are getting tipped or picked off much more frequently this year.

[Kammrath]

Another eye test thing for me is that teams have gotten better at predicting and game planning for Luka's cross court corner passes.

100% this. Team's are READY for Luka, you can see a marked difference from last year in their defenses against the Mavs.

[Scott41theMavs]

I want to eat crow on how hell-bent I was on the Mavs not cutting Iwundu. JJB would likely help a lot more than he is.

[cow]

I want to eat crow on how hell-bent I was on the Mavs not cutting Iwundu. JJB would likely help a lot more than he is.

He showed so much promise during his first game playing defense like his pants are on fire.  Too bad he's in the running for our worst offensive player.

[KillerLeft]

I'm not sure KP is being used any different this year than last when he and Luka are on the floor together.  I'm not sure why they don't run a hell of a lot more pick and roll together.  I'd also like to see KP rotating to the corners more for his 3PAs.  

I am sure he is being used differently, just not in the positive, two-man way you're asking for (and I would also like to see). I think they're DESPERATELY feeding him at both elbows. Like, a ton. And it sucks. 

But, this wasn't my point. My point is that every possible 5 man combo has at least one person who looks completely out of sync with the rest, as if they simply haven't actually spent TIME practicing and drilling the actions they like to run and how they adjust and evolve when countered by different defensive strategies. 

Basically, the offense hasn't looked prepared, even to do what they think they already CAN do, let alone adding anything new.

[KillerLeft]

I want to eat crow on how hell-bent I was on the Mavs not cutting Iwundu. JJB would likely help a lot more than he is.

Totally agree, and the ironic thing is that had they gone the other way, we'd still have a bunch of people pissed about it. It's not like people would say "hmm, the team is playing about as well as expected, instead of surprisingly awful. I guess it WAS smart to keep Barea around!"

[MrGoat]

Not looking good right now. Last season our offense was ranked 1st and our defense was ranked 18th.

A quarter through the season and our offense is ranked 15th and the defense 20th. I'm not sure whether the offensive or the defensive number is more disappointing but we need to figure something out.

Were Seth Curry and JJB really that important to the offense? For all the talk of our new defensive identity why did it regress even further? Can we blame the covid offseason for our apparent lack of chemistry?

[Kammrath]

Now dropped to 12th in the West......

[cow]

Now dropped to 12th in the West......

We will not be 12th for long.

[Branduil]

Not looking good right now. Last season our offense was ranked 1st and our defense was ranked 18th.

A quarter through the season and our offense is ranked 15th and the defense 20th. I'm not sure whether the offensive or the defensive number is more disappointing but we need to figure something out.

Were Seth Curry and JJB really that important to the offense? For all the talk of our new defensive identity why did it regress even further? Can we blame the covid offseason for our apparent lack of chemistry?

I think figuring out the defensive problems are relatively easy, considering we were ranked 2nd until we got decimated by COVID and lost all our best defenders.


The offense is a much bigger puzzle. There are obvious chemistry issues, but I'm also not sure how to explain or fix how absurdly bad the Mavs are at shooting wide-open threes right now.

[Kammrath]

The Mavs are now 13th in the West....just over a quarter of the way through the season. Wow.

[donzingis38]

Mavs now have the 2nd most losses in the west and yet the 8th seed only has 1 more win than us. Weird.

[cow]

The Mavs are now 13th in the West....just over a quarter of the way through the season. Wow.

I told you we wouldn't be 12th for long.  

[dirkfansince1998]

The Kings are in front of the Mavs. Might as well move the franchise to Mexico.

[MrGoat]

The Mavs are now 13th in the West....just over a quarter of the way through the season. Wow.

Well it's still early enough and there's enough parity that we're only 2 games out of the 6th seed.

Hard to say this isn't a disappointing start, circumstances and all though. This is still a young team, I think we set the expectations a bit too high.

[ThisIStheYear]

Magic, Jordan, Lebron, Bird. The Mavs have a player of that caliber now coming off a first team all NBA season. How did those teams do in year 3? That’s my expectation.

Edit: Bulls basically weren’t that great, so some hope I guess.

[bartlettbear]

KP in high post feeding Luka in low post, the Mavs need to play through Luka in the low post , with a shooter Hardaway in string side corner and elite finisher week side, WCS opposite week can be Richardson hard to double from there to low block. HE can also cut if need be. Luka is taking too many three pointers along rest of the team.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

^^ And his shooting % on 3's has dropped to 30%. Needs to take more midrange, where he's fantastic.

[SwisherPrice]

KP in high post feeding Luka in low post,  the Mavs need to play through Luka in the low post , with a shooter Hardaway in string side corner and elite finisher week side, WCS  opposite week can be Richardson hard to double from there to low block.  HE can also cut if need be.  Luka is taking too many three pointers along rest of the team.

The team relying on the 3-pointer has become the trend over the last 4 years and I think RC is to blame because of this flawed philosophy. I don't think RC and the MBT really know what they're doing in terms of adapting to today's game. Sure, every team is shooting more threes but RC seems to think that it's as simple as just launching them up and building your entire offense around that style. They want to copy the Warriors and D'antoni Rockets but it just doesn't work like that for every team. 

Luka's usage rate is way too high. No team should ever put that much pressure on a 22 year old player...I don't care how good he may be. That's just not putting your best player in position to succeed long-term.