Dallas Mavericks Offense Hits ROCKBOTTOM – Why Jason Kidd Needs to Make Real Changes

Dallas Mavericks Offense Hits ROCKBOTTOM – Why Jason Kidd Needs to Make Real Changes

Jason kid needs to make changes. Cha cha cha changes. We’ll tell you what they are today. It’s locked on Mavs. This is Cooper Flag and you’re listening to Locked on Mavs five. All these changes, you know, I still got my dog Dwight Pal. You are Locked on M. Your daily Mavericks podcast, part of the locked on podcast network. Your team every day. I’m going to get a city like back. And welcome. You are locked on the Dallas Mavericks, your team every day. My name is Nick Angstad, medium member covering the MS for 10 years. Thanks for being every day. Making lock on Maps your first listen each and every day. Making lockdown podcast network the number one sports podcast network out there. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. If you win, you get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Head to fanduel.com to get started. Joining me as always, my co-host, medium member, cover the M for 10 years, right alongside me, the change chain mail man. The one more thinking, what you got for me, Isaac Harris? I played somebody in our uh in one of my fantasy leagues this past week who was 0 and8. All right. Fantasy football. And so I played him. I was like, “Oh, dude. You just can’t I can’t be the guy now that loses to him to give him his first win of the season. Don’t be them.” And we thought we were going to have this situation with the Pelicans coming up on Wednesday of like you can’t be that guy. Like you can’t be that team. But we’re safe from it. Thank you to the Hornets for losing for for losing to the Pelicans. The Pelicans are now 1 and six instead of coming into the to Wednesday. Either way, 0 and seven. Dallas has to win this game. Absolutely. You got to beat the Pelicans. Must win for the Mavs. Some would say it would define the season. I would say if they do lose that game, it would define this season, especially early in the season. Today’s episode though, we’re going to talk about changes that Jason Kid has to make and decisions he has to make for this team. So, we’ll talk about obviously talked about Russell. I want to talk about Klay Thompson and then change the decision he needs to make. And then let’s just start with the Mavs offense, Isaac, because the Mavs offense is terrible. Like just absolutely terrible. Whatever they’re trying to do, whatever this Princeton offense, this new, you know, motion off, whatever they’re trying to run, it’s not working at all. No matter who’s on the court, it sound like he fell down. And it sound that’s what the Mavs offense sounds like sometimes when they go down the court. Just like they might as well just fall down. Did was that a drop or did you just say that? I said I’m sorry. Okay. The Mavs are 30th in the NBA in offense. 30th. Last. There’s 30 teams in the NBA. Go through some of their games and you just go by offensive rating. The Mavs have had one good offensive game. Literally one good one. They had 126.9 offensive rating against the Raptors. That’s in the 84th percentile. That’s great. Like that that was a that was a really good offensive game. A lot of it came in transition. All that. They’ve had one bad offensive game against Detroit. 110 was their offensive rating. That’s the 34th percentile. That’s bad, but it’s also their second best offensive game they’ve had this season. They’ve had five awful games. Awful games between a 94 offensive rating and 102 offensive rating. That is impossible to hard to do in the NBA right now. That is between the third and the eighth percentile. Like that is the lowest of the low. That is like they might as well have not tried. You could have just stumbled. Like teams could just stumble into games better than that. Five awful games so far out of seven where they’re just not even creating anything close to offense. The Mavs need to make some kind of offensive change, Isaac. They They have to make it. And it seems very obvious to us. And I don’t understand why this change seems so obvious to us and it hasn’t been made yet. Yeah. So, I think Miles Kelly would be the move. And honestly, they need shooting. They need shooting and unconscious shooting and he’ll bring that. They do. Yeah, they do need shooting. I have a one more thing coming out later on today on some offensive stats. Um, so I’m not going to give all of them right now, but one of my favorites is they’re tw they’re 28th in the league in field goal attempts per game. One of our biggest things just not even taking shots. Well, but this is like one of our things is like we have talked about how they haven’t been able to generate good looks and it’s not even generating good looks. They’re they’re just having a hard time generating looks like like they’re 28th in the league in that just 85 a game. Um and this type of offense is supposed to be fast. You know, they are high high in pace. I think they’re top five in pace, but that just tells you something that you’re worse a pretty high pace team, but you can’t generate shots. Um, and it would be a little bit different if you couldn’t generate shots and you’re shooting like high percentages and really efficient. You’re not really doing any of that. So, to your point, just nothing is working on offense outside of just a few players that like a Max Christie or um you know, PJ’s percentages went down a little bit, but like I’d say Max is probably having like if you’re just talking about single players, the best like single player season so far for Dallas. Um PJ is having a pretty good season so far. But yeah, it’s tough. And I think that decision for kid is what we keep on going back to is are you going to commit at some point to playing a point guard? Are you going to not just and for me I take it a step further. Are you going to commit to playing a point guard at all times? So whether you’re splitting minutes between DLO and Brandon Williams like you have a a point guard on the floor at all times. Try it. Heck, I mean, try it out there. Bring that hard. Let’s just do it. And it’s just like there’s never a moment and and you at least have one guy out there that you know can initiate the offense and all that. So, I think that’s a decision he’s got to make at some point. And I just don’t know when that Yeah. is what what’s it going to take to try something new on offense? My brain is still broken from what you just said. The Mavs are fourth in pace and 27th in field goal attempts. 28th. Get that number right. Uh I well I just looked and maybe maybe it updated since the game the game just ended but they’re yeah like that that is mindblowing to me like that just that just shows they’re just not they’re not even generating shot attempts at all. If you’re fourth in pace you should be like fourth in field goal attempts because you’re taking more because you have more possessions in each game. That doesn’t make that makes no sense to me. And to me, I think it’s you you went into this season and Nico Harrison decided not to make any major move to go get up go get some kind of guard, right? They they bring back Dante Exom. You signed Brandon Williams to this, you know, to this deal. You get Ryan Nemhard off of, you know, off of, you know, free agency after the draft and then you signed D’Angel Russell. That was your that was your answer. And honestly, it felt like the people forget about Frank, right? It felt exactly like that when we were asking about that we that people forget about Frank thing came from media day a couple years ago where the Mavs didn’t really have a backup point guard and we were like all right what are the Mavs going to do with backup point guard with Brunson gone and he was like well people forget about Frank and I was like okay just seems like you’re adding an aside and Frank has now become like the the butt of this joke sorry Frank no I would take Frank at this point honestly I would I would do but he’s it’s it became like it became such an infamous statement because it was more like well we have the answer The answer’s on the roster. We We’ve got these guys. We feel good about these guys. And the Mavs did the same thing this year. Well, D’Angel Russell, he’s going to come in and he’s going to do do a lot for us. You know, feel good about what Brandon Williams did at the end of last year. We we like Ryan Nemhard. Okay. Well, now you’re in bed with that decision. And now you’ve got to lean into it. And this thing with no point guards or the quote unquote flag at point guard that you has not really even like like happened really at this point. You have to now you’re in bed with a decision to play to have these point guards and for thinking about in bed a lot for it to be only be D’Angelo Russell. I’m tired I guess. Maybe I just want to go to sleep after watching after watching a bunch of Mavs offensive possessions and after looking at a bunch of Mavs offensive like stats today prepping for this show. I do want to go to bed. I’m done. Made me tired. Made me made me sleepy. But you you’ve got you’ve got to play a point guard and you got have the ones on the roster that you have and you just got you have to play them because it’s not working without one. The eye test and the numbers tell you to do it. So it’s like the eye test tells you you can watch these games and you’re like all right well they’re generating a little bit better offense whenever DLo’s out there or point guards out there. You want to look at some of the numbers too. DLO has the highest plus minus on the team right now in what plus 31. I had the total minutes in front of me. He’s played 161 minutes on the season. and he’s a plus 31. If you want to look at top lineup combinations for Dallas right now, the top threeman lineup combination that has a positive plus rating has played the most minutes is D’Angelo Russell, Max Christie, and PJ Washington. You go down a little bit further than that and a pretty like big outlier in a lot of because a lot of those are negative plus minuses. Uh but that positive one sticks out and then this one a little bit further down is DLO, Nagi, and Max Christie. They’re at plus 17. So you can go and look at a bunch of different combinations whether it’s twoman, threeman, fourman, and you’re going to see a common denominator right now and that’s D’Angelo Russell. And it just so there’s numbers that show you that you’re better with him on the floor. The eye test shows you that you’re better with him on the floor. And also your overall offense is horrible right now. Just absolutely horrible. So, I don’t know what else you got to like do to say you got to switch up some things. And I agree that some things have been because of injury. Anthony Davis obviously missed games. Lively’s missing some more games. Obviously, Kyrie is not playing. Like, they’ve they’ve had injuries where you’re like, “All right, well, these guys just aren’t aren’t available. Flag has had the the shoulder thing in game here here and there.” But it is not only injuries. You have this answer in front of you. And Jason Kid needs to needs to make the choice. He’s got to play D’Angelo Russell. I don’t know if this is a player that he didn’t he didn’t pick himself or he seems like he’s leaned into recently because he’s kind of had to with even more injuries to the Mavericks, but you’ve gota you’ve got to start him. You got to play him more. Coming up, I’ve got we’ve got even more numbers and I’ve got even more reasons why the Mavs need to play D’Angel Russell and something Jason Kidd needs to change with the way he’s approaching this season. We’ll talk about that in more coming. [Music] Today’s episode of Lockdown Mabs brought to you by FanDuel. FanDuel Sportsbook has all kinds of props and odds, things that you can use to get in on the action. Go check it out and see what is available for you. They’ve got all kinds of odds for Mavericks games or for any other NBA thing if you want to go check that out. So, go see what you have available in your area at at your time because by the time you’re listening to this, it’s probably completely different because they always change all the time. If I’m looking at Mavs Pelicans, we just talked about how the Pelicans finally won a game. Mavs seven-point favorites. They were 13-point underdogs against the the Rockets. So, that is a big swing from one game to the next for the Mavericks. seven point favorites against the Pelicans. So, if you feel real confident like, “Hey, the Mavs have to win this one. It’s a it’s a must-win game. You think they’re going to put $5 if you’re new customer and if you win, you get $300 in bonus bets plus whatever you win off that.” So, head to fan.com to sign up and play your game with FanDuel, official sports betting partner of the NBA. We’re also brought to you by Roui. We’re talking about the Mavs offense and there’s just enough excuses to go around, but you shouldn’t have excuses for yourself. 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That’s what we call our listeners listening every day. Raccoon squad’s not making any excuses. No, they’re not. They’re not. They’re spilling out words. They’re doing They’re doing everything right now. They’re just yelling. They’re doing all of it. We’re talking about the Mavs offense and decisions Jason Kid needs to make. He’s got to play D’Angel Russell more because you’re you’re in bed with the decision you’ve made at point guard and now you’ve got to make the move. You can’t make any excuses. You can’t just say, “Well, we we don’t have a point guard right now. We’re we’re we’re thin at point guard.” All right. Well, you have some on the roster. You have to yet now you have to play them because you’ve tried the thing with the no point guard. It’s not working. Real quick, we’re just going to take a side path real quick. Ver off path. The comment from Jason Kid about why Cooper didn’t get the ball a bunch. Yes. Yeah. Houston yesterday. Just incredible. Just an incredible quote of Do you have it in front of you? No. But the answer like the answer is like hey PJ had it going. Jason Kidd was asked what you know Cooper Flag he didn’t really have he wasn’t really involved in the second half. How can you what happened with Cooper Flag not being as involved and he said for Cooper I think the ball was finding PJ. He took full advantage of the situation. I thought Cooper played a great game on both ends. I don’t always tell you guys the truth. Cooper played a great game on both ends down the stretch. He made the right plays. Unfortunately PJ’s going and DLO has the ball. you trust that he’s going to make the right plays. I just think it’s a I just think it was a bad excuse to say like it’s not like PJ shot the ball every single time down the floor. Took 20 shots out of like the 89. Yeah. So, I just think I just thought it was kind of like a cop out of be like of why you didn’t get Cooper involved in the second half. And uh Hey, well, another guy was playing well. What? It’s not Well, he also said one guy was playing well and the other guy had the ball too. He didn’t like he didn’t like say Russell also had a good game. He just said he also had the ball and like that makes me so frustrated because it’s like well is the only way for Cooper Flag to have the ball. Is that the only way to get him involved? I guess sort of like I this offense you never know. I just it’s just frustrating to me. U the Mav starters. So basically, so I looked at some of these numbers on how to to look at, all right, well, D’Angelo Russell’s impact and how different it is. Cooper flag with Klay Thompson on the floor, which is like kind of been that starting unit minus 28.5 net rating. So they’re getting outscored by 28 and a half points per 100 possessions, which is just an efficiency stat on on scoring and defending. 87 offensive rating. 87 with those two guys on the court together, which is basically the starting lineup cuz that’s the only time they those guys really play together. That’s the zeroth percentile. Isaac zero doesn’t exist, but it’s zero. Yeah, it’s tough. I mean, all of Clay’s plus minus right now. Pretty tough. Well, because Klay only plays in that starting line. We’ll talk about Clay a little bit later. He only kind of plays in that starting lineup to begin the to begin the game, then third quarters, and a little bit in the fourth quarter. D’Angelo Russell and Flag on the court together. It’s not still not great. It’s a negative seven net rating, but the offense is 110. So, it goes from 87 to 110. That offensive rating is still bad, but at least it’s like, okay, we can we can work with that from there. Um, Cooper flag with DA Russell off the court in general is a negative 20 net rating. So, you go from negative7 with DA Russell and flag on, flag on, DA Russell off, negative 20. Plus, minus isn’t a friendly stat for Cooper right now. No, it’s it’s it’s not. But you see, when you play him with a point guard, at least it is understandable at that point. It’s understandably bad. The Mavs right offense right now is not understandably bad. Well, well, this is this is one of the decisions that I was think I was thinking for Kid that what is this what is in his power and what do I think he needs to try to like figure out when it comes to like some lineup combinations outside of the point guard stuff. And for me, I think when you’re looking at the most important players on the team, yes, AD’s hurt, you can’t do anything about that right now. Kyrie’s hurt, you can’t do anything about that right now. and of course Lively. The ne the two most important players on your roster right now are Cooper Flag and PJ Washington. And whether it’s right now or whether it’s moving forward in the future with a Derek Lively as the big man and like all this stuff like you’re going to want to play the combination of PJ and Cooper together today’s basketball and everything like those two guys got to work. like they got to fit like and that would be an awesome combination especially how PJ’s playing and where we think Cooper’s going right now shocking is not working them two on the floor together 148 minutes together minus 18 and you look at the ratings on that yeah – 18 plus plus minus in that net rating 95 offensive rating 113 defensive rating so yes we I could go down the line of like Cooper with this guy, Cooper with this guy, this one’s tough, this one’s tough. If there’s one that I’m looking at as a coaching staff and saying, “Hey, we got to make who are we playing? Who are the other three guys that we’re playing around these guys?” If I’m looking at some of the combinations of saying, “All right, DLO, Naji, and Max are at plus 17 as a three-man combo, or DLO, Max, Christy, and PJ together as a three-man combo or a positive plus minus.” I’m just really trying to examine who are the three guys that were playing with PJ and Cooper because those two guys we got to make work on the floor together. That’s I’m fascinated to see what Yeah. what who they try to play with those guys. This goes back to the frustration we had we were talking about on the show yesterday. It doesn’t seem like they’re trying to develop Flag or or trying to win now. It’s like you’re not doing either you do win now if you like play play a point guard. We’re like, “All right, we’re going to focus on this, you know, the we’re going to focus on the bigs. We’re It just doesn’t seem like they’re doing either thing.” And it’s just I’m very very You know, I I had a couple people like um when I was I tweeted out the other the other day about the Giannis stuff and I was like, “Hey, one of the points of the differences between what Kid was doing with Giannis and Milwaukee compared to what he’s doing with Cooper now was, hey, that Bucks team wasn’t a win now team.” Like, they weren’t operating like that. this Dallas team. I said they’re operating like a win now team. And I tweeted that out and now there’s all these people tweeting at me saying like, “Hey, win now. Let’s bet on this. Let’s” and I’m like, I’m not trying to say that they are operating and they have said the maths and their pocketbooks are showing that they are a win now team. And you know, I put the combination of like when you are paying Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, and Klay Thompson, three guys to be in your rotation to be starters 107 million combined dollars this season, then you are a win now team. Whether it’s resulting in wins or not, you’re operating and built to be a win now team. So that’s the I think there’s a there’s a difference between saying like hey I think this team is going to win a lot and whether hey this organization’s operating like a win now organization which I think they are. I think we spent a lot of the offseason not saying hey the Mavs are geniuses for doing all these things. We’re saying well this is what the Mavs are doing and it doesn’t seem like it’s matching some of the things that they’re saying about being win now. They didn’t they didn’t go out and get get an offensive creator. They decided to, you know, to change the offense, which I think was good, but then you have nobody, you didn’t have anybody to run it or have anybody step up like that. And imagine if they didn’t get Cooper flag. They didn’t win the lottery. Oh, we would be I mean, they didn’t give give up anything to get Cooper. So, there’s a real world in which they land at 11 in the draft. They have another rookie that’s playing right now and there’s still all the same injuries that’s happening, but you don’t have the hope and like joy of, oh, we got Cooper to that’s Well, who would it have who would it have been? Like I mean, there’s different Yeah, I mean, we were looking at guards and stuff. Then Fears end up going a little higher. Fear. Yeah, Fears was one we looked at. Uh they could have maybe got like Cedric Coward, but or Igor Deon. We we talked about Demond a lot. Well, Deon went really high to Brooklyn. Um, but yeah, I think C I think Coward could have been there, but Coward isn’t selling We’re not selling Well, not selling Cedric Coward jerseys a ton right now. Flag jerseys. I’ve seen lots of flags. I know. Flag jerseys. Yeah, but I’m saying if it was if it was Cedric Coward, I don’t think that uh the the hanger is like flying off the shelves with Cedric Coward jerseys right now if they’re two and five. You think the Coward jerseys is not a good one? Like to wear Coward on back? I love Cedric Coward. I think he’s great. Well, he’s he’s been really good. I just listen to Logan Grizzlies and they were raving about him how good he’s been for him. But but that jersey just doesn’t hit as well as the Zero Fears one. I think some people might be buying it for somebody else if they were buying it to give it to a certain coming up. Jason Kid is making decisions it seems like based on one thing and not the other. And I need him to change on that. We’ll talk about that. 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That’s the second level for teams needing an advanced payroll, HR, and time tracking, which is interesting. You also do the scaling business. That’s the premium one for scaling businesses needs, comprehensive payroll, benefits, HR solution, dedicated support, all that stuff. You can go check it out again at gusto.com/lockdon NBA. Shut it down. Let’s go home. All these changes. And you know, I still got my dog Dwight P. All the changes. So many changes. All right, Isaac. We’re talking about changes Jason Kid needs to make for this Mavericks team. Right now, we focus a lot on offense because that’s the side of the ball that has just struggled. Like I going into the season, I was worried about offense. You were worried about offense. We talked about offense a lot in the offseason, but I thought like, ah man, they’re I thought they’d be 24th, 25th, and I’d be like, ah, man, this is this is where the mass they’ll get there. They’ll get to like, you know, where the Magic have been the last couple of years. Magic been hanging around 21, 20th, and they’ll be like, “All right, well, but their defense is good enough and they’re winning games, but their offense is just bad.” This is worse than I even had thought. And to me, I think Jason K is making the decisions with this team right now. You said something earlier that made me think about this. You said the eye test is saying one thing, the numbers are saying the same thing. Like it seems like between the eye test and the numbers, decisions are not being made that make sense. And so he’s coaching on instinct. His instinct says, “All right, with this this Princeton offense, we’ve got to run it. We’ll run it with no point guards and then eventually this team will get it together and like it will run better later on in the season than it’s do than it’s going right now.” And it’s just not getting run like at all right now. And it’s just very frustrating. he needs to go off of, all right, what does the it say? What do the what do the numbers say is working? And go off of that cuz they just need to get it to work right now instead of like, all right, let’s try and optimize this so that it can be elite later on in the season. You don’t have that luxury right now. It’s got to be better right now. Yeah. And I mean, the biggest one of the biggest things about this offense is you got to run it through the big man. And you know, we when you start talking about this offense and Trio’s offense stuff, him coming from Sacramento, a lot of people are like, “Oh, okay. through 80’s the new Sabonis. They’re going to run a lot of DHOs’s and all the different stuff with the offense. Well, AD’s been hurt. So, it’s like you were already kind of looking rusty in this off offense, but it’s like you kind of like one of the big decisions of going to this offense was because it hinges so much on running a lot of things through that big man. And you got that big man in AD that when he’s healthy, he can do all the things that you want in that big man spot in that type of offense. but now he’s out. So, it’s like you can’t even like refine the things of all right, it’d be like that. That’s one of the things. It’s like it’d be different if like you still had all the pieces and then you’re like, “All right, well, we’re just trying to we’re getting more comfortable, but that that can’t even happen because now it’s like, all right, Lively, I don’t even know what’s going on with Lively now.” Like, there’s not even a timet. Lively is just out. They’re going to both be re-evaluated now that they’re back home for they’re home for this game. Lively and AD are not going to play in this game against the Pelicans, but they’re going to get reevaluated this week at some point since they’re back home. So, we’ll see. Well, I mean, we could find out. All right, here we can find out. We can find out anything, and I’m not going to believe anything they say. I’m not going to lie. Like, they they’re going to say Lively, he’ll be out for three weeks. All right, I’m going expect five until until Sham says something or McMahon or Ste. I don’t know. I guess has Sham’s been right about the stuff. It’s like he’s only hearing the stuff that the team tells him. I know. But what there was a difference between when AD and Kid were both like, “Hey, it’s dayto day.” And then we get a PR release later the same day. It’s like he’s going to be out the next two days and reevaluated when we get back to the house. I’m like, “That’s not dayto day.” Like what? So that’s two days from today. Yeah. That’s that’s where it’s like a little little tough with it. But they played uh You want to take a guess how many minutes AD and Lively played together this season? This season? Yeah, it wasn’t it wasn’t a lot because we were trying to figure out is it 20 minutes? Close. 29, man. 29. When do you think we see that number increase where both of them are on the floor together at the same time? I’m going to make both. Um cuz like it’s a super small sample size, but it’s like they’ve played 29 minutes together and it’s a positive plus net positive net rating. It’s a decent defensive rating. Uh, from what I remember, I didn’t write write it down, but it’s just 29 minutes. That’s kind of hard to Yeah, that I mean, that’s nothing like that can happen in the game. That can happen in the game. It is kind of funny to look at fiveman lineup combinations and like those numbers for Dallas because they’ve had so many different combinations that the highest like Yeah, it’s it’s just insane. And how many years in a row are we going to do that too where it’s like the Mavs, remember we did that whole thing with with lineups last year where it’s like the Mavs most used lineup was, you know, was not even anywhere close to the fifth most used Knicks lineup or whatever because they had played the most. We’re just going to do this every single year. And so there are like there are there are excuse there are reasons the Mavericks offense has been this bad. But I think that going back to your thing about AD and using him in his offense, they talked about how they were going to use him as the hub. But as soon as the hub was out, it like it couldn’t have fallen apart because it wasn’t together in the first place. But it’s like they didn’t have a they didn’t have a second thing to go to. I’m like that seems like a that seems like a problem. Well, it’s just all the the the fallbacks that you could have for let’s just say like health and it’s like this is why I don’t buy the has injuries hurt 100%. Like for sure, but like this is why you can’t like hang your hat on all of it being injuries because it’s not like before injuries happened you were just I mean the Suns offense from back in the day like it’s not like you were just rolling one of the best offenses in the league and then injuries hit dang we couldn’t even like see it very much. No, you were struggling. It’s not like you can look at it and say well you know what the star that we traded Luca for he’s in like peak like peak version. Even if the offense was kind of rusty, we know that he’s gonna he can put up like 40 to 45 and carry us one night, whatever. He was putting up some counting stats, but he he hasn’t looked the same since then. So, and it’s not like like you have all the pieces to run the system to where all right, you know what, the offense hasn’t worked too much, but it’s just going to take time. We know we have the right pieces. No, you like you got to have shooters for this system to work. And we could go down, pick your stat, like spin the wheel and pick your stat on catch and shoot shots. Like I mean, I’ll give you another one right here. Unguarded unguarded catch-and-oot shots for Dallas this year. 84 attempts, 29% on unguarded catch-oot shots. So, you don’t even have the shooters for you to be like, “Ah, this offense is just going to take time. We have the pieces.” So, it’s like you don’t have the pieces. You don’t like the star player isn’t looking like a star player right now. And like there’s just so much stuff is the caveat behind the well it’s just injury. It’s not just injuries. So yeah, but you gota you got to have health to figure everything out too. So that’s it’s like that saying like you got you can only deal with the cards you’re dealt. Okay. Well, they were dealt cards and we could kind of foresee this happening with some of these guys being out and the cards were still like some like they put them they put them down and some of them were face down. It’s like they didn’t even play they didn’t even play some some of their cards. One of them’s an uno card. It’s like I frustrating. My last thing. Can I do one more thing? Of course. Ding. Stop yanking Clay around. He’s a bench player right now. That’s how he’s playing, right? Like he’s playing Can I count Can I counter you this on this though? like in a second. Okay. He’s playing starter minutes or he’s playing he’s playing with the starters and he’s playing like three and a half minutes in fourth quarters and he’s just not really even playing. Like why why even start him? He’s doing the he’s doing like the Dwight Pal memorial starting spot from the 2022 run. Like it’s just and you’re starting off really slow and I I just think that I just think it’s doing a disservice to everybody involved. And then then Clay’s frustrated that he’s not playing at the end of games. You see where he smacked the he smacked the water bottle off the the mouse loss the other day. I don’t know what he exactly he was frustrated about. Could have been anything. But yeah, I mean he didn’t play very much at all late in that game. And so you’re frustrated. He’s just he’s he’s not he will not be a closing player for the Mavericks right now. And so I you got to like give him that reality. Yeah. So I guess my whole thing I want to say this first. Max is better than him right now. Uh, Max deserves to start more than him right now. Um, that’s just on both ends of the floor. Max is a better player than him right now. I say that, but I also say I also don’t think it matters that much. Max is Max is playing 30 minutes a game. Klay is playing 20 minutes a game. Max has been closing games. Clay hasn’t been closing games. Like I I just it would be different for me if that was switched and Clay was playing 30 minutes a game and Max is at 20 and they’re forcing Clay to finish these games and Max is sitting on the bench and all like they’re at least adjusting some of that and he’s like you’re seeing that it’s just that starting unit I can’t like I I hear you with that the starting unit but to to me it’s more about it’s more about Clay and Clay knowing what his what his role is because right now he’s a starter. And then he’s just not playing in fourth quarters at fourth quarters at all. And he’s that’s why that’s why I said that’s my my thing was stop yanking Clay around because it’s like all right is he a starter is he like a main rotation player or is he just like a starter like Dwight Pal was in 2022 when they would they would start and play him like four minutes and bring in Maxi. You know what I mean? Do you think Clay knows that though? Like I mean he’s at 20 minutes a game right now. This is by far the lowest amount of minutes per game that he’s ever played in his career. I mean, last year was at 27 minutes in his here in Dallas. So, if it stays at 20, that’s a huge drop off for him. So, I just feel like So, so that are they only starting him because that’s the only time they can actually play him minutes. I was going to say I think the other I mean either you just don’t play him at all or like how how much lower than 20 minutes are you going to go? 12. Well, the answer is that Russell should start over him and then he could he could I think he could still come off the bench. I know. I I agree. Yeah, he could do that. I’m with you that I think Max should start over him. I just don’t think Max is The problem is Max is starting with him. Well, yeah, because the injuries like Yeah. I just don’t think it’s that big of a deal because his role is already reducing as I mean it’s we’re seven games in and it’s it’s already going down. But I I’m from his perspectives perspective, wouldn’t it be weird like he’s playing the lowest minutes of his career and he’s still a starter? Like it’s probably the only thing he’s hanging his hat on right now as a pro. I think he I think he can hang his hat on a lot. Like personally, I mean this has been a theme for you in the show. So he’s he’s just been he seems like he’s doing all right in life. He is. I am worried. I I am um yeah, I am curious to see what the next few months looks like for Clay in Dallas if they stay committed to this system. Um yeah, it just seems like that’s a prime contract that they would use to offload. But then again, it’s like what’s the what’s the value of that contract right now around the league? Do you have to attach something to it? Like I still feel like there’s teams around the league and some um players and stuff you can match with salary to where teams would love to have some clay shooting and stuff right now if they have more of a what what do you think Klay is shooting on catch and shoot threes right now percentage he’s taking 5.1 a game catch and shoot shots I think it’s better than what he’s um I don’t know 35 22% dang because it’s always the off the like the one foot off the ones I’m like. Yeah, I was. Yes. Frustrating. Lots of frustrating things for the Mavs offense. Uh check back in this feed. I will have one more thing a little bit later today talking more about the offense. We’ll have a postgame show for you all throughout every single postgame this season. Guys, thanks so much for listening to Locked on Mavs. Peace out. Boom.

The Dallas Mavericks are struggling on offense as the NBA season starts, raising big questions about what needs to change for the Mavs to succeed. Can Jason Kidd make the critical adjustments for Cooper Flagg, Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, and the rest of the Mavericks to get back on track and compete in the tough Western Conference?

Nick Angstadt and Isaac Harris break down what’s going wrong with the Dallas Mavericks offense, why key decisions about the starting lineup and point guard play are crucial, and what changes are needed from Jason Kidd and the Mavs organization. This episode dives into the situations of Klay Thompson, Dereck Lively II, Anthony Davis, and PJ Washington, as well as analysis on D’Angelo Russell, Naji Marshall, and Brandon Williams. Hear how the front office decisions by Nico Harrison and the direction under Jason Kidd are being tested, plus what Mavericks fans can expect as the team faces challenges against the New Orleans Pelicans, Toronto Raptors, and other NBA teams.

Unlock insights on Cooper Flagg’s role, injury updates for Anthony Davis and Dereck Lively II, and what it will take for the Mavs to realize their potential this season. Get updates on lineups, rotations, offense struggles, and coaching strategy, plus commentary on Luka Doncic, Mark Cuban, Patrick Dumont, and more. Subscribe for the latest in-depth Dallas Mavericks and NBA coverage all season long!

0:00 Jason Kidd’s Needed Changes
12:29 D’Angelo Russell’s Impact
23:09 Klay Thompson’s Role Debate

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