DISASTER: Dallas Mavericks CRUMBLE Despite Cooper Flagg’s Efforts – What’s NEXT for Jason Kidd?

DISASTER: Dallas Mavericks CRUMBLE Despite Cooper Flagg’s Efforts – What’s NEXT for Jason Kidd?

On today’s show, the Dallas Mavericks have no more excuses for a game like this. Absolutely none. Disaster for Jason Kid, the Dallas Mavericks, and more. Today’s locked up abs. This is Cooper Flag, and you’re listening to Locked on M. [Music] All these changes, you know, I still got my dog. You are locked on, your daily Mavericks podcast, part of the locked on podcast network. Still can’t leave. Your team every day. Mike back and welcome. You’re locked on the Dallas Mavericks. Your team every day. My name is Nick Angstead. Medium member covering the M for 10 years. Thanks for being every day or making locked on apps. Your first listen each and every day. 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. Join me as always, the postgame prodigy from the great Slightly Bias YouTube channel. Oh, what you got for me? Slightly biased. I’m a little nervous. Well, I mean, this is a this is in theory, this is a game a few months from now, we’ll say that’s a good loss right there. Cooper Flag did things. You lost the game cuz this team will be tanking and the season’s probably over. Like, I’m just not sugar coating it anymore. They’re two and five. If you can’t beat the Wizards at home, if you can’t beat the Pelicans at home, if you’re in dog fights with the Pacers, if you’re in dog fights with the uh who was the other I don’t even remember what other teams. The Raptors before the Raptors figured it out and you’re getting blown out by every other team. I don’t know when you’ll win. So, I’m just I mean, you’re injured. That’s cool. Uh and I wouldn’t care. Like the first overall pick, Coupe had a great game tonight. That’s everything you want to see from your your number one overall pick. So, that’s why I’m saying in a few months we’ll be like, “That’s a good game. That’s a good loss. Like, that pushes the tank forward. Coup played good. Like, all this is great.” Uh the reason I’m so angry is like, “Dude, we went to the finals 16 months ago.” You know what I mean? And that got ripped away completely and this this franchise is lost and hopeless. I mean, that’s just really it. We’ll talk about Cougar Flag. We’ll talk about the We’ll talk about PJ Washington. We’ll talk about the new starting lineup that that Jason Kid rolled out there. But we got to start here slightly uh with just what you said, absolute disaster. There’s just no other way to sugarcoat it. Going into this game, Pelicans were 1-7 or 1-6. They had started 0 and6 and won a game against the Hornets, who played nobody last night. Second night out of a back toback for the Pelicans, too, a travel backtoback. And you come in this game, no Zion Williamson, no Dejonte Murray, no Eve Mei, missing multiple players. Willie Green was a dead man walking in his job, right? Like we were waiting. There’s there’s multiple people here that were like, well, maybe if they lose this game by enough, could Could Willie Green like not even make it back to them? They’re doing like this weird thing where they’re playing the Spurs in a couple days, but they’re going to fly back to New Orleans. Maybe they just leave them there. And that turned out to not be the case at all. This Dallas Mavericks team was absolutely horrendous. And yes, they did have a shot to win this one. Cooper flag, that very last shot at the end there, had a chance to win the game. And I still think I would have been upset about this game because the Mavs get 101 offensive rating. I knew that this offense was going to take a while for to for it to actually look good for the Dallas Mavericks. I’m not even asking for good anymore. I’m just not I’m just asking for not 30th by multiple points. They were last in the NBA on offense by two whole points going into today. And they’re not going to get any better because it was a worse offensive game against the 29th ranked defensive team. Absolutely awful. Jason Kid changes the starting lineup. Does what we all asked him to do and said, “Hey, put D Russell in there. Actually play a point guard.” He played Dandel Russell and Brandon Williams for most of this game out there. He put Dangel Russell out there. He started him and Del Russell was awful. It was like the Mavs are just running out of excuses all up and down and people were like, “Oh, everybody scapegoated Clay and then Klay got sent to the bench and then actually Klay played well.” I thought Klay did actually play well well in his minutes in this one. Hit some shots, had a couple of uh good defensive plays here and there, but the Maz make this change in the starting lineup and they go they start the game 0 and 0 for nine. Like they are down nine points. They miss like their first they shot one of 11 in the paint to start this game. They missed their first like six or seven shots. Just absolutely disastrous. And it’s just up and down like nobody can escape blame tonight except for maybe PJ Washington and and Cooper flag. That’s probably it. Yeah. I mean it’s funny cuz the game starts Max Christie. Um the Pelicans initiate a challenge one uh 30 seconds into the game. 43 seconds in. The Mavericks go about four game minutes without scoring. The fans stand if you’ve never been this fans stand until the Mavs make the first shot. So, I heard from people there that there was seven or eight people who passed out from exhaustion standing for 30 minutes. I cannot I cannot cooperate cooperate those reports. Oh, maybe I got lied to you then. But, uh I mean, look, I I’ll go I’ll zag off you real quick. All right. I don’t got much to say about the players, man. I don’t got much to say. Um it’s not y’all’s fault. That’s it. It’s not y’all’s fault. There’s got there’s got to be some culpability by the players. No, because this tonight is the night where I will say tonight will be the night, Nico. It’s It’s done for me. Like, I haven’t even gone here because I thought I just don’t like talking about it and rehashing it. But like, man, look at where this franchise is at, man. Look at where it is. This is the biggest disaster in sports. Self-inflicted disaster possibly ever. And I just don’t get it. And dude, you’re two and five, seven games of the season. You’ve played two games away from the American Airlines Center. Yeah. Play one road one road game and one neutral sight game in a different country. You can’t beat this Pelicans team and I don’t know there’s these stats going around and their numbers about Zion historically and they are so terrible. Look at the roster. Look at the talent. Trey Murphy didn’t play well at all tonight. I mean, who Yeah. I mean, but the funny thing is I watched the game like, “Yeah, DL was terrible tonight.” And of course, like we go to we go to bat for him. We’re like, “We need to start him. He needs to start.” and he was dreadful tonight. Um, but you know, he still has helped this team out so far. So, outside of that though, like they missed some shots. I thought their offensive process was like pretty decent early on at least. I mean, it was decent. I thought early on they actually got some good shots. I really did. Well, I just But I I just don’t think there is an offensive process. How could there be? How could you How could you have this many bad games? They I I posted the stat earlier today that there have been 15 games this before coming into tonight. 15 games of a team having under 101 offensive rating. Under 101 the league average is like 100 league average is like 112. Under under 101 15 games the Mavs have had five of them and now they’ve had six of the 16. Like just absolutely awful. Like there’s that that part I don’t blame the players because if it’s that bad every single night then it’s like everybody in this in the class failed the test and so then it’s on the teacher for not teaching. You know what I mean? Like if everybody fails the the test then it’s probably on the teacher for not teaching it. And so I I come into this game going Willie Green was the one on the hot seat. But if Jason kid didn’t have an extension like I’m I’m looking at him after a game like this. But if the Mavs have a different plan if they’re like all right we’re going to do what Slightly said and we’re just going to go for it again. This Mavs team has tanked under Jason Kid. They have tanked under Nico Harrison. They have tanked. They got Derrick Lively at the end of the season. They’ve done they’ve done some of this before and maybe they’re just going in early because they’ve already they’ve already been ransacked with injuries. How could you have seen that coming? I mean, I was I was excited about seeing some of this about seeing this team, but it’s just gone downhill so fast in so many different ways. I’m sure we’ll we’ll break that down a show tomorrow. But I I mean, this is just this is the cherry on top of a just absolutely terrible, awful, no good, very bad cake. I’m going to zag again. Is it the teacher’s fault if you have a class of sixth graders taking a 12th grade calculus test? Well, whose fault is it then? Just Nico? Well, I mean, it’s in injuries play a huge part in this because injured players. I I know. I know that’s true. The whole process was like, you know, they’ll have to be an elite defense guys. They have they kind of have been like they really kind of have been elite defense and they had a good defensive performance again tonight. The problem is is like PJ Washington I’ve been calling him MJ Washington. He’s been awesome. He had a he had three and ones in like a two-minute stretch in the third quarter. Looked great. It was incredible. Then he has I don’t know how he had four turnovers in the game. I don’t know how many of those were in the fourth quarter. I’d venture to guess most of them. The Mavs had a huge turnover crisis in the fourth quarter and uh that was that prevented their comeback, you know? So, it’s just like, do I sit here and say, “Well, he shouldn’t have been.” Well, no, of course you’re going to play PJ. We he pulled the the funny thing is about like going in on Kid is like, he pulled the strings we wanted him to pull. He did, too. In his defense, he pulled the strings that we wanted him to pull and do was just bad tonight. So, then here’s my thing then. All right, he pulled the strings. So, you have no more excuses. No more excuses in the sense that you’ve played different players. Like, you’ve played all the different players different ways, right? You’ve play tried flag at the point. We tried no point. You tried with a point. You tried no center. You tried with multiple centers. You’ve tried that. You tried with Anthony Davis without Anthony Davis. Clay starting Clay off the bench. You’ve tried against a good team in the Thunder and the Rockets. You’ve tried against bad teams with the Pelicans, that Pacers team that we saw come in here, the Wizards. You’ve tried in all these different ways. It’s not working. the system, all of it. Burn it down. Start over. Pull out a different playbook. Just go back to the basics. Run a run a high pick and roll every play. I don’t care because whatever you’re doing, what whatever long form Princeton offense, motion offense, whatever they’re trying to do right now is not working so disastrously bad that you just start over, right? Like there’s just no other way to there’s just no other way to put it how bad it looks right now. I mean, they’re barely even running that. like it’s I the offense is dreadful and I mean it kind of makes sense with their injuries on one end of the spectrum on the other end they were bad with the healthy I know I know and it it is like you know what defensively I actually think you’ve kind of lived up to your billing a tiny bit uh people keep bringing up the point the paint points in the paint thing like uh you know that the reason there’s a big discrepancy there is cuz the Navs don’t score in the paint. Well, and they turn the ball over and so then there there’s fast breaks on the other end. How many times have we said their transition defense in games has been bad like Yeah. I mean, I thought defensively they were fine tonight, but tonight Yeah, tonight not bad. But but in the past Yeah. It’s just coming up. What else went bad? I don’t know. What did Jason Kid pull all the levers? Did he pull all the levers? Talk about that coming up. I’m I’m I’m out of I’m out of things for this team. [Music] Oh, disaster. Today’s episode is brought to you by Gusto. Gusto is not a disaster. Let’s be real. No one starts a business with the joy of calculating tax withholdings or doing all that kind of stuff. Payroll spreadsheets, things like that, managing all the different things you got to do with a small business or with a business in general, small, medium, large, I don’t know what size your business is. That’s where Gusto comes in. It takes the stress out of payroll, benefits, and HR so you can focus on running your business and supporting your team so that it runs in motion allinone. Allin one. Gusto is the all-in-one remote friendly payroll and HR platform that makes managing your team simple, transparent, and fast. Whether you’re hiring, onboarding, or paying employees, Gusto helps you do it all from one place without the hassle or the hidden fees. You can do all kinds of different things in this. It takes over every single part of your business so you know where to go. One place, that’s it. That’s what you got to do. Unlimited payroll runs for one monthly price, which means no surprise charges at the end of the month. So go check it out. Gusto’s automated tools like letters, onboarding materials, and direct deposit. Save hours every single week. Try Gusto today. gusto.com/locktonba and get three months free when you run your first payroll. That’s right, three months of free payroll at gusto.com/lockdown NBA. Guo gusto.com/lockdon NBA. Shut it down. Let’s go home. Thanks for hanging out with us on locked on maps, being part of the show, part of the raccoon squad, listening every day. We appreciate you for checking out the show and listening. If you’re listening to this disaster and you’re a Luca stand, welcome back. [Music] It’s been a while. Yesterday on the show, we mentioned Luca’s name one time at the 28 minute mark of the show and uh 50 comments with Luka with Luca’s name in it cuz we were talking about how bad the offense is. And you know what? I get it. Check the QR code links links in the description for different ways to follow the show. We’ll be doing this and we’ll be charting this disaster throughout the whole rest of the season because uh we’re locked on maps. We’re not locked on uh good flowery sunny things that happen in the in the world of talking about this Mavericks team. We we’ll get to a point, I’m sure, where this is we’re having a different No, no, no. We’re having games like this, but it’s a completely different vibe where it’s like exactly what we would need to see. That’s what I mean. we’ll turn the corner like like you said where we’ll be like all right well now this is what it is because coming in we were sold a bill of goods that was a win now team by the GM he’s like this is a win now team we’ve got these vets sold all right all right Daniel Russell we’re bringing him in we feel good feel confident I did the thing yesterday that the Mavs went into the season with uh people forget about Frank as the has the idea for their point guard the idea for their point guard system that’s what they that’s what they went into the season with and now you’ve tried a bunch of different things you’ve tried starting Del Russell, you’ve tried DLO on, you tried DL off. There’s just there’s a couple of bright spots on this team right now and everything else like it’s not working. And I don’t know is Anthony if Anthony Davis comes back, does that fix everything? I think they win tonight for sure, but I don’t think it fixes this offense to make them a playoff team. So here’s so here’s my question and it it’s crazy that is it. Yeah, that’s that’s one of my many questions. I wouldn’t use hell. I’d say another word. Yeah. But um at two and six, I mean, I can’t believe I’m we’re even going here, but like is there a point this early on where you’re like, “Oh, uh AD, you want to sit a little like Kyrie, we’re good, you know, like we’re okay with if you’re thinking you want to take some time like I know I know it seems a little bit insane and over the course of 82 game seasons, teams will have a two and six, eight game stretch and still have a good record, right? It’s just amplified because it’s the beginning of the season. We didn’t know what we were going to see from this team and we’ve seen this. But I mean, they’re not they don’t look competitive. That’s that’s it to me. They’re boring offensively. They are a lost cause in a lot of ways. Sure, AD. And like we’ve talked about this here, like I watch this team, I watch how they play defense at times and I’m like, okay, if you slot in the Kyrie we saw last year, okay, you could talk me into this team being pretty good actually. But then the problem becomes, well, you’re not gonna get Kyrie from last year. That’s just not how ACL recovery goes. And then also, uh, he’s older and do we want to rush him back? And at what record do you say is it even worth this risk at all? Of course, Kyrie’s not going to go for that. So then that’s when you start to have that uh that conversation. But well, we didn’t think Clay would come off the bench and he did tonight. So yeah, I guess that’s true. And I I think you have another dilemma there where it’s like if I’m Klay Thompson at one point I’m like hey I’m I’m Klay Thompson like I don’t want to come off the bench for two and 12 team. He kid finally did it and sat him. Clay has not been good. Like let’s let’s be clear to come off the bench. He deserved to come off the come off the bench by just merit and play. But he comes into the game. He gets actually a pretty loud cheer from the from the crowd. I was I was kind of surprised probably just cuz a name that they they recognized coming off the coming off the bench coming into the game. He shot the ball pretty well, played pretty well. But if I’m Clay, I am frustrated too. And I’m saying what am I doing here? Like I came here to play with Luca Donic and now I’m playing with with this team. Can’t even get open shots. Can’t even get shots sometimes in in this offense. And yeah, I’m probably trying to find a way to get out of here. I mean, why not? But what do you have what what are you loyal to here? Nico Harrison for for like bringing you in and giving you a chance when that Warriors team like disrespected you like you thought. I mean, Harrison has shown that loyalty matters to him in any way, shape, or form. And and Clay hadn’t been good. So, it’s it but it’s if he were coming off the if the Mavs were six and two and it was like, okay, we’re moving Clay to the bench, there’s got to be a level of buyin, like that’s a different story entirely. But on this team, if if I’m Clay, I’m just like, what is I mean, what is going on, you know? Like, what what am I doing? They’re last in the West right now. That that passes the eye test. They’re They’ve been one of the three or four worst teams I’ve watched play. And this is the most basketball I’ve ever watched start a season across the league. Partially because I mean, I need to get some joy. I mean, Don’t we all? Slightly. Don’t Don’t we all? Cooper flag. I Well, we’ll save it. P. You talked about PJ. I thought PJ was like the thing that got this this Mavericks team going in that first half. Like there was it was just dead. There was nothing going on. And PJ has been we talked about him being the leader that this team needed last last time last game. And he has been he was that again. Had a really good first half. 15 points in the game. He had another double double. He had that stretch. He said in the third quarter we just got and one after and one. I mean, if I’m going to take some bright spots out of this game, PJ stepping up like he is a piece that you take into this next era and say, “All right, we can win with this guy.” Obviously, you’ve been to a finals with him, but uh yeah, you can win with a guy like that for sure. Oh yeah, PJ’s probably on my top five like favorite Mavs. God, PJ’s playing I mean PJ’s not a role player right now. He’s the best player on the team, but uh like he’s up there from one of my favorite maps to ever play the game with Dallas. Like I I love his energy and everything. I think our our good friend from the DL are we friends with DLLs or are we enemies? I don’t know. I’m friends with some of them, not the others. And the the comment section gets to decide which ones are which. That’s that’s a fun game to play. Just kidding. I was sitting next to both KO and Kevin Kevin. Although say be careful what you be careful what you wish for. But uh I think KO said tweeted it out like he really I think he actually has quietly over the last two years because the abs were terrible last year and looked terrible this year so nobody’s really noticing it. But crossing into like Aaron Gordon’s very good but kind of crossing into that echelon where it’s like this is an elite level role player. Like we’re not just talking like good role player. We’re talking like top allstar like all-star role player. Not an all-star but like a one of the best role players in the game. Yeah. like like the you know the the Derek White team you know where you’re like you’re never going to be an all-star probably but you’re like elite and really good at that spot and we you just get so much and that would be great to have on a team that was winning that had a top four player in the NBA that was playing at that level like it it baffles me every single time I watch this team and go man it would be really great if like Luca was making this team work and making this team function man Jason kid I don’t know if he can run a real functional offense without Luka Don like I just keep saying that to myself too I’m frustrated I don’t get it. I’m This team baffles me in so many different ways. They keep losing. Coming up, let’s talk about some of the bright spots besides PJ. Uh Cooper Flag, what did he What did he look like? That final shot. Did he get fouled? All that coming up. [Music] Today’s episode of Locked Time Apps brought to you by our friends over at FanDuel. FanDuel Sportsbook. If you want to be like slightly and watch other NBA games to make yourself happy and do other things, you can do that and uh and get in some action with FanDuel. Go check it out and see what they have all over the place. They have NBA games all throughout the season. You can go check. Let’s just look at a different NBA game. Let’s look at uh Clippers and Suns. Suns a two and a half point favorite. That Clippers team has been a little disappointing. That’s been an interesting one. And you can go get that if you feel confident about anything on FanDuel. Anything across the whole thing. And you’re a new customer, put down $5. If you win, you get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app on anything. So go check it out. It’s fuel.com to sign up and play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Please gamble responsibly. Shut it down. Let’s go home. All right, slightly. We’re talking about this disaster of a game for the Dallas Mavericks and it just keeps getting worse for the Mavs, but Cooper Flag is the bright spot. And I was complaining about the Mavs earlier today and Jackson Gatlin of lockdown Rockets was like, “You can’t complain about anything because you have Cooper Flag.” And I was like, “Well, I don’t think that’s true.” But yeah, sorry. I’m complaining. I was going to say that’s not true, but uh Oh, uh Nick Nick just Nick just exited the chat. Uh I I’ll I’ll vamp and fill in a little bit here because I think we’re going to talk about Cooper flag a tiny bit. Nick can’t can’t even rely on the AAC Wi-Fi at all. My light my light went out. I was filling in for you. It kicked me out of the room. Cooper flag though. Imagine if they didn’t have Cooper flag. Like imagine the feeling if they didn’t have him. Oh, 20 points. 20 points. Nine. I I can’t imagine because that moment after the Luca trade, I was like, “Oh my gosh, I’m looking at this team right now.” And the whole rest of that last season last year, I was like looking at this team going, “Oh my gosh, what is my future looking like covering this team?” Imagine if it was Casper’s Yakush fan. Has he even played yet? I don’t think so. 20 points. 20 points, nine boards, two assists, three steals, two blocks, and like started to get aggressive in the fourth quarter, which is what I wanted to see from him, right? That’s the thing. If they are going to turn this corner and decide to just go into like tank mode or whatever, uh that’s what we’re going to see. And we’re going to want to see that over and over again. Him being aggressive in the fourth quarter taking over. And I can’t believe we’re seeing an 18-year-old needs to take over this team of all these these veterans. But he needed to. They needed offense in a bad way. They needed somebody that can create an advantage. And they just don’t have a lot of advantage creators on this team. The offense is not creating advantages. Uh like D’Angel Russell was not creating advantages as he has in the past couple of games. They’re not creating advantages with their bigs on the on the glass at all. all their last in offensive rebounding and uh didn’t get didn’t get a lot in this game and you just need an advantage in some way, shape or form and Cooper Flag actually brought that to you and uh he got he got that final shot off and it was open. It was at the free throw line. Looked like he was it looked like he was a little bit closer from what I saw from here, but then I mean it was a free throw line jumper. Looked a lot like the one he got at Duke in, you know, in the in the final four or whatever. And uh I’m taking away some good things from his game. Yeah, this was a great coupe game. Aggressive right out the gates. So, you know, we we kind of poo poo DLo, but like I you know, is it is it then been a coincidence that Coupe has his one of his better games and one of the games where he’s looked the most comfortable from opening tip to the very end in a game in which a point guard starts? That might have to be the way we look at it where we just say, “Yeah, whatever. D was but it helped out Cooper.” Like again, that that is the direction that we are heading in. Uh yeah, I liked his aggressiveness. I loved that last shot. It was a great look actually. Just didn’t go in. Um, you know, it is what it is. But I I I mean, we I saw a couple drives where he went right at Herb Jones and finished over Herb Jones. One thing I will say about Coupe, the touch is the touch is something that’ll take some time, you know, work in the gym, but I think a lot of the improvement finishing wise will come when he when he bulks up. Yes. Which we’re years away from. Like, let’s just be honest there. But one thing I have noticed is, man, he’s he’s comfortable with that left hand. like I don’t the percentages might not be good but he’s he’s ready to get to it you know uh which is good to see and encouraging to see but yeah I think this was I thought he was great defensively too um yeah I mean this was an encouraging Cooper flag game for sure yeah he’s he’s got to take steps the offense is atrocious and so to see him kind of break out of that looks like he’s like in mud in this offense but uh he’s making he’s making some things happen and he’s he is comfortable with that left like you said he had insane poster dunk on on Carlo Makovich and that was just that was awesome to see him just get fired up. And how many lobs has he had this year? Multiple like five or six or something like that. I mean he’s he’s a good he’s a good finisher in transition. That’s the thing the Mavs are going to have to when they get real point guards they’re like you know outside of DLO they’re going to have to they’re going to take advantage of that in transition and that I was excited about that with them getting stops on defense but they haven’t gotten stops in the same way. Cougar flag though. Good. I I’m just I’m just baffled by by this team. It’s so This is so frustrating to watch this team to think that all the things they could be and this is what they are right now. This is what we’re talking about when Luca’s going to have an MVP season over there. Yeah. I mean, can if you don’t mind me vamping a little bit, like take it away. I you know the frustration stems from the fact that I I kind of agree with I don’t remember who you said said it but yes if I were a team of like the if I were a Jazz fan or a Wizards fan or something and I’m seeing the Mavs fans be like I hate this team blah blah blah we’re in the worst place where it comes from is what we we were there we were at the doorstep we were in the finals you had done it all you had create you had created a finals level team yes and it got ripped the best backward maps history one of the best backwards in NBA history. So, it’s funny. I on my TV out here, and this isn’t this isn’t me being uh you know um big-headed or anything, but I have a TV that has just YouTube on it autoplay stuff all the time. It’s been on Hell’s Kitchen, but for some reason though, my Luca Trade reaction stream was autoplay. So, I was just I Good al good algorithm. Yeah, good algo stuff. Months later, I heard it and it was funny listening to the stream because just constantly was like, well, there’s something more there’s something more we have to learn. like there’s something more coming. There’s And then guess what? Nothing ever came. Nothing ever. That That’s where the frustration lies. And that’s why it’s like, “Yeah, I get on here. I’m like, well, they sucked on offense again tonight.” Well, yeah. I mean, yeah. Look at this team. I mean, look how this team got put together. U Yeah. I haven’t wanted to just go on and on and on about it forever on here. There’s a reason why we don’t talk about it all the time on this show because we want to talk about other stuff. We don’t want to rehash it over and over. I personally don’t even think that’s good content for you guys. Like I don’t think it’s good to just constantly beat you over the head with this stuff. Let’s talk about the team in front of us. But then a game like tonight, it’s just like this is what’s on my mind is it’s just like I cannot believe this team is two and five. Not just the you you tweeted this out. Two and six now. Two and six. You tweeted this out like not only is this the worst defense in the league, but like compared to where the rest of the league is, I mean it’s one of the worst ones ever. They’re three. They’re like two or three points worse than the rest of the of of the league. Like, by the way, they would have been an averaged off defense uh offensive team in 2012. Isn’t that crazy how much the NBA offenses have have evolved? Yeah, that is that is pretty nice. They were they would have been league average in 2011 2012. Well, there was that stretch a few years ago. Every year the most efficient offense became the best offense ever. Yeah. Mavs were one of them. Yeah, Mavs were one of them. And then what happened? Rick left and then Indiana was one of them. Rick got pushed out and then truth. But no, it’s that’s where the frustration comes. It’s not it’s I just can’t and and I don’t I get this all the time that I’m because we don’t talk about it much. We’re defending Nico or anything. None of us have ever defended this trade at all ever. None of us have ever defended Nico. I don’t even know where this comes from. Uh like we thought it was the worst trade ever. We still think it’s the worst trade ever, but we just don’t feel like there’s a point in hashing it out every day. But on a day like today, we can hash it out. And Cooper Flag could have like can make it all right. At least it’s going to make the trade all right because you came away with that. The franchise is going to be all right. But I mean, you were right. But you were right there. Nico. Yes. But you were but you were right there. And like now you got to now we’re back in 2018 again where we’re starting this whole process over again around another star. Yeah. And and it’s starting in a way worse way because you don’t have you don’t have the foundation in Durk. That was an incredible thing that Luca had in his rookie year. You have vets on this team, but you don’t have that. That I mean that’s that’s very different. Uh head coach head coach is different and you don’t have stability in any place in this organization at all besides Dwight Powell. I’m not even kidding. Yeah. No, I I agree cuz you said I the vet thing was a big reason why we’re like this actually a great place for Coupe. But that was uh it’s supposed to be assuming that they didn’t start two and six and your best bet it wasn’t injured immediately to start the season and the whole town booze him anytime he does something wrong. And the and the GM is signing autographs before the game. That was that was from tonight. Yes. That’s a hilarious video. And you notice it was a Thunder fan. He went up the Thunder fan went up and was like, “Dude, thank you, bro.” Unless somebody unless somebody posted that video and it wasn’t for the night. I I’m assuming it was from tonight though, cuz it looked like it was from tonight. But I But I know that he signs the autographs like that and it’s like, “Oh, all the Luka all the Luca love and all the the hate for the trade.” That’s all online stuff and all online talk. They’ll get over it. Like it it’ll it’ll be okay. That’s what he that’s what he legitimately thinks. And I I watching a game like this, like how could you think that? How could you think that like all right, the vision is starting to come together? And I they’re out of excuses to me. Like the 80 is 80 is hurt. Kyrie is hurt. Lively is hurt. Like, okay, those are guys that get hurt a lot. You have to have contingencies for those guys in some way. Well, the lively one is backbreaking. That one’s tough for sure cuz I mean, Gaffford’s a plus eight tonight. So, like we we do this runaround where like, okay, when they have a point guard out there and they have a center out there, it’s like, okay, yeah, there’s there’s something that But look at the competition tonight. Like I know. Yeah. It’s funny because I I had a friend who was texting me and he was like, “Guy, the Mavs are in a uh the Mavs are in a dog fight with one of the worst teams in the league.” And then after the game he corrected and said, “The Pelicans were in a dog fight worst team in the league. I can’t believe that’s where we are right now with this.” I know. It’s bad, man. But we’ll see, man. Well, like the problem is the expectation. The expectation absolutely and what was ripped away. But I’m saying the problem with this season is look, if tomorrow they came out and were like, “Hey, last night’s kind of what we’re looking for.” Like just being real, we we’re going to put the ball in Coup’s hand. If we lose games, we lose games. They’ll never say that. But right, they’ll never say that. But I’m saying like uh imagine if Jason G was like, “You know what, guys? We’re calling it the rest of the way here.” Wim limping. Hopefully he’s all right. Yeah. I mean, that would be crazy, but um I just can’t envision them making big trades that everyone wants. I just can’t envision it. Yeah. Like like what you’re going to salvage this season like No, I’m saying like sell trades cuz Oh, they sell off. No, I mean Nico is in bed with this idea. He’s in bed with this idea. You’d have to admit defeat. It’ have to be admitting defeat. They’d have to be firing Nico and then immediately a new GM coming in and saying, “All right, we’re we’re doing this and this and this.” And I just for the cannot see that happening. The owner’s in bed with this decision, too, right? Yeah. They’re tied to this. They are tied to it. They got to see it through. We’ll be back with more later today. Wherever you’re listening, watching this, we’ll talk about some of the things we saw from Cooper Flag and more. Go check out Slyby’s great YouTube channel live all the time. Go check out his great stuff and uh like like slightly watch some of his past streams like he was like he was watching today. Watch some other games. Watch some other games. Touch grass. Do all those things. Guys, thanks for hanging out with us on Lockdown Mavs. We’ll be back with more. Check the links in the description. Go listen to Locked on Fantasy Basketball. Great stuff from Josh Lloyd all the time. Thanks so much for listening to Lockdown Mabs. Peace out. Boom. Boom. It’ll be a long year.

The Dallas Mavericks have hit a new low in the NBA regular season after a disastrous loss at home, raising questions about the future for the Mavs. Cooper Flagg continues to be the lone bright spot, while Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving’s injuries leave Dallas searching for answers.

Nick Angstadt and Slightly Biased break down everything that went wrong for the Dallas Mavericks against the New Orleans Pelicans, with analysis on Jason Kidd’s coaching decisions, Nico Harrison’s roster building, and the performances of Klay Thompson, PJ Washington, D’Angelo Russell, Daniel Gafford, Dereck Lively II, and more. Hear candid reactions to how the Mavs failed to beat a depleted Pelicans team and why Cooper Flagg’s development is even more important now. The hosts also discuss what the absence of Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving means for this team and whether the organization, including Mark Cuban and Patrick Dumont, is ready to pull the plug or make big changes.

Stay tuned for insights on other NBA teams mentioned including the Pacers, Wizards, Raptors, and Thunder, plus frank talk about the franchise’s direction and why Dallas might be headed for a long season.

0:00 Mavs Disaster vs Pelicans
7:42 Coaching, Front Office Blame?
20:26 Cooper Flagg Shines Amid Loss

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