Jason Kidd SCRAMBLES as Dallas Mavericks LOSE Their DEFENSIVE Identity? | Mavs Biggest Problems

Jason Kidd SCRAMBLES as Dallas Mavericks LOSE Their DEFENSIVE Identity? | Mavs Biggest Problems

On today’s show, the Maverick’s biggest problem is their identity. But it’s not the only one. This is Cooper Flag and you’re listening to Locked on M. Explain yourself. All these changes, you know, I still got my dog Dwight Pal. That’s right. You are Locked on M. Your daily Mavericks podcast, part of the locked on podcast network. Still can’t leave. Your team every day. I’m going to get a city like that. And welcome. You are locked on to the Dallas Mavericks, your team every day. My name is Nick Angstead, medium member, covering the Mavs for 10 years. Thanks for being in every day, making lock on Mavs your first listen in the lockdown podcast network, the number one sports podcast network. You guys helped get us there. Joining me as always, my co-host, medium member, cover the math for 10 years, right alongside with me, the identity individual, the one we’re thinking. What you got for me, Isaac Harris? We should put on the thumbnail for this episode like a thumb print like identity series. Yeah. Um, now shout out to the Mavs. Got the Rick Carlile coming into town on uh Wednesday night and a gosh B C squad for the Pacers. And then this weekend uh they actually get on a plane and fly high in the air to Mexico City. They will they will fly there. They will fly all the way there. And uh I’ll mark that game down in pen. I think that’s a good I think that’s a good one for the maps. That’ll be that’ll be a good game. Before you mark it down, did you mow your grass? I have mowed my grass. Uh, you know, but I had to move this pot to the side and I had, you know, you have to like mow like you don’t you can’t just mow around it. You got to actually like move the pot and like do that. Yeah. Cuz if you don’t move it, you you’re going to be trapped by like the smoke of your neighbor after. Today’s today’s episode we’re ranking the Maverick’s biggest problems right now. Mavs are one and three. They’ve got some issues. They’ve been talked about a lot. Uh and so we’ll get into it. We’ll talk about uh I think injuries is obviously one we’ll talk about. The Mavs have some like new injuries, some injuries that were one injury and now is a different injury that we’ve got to talk about and address with some players. Anthony Davis now on the injury list. I’m sure there’s some other problems we get into, but let’s start here. Isaac Harris. The Mav’s biggest problem is identity. I think everything stems from identity. We know what to expect from the Dallas Mavericks. You can say obviously, well, the biggest problem is they’re missing Kyrie Irving. Yes, but we knew that going in. I think if if the Mavs were competing and we and without Kyrie and we were like, “Okay, we didn’t expect the Mavericks to be the number one seed, the number two seed without Kyrie.” Right. Right now, they’re not living up to even those expectations that were lowered because of some of these injuries that the Mavs have dealt with. I think it is the identity of this team that is that they’re struggling with. And some of it is I I understand actually because they did bring 13 of the 15 players back from last year, but a bunch of those guys didn’t play very much. Like Lively and Anthony Davis played less than 10 games together last year, right? And so there is a lot of newness. There’s Cooper Flag to introduced to all this. There is not a there’s not really a point guard. D’Angelo Russell then is now introduced to all this. and he is now a big cog in what the Mavericks are going to do because he is now like the only point like the only serviceable point guard that the Mavs have on the roster it seems according to Jason Kidd and his rotations and then the defensive identity. I don’t know what the Mavs defensive identity is. They’re they’re trying to figure that out. They’re supposed to be playing big but Gafford has been out. Lively has been out. Lively has not been playing. And you’re like, “All right, well then they can’t play big.” So then they don’t know what their identity is because of injuries, because of personnel. And I think that identity is just shaping everything else. I think the identity shapes even how Cooper Flag has played that he is trying to figure out what he’s trying to do in this offense. Trying to figure out what he’s trying to do with the rest of these players. I saw our guy Tyler Metaf from No Ceilings and the Lockdown NBA draft show with No Ceilings. He said Cooper Flag start feels a lot like it did at Duke where we had some shaky starts against top competition despite despite some of the numbers he was putting up in those games. He looked like he was overthinking things, trying to do too much. He was figuring out the speed of the game. I get the same vibes from his first few games of the Mavericks when he plays simple. He’s making good decisions, smart passing reads, and getting good looks since he’s been thrust into this pseudo point guard role, though. He’s pretty clearly and understandably looks sped up, which is what he’s trying to do too much. I’m worried about it. I’m not worried about it long term. That switch will inevitably flip. I think that’s exactly what I’m what I’m trying to say. Like, they’re they’re trying to push him into this different role. They’re trying to figure out what their offensive identity is. They’re trying to get like fit Cooper flag into it. And I think it’s affecting him as well. Yeah. Yeah, I’m not worried about Cooper at all. I’m kind of confused by a little bit of the discourse online. I mean, he’s playing out of position and then he’s only played four games and one of those games he hurt his shoulder in the first play of the game. So, I don’t you know what I found? I don’t Cooper doesn’t have like stands like that like that other players have had. He does have haters though. I think that maybe is I think that is part of it. Well, I think there’s a portion of of Luca fans that went over, you know, to the dark side and, you know, it’s just natural like the that kind of view him as like the replacement or who Nico Sure. is kind of, you know, and yeah, anything he does not great, it’s going to be anything do anyway. Yeah. Um, but yeah, with Cooper, I’m not I’m Cooper I don’t even have as like a big talking point right now because I think they’re doing him a disservice by playing him out of position. He’s not a point guard. Uh, that was one of the uh conversations. Uh I was talking with some media people after the game uh after one one of the pressers of the OKC game and we were just talking about the the Cooper experience so far and it’s like kind of a common thing of Yeah, I kind of feel for him a little bit because this just this just isn’t his position. Like they’re just he’s 18 years old. Um that person reminded me of like Kobe stats when he was 18, LeBron stats when he was 18. Um, LeBron had better stats and stuff, but it’s still it’s like they’re he’s at 18. They’re asking him to play this like pseudo point guard point4 role and it it’s not that. But the identity part, I’m fully with you. They don’t have an identity and they have a plan of or an offensive system. Uh, which dropping a one more thing about that later on in the day. um trying to explain it a little bit more of what this new offensive system looks like. Um and but they just one of the things I talk about in there is like the personnel to run this um Princeton like um motion evolution of an offense into the flow. what uh Jay Triano is trying to do is like you got to have these certain parts for this movement and for the and shooters that provide the spacing for all these different spots on the floor and they just they don’t have some of that and they’re trying to they have the big man that is key for this Princeton type offense but they don’t have the shooters. They have one big man right now it seems I thought you tell me to stop. No, no, they have No, I’m just saying they have they have one big man it seems and they’ve been playing Anthony Davis as as the five with with Lively out obviously Gaffford out too. It just that has that has affected their identity too. I want to remind some people what Kobe’s stats were his rookie year. He averaged 15 minutes a game and only like seven points shot 41% from the field. Didn’t start. Didn’t start. Started six games out of the 71 that he played. he was on the Lakers and the next year he was an all-star coming off the bench for 78 of the 79 games he played. Like obviously that’s that’s a big leap and all that but and that was back in 1998 but it like 18 year olds don’t usually play well in the in the NBA that I just don’t think he’s playing like drastically bad. So well in one game he did but in the other three I think he was okay. Yeah. And he was hurt this past one. So, I don’t really hold anything with about that, but it’s like I didn’t expect Cooper Fle to come out and score 32, you know, one of his first like few games and stuff. So, um their identity was supposed to be built around defense and they haven’t been good defensively. And that’s been when you build your identity around something and then you’re not that, then you’re kind of scrambling to try to figure out who you are and they don’t really know who they are right now. So, today we’re going to we’re ranking the the Mags Map’s biggest problem. I had identity as number as number one. Is that where you landed? Yeah. Yeah. Like what who are they? Like when we were talking about where were they going to finish uh in the season of like defensive ranking, we were saying like top five, can they be top five? They set the goal for top three. Um I pulled out some different stats the other day about top eight of like, hey, if you’re in the top eight last year, uh where you finished in standings and how many wins those teams had and and all this stuff. And it’s like, well, crap, you’re not even that. Like, you’re not even a good defensive team right now. They play better against OKC on defense. Um, but it was it was always going to be, hey, we’re we’re going to hone in on being this great defensive team, and hopefully our offense is going to be good enough until Kyrie comes back. And right now, both of them has been bad. And you’re literally the worst offensive team in the league. I said this earlier today but or later on today but they scored under 95 points in two out of the four games last year and the whole season they did it one time. So they’re just not generating points and you got to be able to score the basketball. So it’s it’s just tough right now and it’s it’s a tough system to learn. It takes a while. any research you do or anybody you talk to about this uh Flo Princeton type of offense, they’re going to tell you it’s it’s hard to implement. It takes time, but there hasn’t even been some signs of it at times. Like, yeah. So, I think there’s reason to have concern, but also reason to be like, “All right, well, maybe it’s going to look better over a little bit of time.” And we even saw that in the preseason where sometimes I’ll look at the offense and go, they’re not beating this OKC fourth string team as much as I thought that they would be beating, right? Like even some of that stuff, you go, “Okay, well then I thought I chocked it up to, all right, well it’s preseason. They’re just getting warmed up.” Like, well, see, okay, they’re not beating this second string other team. Like, you know, it just kept kept happening. And it was a concern we had all offseason and now it’s just reared its ugly head and just a I mean, it’s kind of like what Max said postgame. He said, “They’re playing with a lot of stress. Um, yeah, they’re they’re playing disorganized.” He’s like, “We know it’s going to take time and it’s gonna like they’re gonna they will get used to it.” He’s like, “But we’re also but we also have a sense of urgency because we’re one and three.” And I think that’s the Yeah, I would be a little bit more concerned if they were like, “Yeah, we don’t care at all. It’s just going to happen over time.” No, they they have some urgency in it. You like like how the coach talks? I don’t know. He see kid. Yeah, it was mainly just about missed shots for Kid yesterday. I’m not playing. I’m watching just like you guys. That was about timeout. That That quote, by the way, was about timeouts. He’s been taking timeouts. He has. Yeah, he has been taking them. But by Daniel Russell, I have to apologize that you felt that he should have played more. I felt that. I felt that for you in like a real deep way when he wasn’t playing Del Russell. Coming up, the other biggest problems for the Dallas Mavericks. I think injuries has been a massive thing and it’s not just Kyrie and it’s not just Daniel Gaffford. We’ll tell you why coming up. Today’s episode of Vlog on Maps brought to you by our friends over at Quo. Go check out Quo because you have a small business. You have to figure out what is going on with your business all the time. And you can’t just watch everything all the time. 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Thanks for hanging out with us on Locked on Mabs, being part of the show, part of the raccoon squad. That’s what we call our listeners listening every day. We appreciate you for checking out the show and listening to it. We’ve got a text line where we text rumors every single time we see a maps rumor or a news thing or a bunch of times during games. We’ll give you a game preview. We’ll give you game notes during the game and all that. Text the number 21438637 or check the link in the description, the QR code, and help support the show. We appreciate you, Isaac. And I be sending messages on that all the time over there. All right, Isaac, we’re ranking the Maverick’s biggest problems. What is the next biggest problem after identity for the Mavericks? AD’s conditioning. I mean, I’m just I I just got to throw it out there. I mean, it’s been a topic of conversation. Um, it was some conversations before the game. Um there’s some people that were connected to him earlier in his career um that I know um have noticed it too and we’re talking about pregame. So I was like we all we’ve all noticed it. Yeah, I get it. Um and and yeah, and just Yeah, just the what you know the off season uh because I think it’s I think it’s like hey we know he’s not in the best condition right now. um he’s not at the best playing weight. It feels like we’re to doing all the talking points all over again. Um so then it’s kind of like well why is it? And um that’s been some of the conversation stuff I’ve tried to have and it you know you look back about the summer and it’s like the eye surgery and just all the different stuff that happened around that and how much did that sideline him of like what he could actually do completely. Yeah. And it did. He He couldn’t He couldn’t work out in the offseason. I can’t tell if you’re joking or not. No, I’m not. I’m I’m not either. Like I’m really not. It’s kind of wild, but like he almost like like I don’t know how close it got, but he almost like lost his vision like in that eye and he couldn’t work out and he couldn’t get in condition. And as much as that sounds crazy, like I’ve had so many people say, “Well, why didn’t he just wear an eye patch and like run or why didn’t he run in the dark or swim in the dark?” like I don’t know how that I don’t know how it works but it that obvious that is the thing that has been said that has affected his conditioning for sure and then he came in with the with the said well I come in overweight because I always do that and you’re like I don’t know about yeah so yeah he he’s just not in the best of basketball shape right now and I get he’s putting up counting stats and he’s he’s scoring and stuff but you see it the most defensively he is when he’s on and he’s healthy and he’s in basketball like shape he’s playing the best he’s one of the best defenders in the entire league um but there’s a lot of times that you’re seeing these teams come off screens and they’re trying to play drop at times and AD’s just not moving like he’s not he’s not coming up to defend the shot. He’s not switching off on guys like he I mean AD used to you used to be able to see him switch on the perimeter and not just like hold his ground but like defend really well and right now it’s like there’s a little like feet in cement at times and he’s going to I’m he’ll get there. I’m not worried about that. U but right now at this moment, I think it it does factor into why they’re one at three. I’m looping that into injuries, too. I’m just putting that all cuz it was an injury that led to him not being able to do this that that is like this not being able to to get in shape. Also, that that one of the last plays Isaiah Hartinstein gets that like layup right over him. Tough. Yeah. Late in the game. Like that’s another example of this. I mean, I was Yeah, I was joking in the middle of the game of like Hart and Son’s the the reason why D doesn’t want to play the five. I I said it on the show last night. I I completely agree. You saw it where he was just like, man, he’s out hustling him and all that. And big body, you know, just down low, just constant. Yeah, it’s like, all right, can Lively come back in here for this? Well, now in now Anthony is on the injury report. He’s probable for the Wednesday game against the Pacers with a bilateral Achilles tendinopathy. tendonopathy. How good did I do that? Hold on. Hold on. Wait. Just just one second. I’m not a doctor, so I don’t know. So, he’s on there, but also Derek Lively is on the injury report as well. He’s doubtful again for Wednesday’s game, and it was a right knee contusion, which is just like a deep bruise. Now, he’s on there for a right knee sprain. And like, now I’m starting to get concerned. I wasn’t concerned about the contusion at all because that that’s a bruise that’ll that’ll heal up fine. Great. Now he’s on there and Gaffford is still on there. He’s doubtful with right ankle sprain. Gaffford was the timetable for Gaffford was three to four weeks. Wednesday Isaac Harris is five weeks. Sheesh. I was not concerned a couple days after like okay a couple days after the timeline fine but like an extra an extra week we’re talking 25% 33 to 25%. Maybe they’re just saving him for Mexico. Maybe they are, but it has affected the identity of this team because we haven’t been able to play these these double bigs. They haven’t been able to play the bigs and now Anthony Davis has to play the five more. And that’s that’s affecting him. It’s like that the injuries to these guys have affected a lot. And I think the injuries is just another reason why like one of M’s biggest problems is all all that like and there’s even more we could go through. Yeah. I mean lumping Kyrie in there. Yeah. Um the shoulder thing. I mean, from the the get-go with flag, uh, you know, the other night, I mean, he was messing with his left shoulder the entire game. He had he had on it every time he went to the bench. Yeah. Switch shirts, all all the stuff. And it just clearly messed with him. And could you see his shirt like from where you’re sitting or on the broadcast? No. He got his shirt torn. There was a hole in in his sleeve that just had like a piece of it like it was look like a like a torn pirate flag just like like like flapping on on his arm. I think that’s why he changed his shirt. Thinks heart and sight. No, one of them. Yeah. So, I mean the injuries for sure and absolutely. And then talk add the XM injury that add a lot. He’s still out with right knee management. Uh he’s just out for Wednesday’s game. He’s I’ve been told that he’s close to coming to coming back, but I’m not g I’m just not hold my breath for Brandon Williams. Personal reasons. Yeah, they’re they’re personal. the first couple games he was out was actually personal reasons. This one is I guess also personal reasons but a different different kind of personal reasons after the report that he was arrested at the uh at DFW airport according to uh DLS our friends over there. And so that is a whole other situation too. But I’ll just throw the point guards out there. He was out with a hamstring injury in preseason too. So that that affected him. Uh man like it’s ju it just every every like you I looked down the bench last night and like Gaffford walked in in sweats. Lively walked in in sweats. Exom walked in. Brandon Williams walked in in sweats. You’re just like Cooper has the ice pack on. Cooper’s got the the he had a pack on his shoulder and he had one on his on one of his knees. And so you’re just like, what is going on with this team already? Like felt like the end of last season again. Game four. I mean, yeah, the season out on the floor. So 80s out on the floor and 80 broke a pair of glasses. I forgot to say this on the show last night. I think we had I think we had the first pair of broken uh glasses. He fell down and I saw one of the lenses pop out of pop out of his glasses and like and like fly and a kid came over and picked him up and gave it to him and then they got him another pair of glasses. I think that was the first pair of broken goggles we’ve had from AD in the year. He got some new ones. Yeah, he either got new ones or they fixed them really really fast which I guess just popped the lens back in. Um, can we talk about Max and Clay coming up? Max and Clay a problem but also just personnel in general problem for the Mavericks. Talk about that coming. Today’s episode of Locked on Maps brought to you by our friends at Pelaton. Pelaton, it’s not just riding a bike anymore. You can run, lift, flex, push, and go with Pelaton. Shaping the future of fitness with the brand new Pelon Cross Training Tread Plus powered by Pelaton IQ. It’s their most advanced equipment yet. Designed to give you real-time guidance and endless ways that you can move. You can do all kinds of stuff. Running, lifting, cross training with your favorite instructors and all that. All the things you love about Pelaton in now different forms. This is training reimagine. Pelaton is built for breakthroughs with tools that help you plan, stay motivated, and reach peak performance. They track your reps, suggest weights for you, correct your form, make every rep safer, and smarter, which is what all of us want. The civil the swivel screen is a game changer as well. You can go from running on the tread plus to strength training without missing a beat. So let yourself run, lift, and flex and push forward. Explore the new Pelaton Crossraining Tread Plus today at onepelon.com. The website is one o ne. The word onepelon.com. Shut it down. Let’s go home. All right, Isaac, we’re ranking the Maverick’s biggest problems right now. We’ve talked about identity. We talked about Anthony Davis’s conditioning and injuries that the Mavericks have had issues with. And uh next one I’m curious I’m curious what your thoughts are on on Max and Klay Thompson. Yeah, Max should start. He He should replace Clay. Um I love what he did start. No. Well, Clay’s is struggling right now. And I I think it’s not to like make excuses, some of this decision- making is um is clearly been off. Um, defensively we know defensively he wasn’t the right, you know, same player still, but it’s more of for me if they’re going to stay committed to no point guard and some of that like y it is just really tough for Clay to generate shots in that first unit. like you have no one that can set him up and at this like he’s still one of the best shooters in the entire NBA but asking but passing to Clay on the on the wing and say hey go create something. I’m not trying to do that at this point in Klay’s career. So he’s got to have people to set him up and I I don’t mean to har on this again but he was brought in to play off Luca play off a Kyrie and Luca’s gone for a post guy. Kyrie’s out and they’re not even around a point guard right now. So, it’s it’s really hard to maximize the only like last great thing that Clay does. And so, Max is just playing better than him and his Max’s point of attack defense is probably worth more than anything right now. Uh Klay Thompson’s three-point percentage off the top of your head if you had to guess through four games. 28 28.6% 6%. Were you really guessing or did you know that? No. Yeah. 28%. Max Christie 56%. Like that is that could just be made shots or not? But the the quality of shots they’re taking. And I think the thing about Klay Thompson that I’ve noticed watching these games is that when Klay Thompson is like running a pick and roll or has the the ball in his hands, all of a sudden like there’s no spacing because they are like he was he’s part of the spacing. like you’ve taken your best spacer out of that and then you’ve put him on the ball and now all of a sudden there’s less space in there because everybody else is not as good of a shooter as Klay Thompson for a team that already struggled with space. And so he’s not generating clean looks for himself. Nobody’s generating clean shots for him. And so that’s that’s where you have this this issue with with Klay Thompson. It’s interesting to me though that Max Christie is getting some some quality shots. Like I I don’t even know if I have a theory on that yet. Maybe just more athletic, quicker, getting to spots faster. Like I Yeah, I don’t know. I need to see some of the lineup stuff like who he’s playing with. Is he getting more minutes with DLO compared to Clay not um Clay’s been outside of you know Max starting with that unit against OKC? Clay’s been getting a lot of minutes with that starting unit of no point guard. Uh and that’s that’s just yeah just tough. It doesn’t fit Klay’s game with that. Love Clay. I don’t I’m not saying that Clay is like done or washed or anything like that. I’m not saying that at all. It’s just the the personnel right now and what they’re trying to run with no point guard really is just tough for Clay. Yeah. And personnel was that was my that was the third problem that I had. If I had to rank the problems, I went identity, injury, and then personnel was my third one. Uh because of some of some of the stuff you’ve been talking about. We talked about all offseason. They need to get a playmaker, need to get a scorer, need to get some kind of shooter, something like that, somebody that can create offense because you see like the difference that D’Angel Russell brings to this team when he’s on the floor versus when he’s not on the floor is just night and day. Imagine if you had two of them, you know, imagine if you just had one more guy like that. Well, I love DL in the sense of like I think, you know, I was very adamant that he’s going to Yeah. be, you know, fine for Dallas this season. But like imagine if that spot was like a really really good point guard in the league. You know, it’s like that’s that’s the thing about that was one of the conversations I had after OKC game the other night was, you know, the person was talking about just DLO’s reputation around the league and how, you know, there’s a lot of coaches out there that probably wouldn’t play him, but you have to play him because in when he comes in the game, he looks like Steve Nash out there because it’s like, whoa. like a guy that can dribble and pass and like set some people up and stuff and it’s just wild. You look at the start of the OKC game. They had two points until he came in the game and then they rattle off 10 points and he generates that shot for Max in the corner and then you know and it’s just like all right and honestly my last point in all of this was I think one of the problems is I I think there’s a disconnect between Nico’s vision and Jason kid and for sure I mean I think Yeah. Yeah. I’m just going to leave it at that. So that goes back to identity though because what did Nico think that this team was supposed to be, right? And what does Jason kid think this team was supposed to be? And how does he think actual basketball is one in the NBA? And I think those two things seem to be different right now. Yeah. And I mean you can see some similarities in like um big wings signings uh in the past of like what was a Nico signing. Um, who is somebody in the past that um, Nico signs, Nico brings in and Jason Kid’s just not really about him and because they’re not fitting the system and and the Yeah. All of it. And Christian Wood. um you have D’Angel Russell that comes in and it’s just like you have this, hey, we’re gonna build this type of system and this we’re focus is gonna be on this and I just I as much as whatever they say publicly um and on record, I’d still think there’s just a a disconnect of GM and head coach, but he got extended. So there you go by the GM. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Weird weird times, but they got to figure out the offensive thing. I mean, were you were you encouraged by the the Thunder comeback? No, not really. I mean, I was so weird. I keep thinking about that today and I’m like, I was not encourage like it because I started the show yesterday. I was like it it just highlighted what like an oxymoron this team is right now. in that they got the they got that run because they played Anthony Davis at the five, they played DJ they played DJ Russell and Cooper Flag was not part of it. And so it’s like they got the run because they put two creators in there and Jaden Hardy and DL. And when you make Jaden Hardy and DLo look like Monte Ellis and Steph Curry, then you know that there’s something going on like and and honestly like this is it in a weird way. I was like, “Oh my gosh, this is like when they put Kyrie with Luca and you’re like, “Oh my gosh, we got these two creators on the floor, like Brunson with Luca.” And it’s like, like, how do you see something like that and see the importance of having two creators out there, an Indiana team who had Andrew Nimhard and Tyrese Hallebertton on the floor, two guys that can create and attack and stuff. And it’s like you put Hardy in there and it’s like it’s Jaden Hardy, but still the impact of having two guys that can shoot, pass, dribble, create, and it’s like, what if we actually invested into that type of stuff? And honestly, this wouldn’t be as big of a problem if the defense wasn’t as bad as it has been, too. Right. No. Right. Like we would be like, oh, the offense has still got to go, but at least they’re defending. But they’re not. I thought I thought they played great defense on SGA. I thought P I thought PJ played great defense on him. I thought Max did at times. I mean SGA only had two free throw attempts. Two. Yeah. When’s that ever going to happen again? Shout out to the refs for that one. Yeah. So there was some I mean they held him right at 100 points, right? He didn’t have any points in the fourth quarter or like Okay. See, and it’s like uh but the like reason I wasn’t like super encouraged was because like I was I love that they didn’t give up. They could have just stopped playing like you know and just give up. But look at go back and watch I went back and watched a lot of that fourth quarter. Look how many open shots OKC just flat out misses. Yeah. And you know they’re a great three-point shooting team. They’re obviously missing Caruso, Jaylen Williams. Like I don’t know if they’re great. Well, they just there’s a lot of like spacing stuff they have out there with Wiggins and they get open ones for sure. Yeah, they get open ones and stuff. And so I some of it Yeah, there’s defense. Mavs didn’t give up, but it was also some Yeah, but there’s big problems. Can I ask you this question? One more thing. This is right up your alley, too, about defining the season, but I’m not saying let’s go. But I’m not saying five games in. Is this game against Indiana must win? No, still not. Ah, I want to say it is depleted Pacers team. Like literally mean you could suit up. Injury report for the Pacers out. Obviously Tyresese Hallebertton. Uh Benedict Mathan is out. Andrew Nemhard is out. Obie Topphen is out. Uh TJ McConnell is out. It’s like they don’t have any. Who else is out? Who’s doubtful? Baby Johnny Fury. No. No. No. My guy. Uh Cam Jones. Nope. Taylor Peter, baby. No, he’s doubtful. He’s not out yet. He’s doubtful. Okay. Okay. Okay. He’s doubtful. Liberty Flame, he can light it up. Oh, yeah. That’s right. Yeah. Um, it’s the last game of the home stand. You’ve struggled obviously. You’re personally or the No, you’re one and three. You’re one of the talks right now around the league of like, man, what is going on right now? And yes, it’s the fifth game of this home stand. It’s the longest home stand of the entire season for you and you’re about to have two days off before you go to Mexico City and are like on display for the NBA. And this Pacers team is literally has nobody. You cannot let Rick Carl come in here and play some voodoo magic and beat you and you score 91 points and like you just can’t, man. Like who is even on this team to play it? Yeah, it’s gonna be I mean Seakum’s still there. Seakum puts up like a 50 ball. Yeah, that’s this is Anthony Davis’s time, right? Like you gota it’s got to be okay. Here’s their starting lineup the other night. Pascal Sakum Jay Huff, Isaiah Jackson, Aaron Nath, Ben Shepard, Jarus Walker, Ray J Dennis. Did I make that name up or is that a real NBA player? No, that’s real. Um, Anthony Davis has got to put up like 35 and 15 in this game. And our old friend Tony Bradley. How many bigs they got over there? I was going to say just play all bigs. Jay Huff’s pretty good though. I like him. Yeah. There you go. Subscribe to the show wherever you’re listening, watching this. Let’s try to get to 50,000 subscribers on YouTube. We would love to get there for the Raccoon Squad. Guys, thanks so much for hanging out with us on Lockdown Mabs. We’ll be back tomorrow with more. Isaac’s going to have one more thing coming up for you later today. Hey, thanks so much for listening to Locked on Mabs. Peace out. Boom.

The Dallas Mavericks are facing major challenges early in the NBA season with questions about team identity, injuries, and player conditioning impacting their performance. How are Cooper Flagg, Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, and the Mavs adapting to a tough start, and what ranking problems are they struggling to overcome?

Nick Angstadt and Isaac Harris break down the biggest problems for the Dallas Mavericks, including the impact of injuries to key players like Kyrie Irving, Dereck Lively II, and Daniel Gafford. The show dives into the roles of Anthony Davis, Cooper Flagg, Klay Thompson, D’Angelo Russell, and PJ Washington, while evaluating the coaching strategy of Jason Kidd and roster moves by GM Nico Harrison. Other teams and personalities mentioned include the Indiana Pacers, Rick Carlisle, and notable Mavericks personnel.

Listen for insights on the offensive and defensive identity of the Mavs, how injuries have changed the team, and what adjustments Dallas needs to make in the NBA.

0:00 Mavericks’ Identity Crisis
14:15 Anthony Davis Conditioning & Injuries
22:52 Max vs. Klay—Personnel Problems

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