Game Day: Mavericks (17-12) @ Suns (14-14), Mon 12/25/23

[Split T]

I skipped this one but had a dream we lost 165-164, THJ hit a 3 at the buzzer to win…somehow KD and Book both scored 70 and we lost…My dream was right about the loss

[wpmiller42]

I think there's still hope. Though it's concerning to me that we signed a bunch of guys who used to be really good 3-point shooters... and they haven't been for us for whatever reason. And we signed guys that were supposed to fight hard defensively.... and they haven't for us. Part of me wonders if the rotations are too complicated? Are we asking, for instance, Eric Gordon to cover too much space? But that doesn't explain why KD doesn't close out hard and continues to throw some really ill advised passes.

I think I would have two suggestions for Vogel and Ishbia. The first would be to simplify the defense; just switch literally everything if you have to. I'd rather see our guards battle a big in the post than give up 50 open corner 3s a night. The second would be that we do need a traditional point guard. Book has done a great job, but why are we minimizing Booker's strengths by making him get everyone else involved? I feel like TJ McConnell is a gettable trade target, or maybe CP3 gets bought out and we beg him to come back. Or maybe instead of Point Book, it's Point Allen, or Point Okogie... I just feel like we need to try to do something to get Booker going earlier in the game; as it is now, it's like we wait till the 2nd quarter for him to look for his own offense.

But I'm still optimistic we can turn it around. Beal will help take the load off Booker and I feel like SOMEONE on the bench is going to get consistent for us, but the vibe has to change.

[Mori Chu]

Other than our defense and offense, we played pretty well.

The main problem with this team is that Booker and Durant aren't really leaders, nor are they offensive initiators. Book is better at being a quasi-PG in short stints than KD is, but they're both finishers, scorers, shooters. Not initiators. And neither of them stands up tall and actually uses their voice and their stature to lead a team that needs guidance out on the floor. That could be mitigated if we had an exceptional coach, but we don't.

When I look at our roster construction, it seems like we overfocused on scoring and offense and didn't get enough guys who are plus defenders. I know our offense has been bad, but really I think it starts from the fact that we never stop anybody. Guys get wide open 3s and layups against us over and over. Even when our role players go off for career nights it isn't enough. Maybe we should have targeted more gritty defensive guys to put around KD and Book. And certainly we should have targeted a true PG. Even if you think Booker is capable of running an NBA offense (which I don't), it is clearly sapping his energy and taking away from his great scoring and shooting that he could be providing us.

At this point I'd start trying crazy out-of-the-box things, like, maybe making Grayson Allen our starting PG. Play Allen-Book-Metu-KD-Nurk as the starting 5 while Beal remains out. Let Grayson initiate. He's been a very impressive ballhandler and facilitator so far. In the bench lineup, make Eric Gordon the PG and let him drive the offense. Basically just don't use our Big Two as point guards or initiators.

[Nodack]

I thought the idea was that Book, KD and Beal are all such good ball handlers that the ball would rotate between them all the time and we wouldn’t need a true PG. Double one and the other two burn you. The big three hasn’t really happened yet. Booker was playing like a regular PG last night trying to get others involved and a little before half time Booker had 2 points. He wasn’t missing. He just wasn’t taking shots. The entire franchise is built around Booker’s offense and he had 2 points.

We know Luka was going to be the man. Everyone in the arena knew he was going to be the man. He’s the one guy we have to stop or at least slow down. We put our best defender Okogie on him. He had 50 points and 15 assists. He completely took the Suns apart singlehanded and they could do nothing to slow him down. It seems every team now gets easy layups and wide open threes against the Suns and the Suns mostly shooting contested shots.

The ship is listing pretty bad right now.

[The Bobster]

The problem with the idea that "they'll just move the ball and get open shots" is that they don;t move the ball. And Booker and Durant are great at creating their own shots, but that's different than running the offense and getting everyone involved. And getting Beal back isn't going to fix that.

As for the defense, well, what defense?

[The Bobster]

3-9 in their last 12 games.

[Superbone]

Next year!

Ugh…. The only bright spot is we have our pick this year. I really bought into this being a magical year…. Their only hope is that they finally get it enough and click at the end of the year and other teams have stars with season ending injuries. Outside of that.. I predict we’ll be in the lottery.

Wouldn't that be something after our expectations to start the year?

[Cap]

Next year!

Ugh…. The only bright spot is we have our pick this year. I really bought into this being a magical year…. Their only hope is that they finally get it enough and click at the end of the year and other teams have stars with season ending injuries. Outside of that.. I predict we’ll be in the lottery.

Wouldn't that be something after our expectations to start the year?

How many unprotected picks and swaps did we ship out this summer? And everybody said it was OK because all our picks would be at the end of the round anyway.

[Split T]

Well luckily we have our 2024 pick and the teams that can swap with us have worse records…for now(Memphis and Washington).

[Superbone]

I imagine Ishbia will be looking to make some big changes if we don't turn this thing around after all the money he spent on this team. He can't be too happy. I'm just glad to know he really cares and is willing to spend the money. He seems to be staying out of the way for the most part from what I can tell other than negotiations where we all agree he gave up too much. Especially now that we are seeing the results.

[Mori Chu]

Other than completely overruling our GM, making multiple trades that GM didn't endorse, mortgaging a decade's worth of players, picks, and assets, and palling around with another former FO exec (IT) and prioritizing his input over our GM's, Ishbia's done a great job at staying out of the way and not meddling with the team.

[Superbone]

Other than completely overruling our GM, making multiple trades that GM didn't endorse, mortgaging a decade's worth of players, picks, and assets, and palling around with another former FO exec (IT) and prioritizing his input over our GM's, Ishbia's done a great job at staying out of the way and not meddling with the team.

Ha. Of course a lot of that is conjecture.

[Shabazz]

When I look at our roster construction, it seems like we overfocused on scoring and offense and didn't get enough guys who are plus defenders. I know our offense has been bad, but really I think it starts from the fact that we never stop anybody. Guys get wide open 3s and layups against us over and over. Even when our role players go off for career nights it isn't enough. Maybe we should have targeted more gritty defensive guys to put around KD and Book. And certainly we should have targeted a true PG. Even if you think Booker is capable of running an NBA offense (which I don't), it is clearly sapping his energy and taking away from his great scoring and shooting that he could be providing us.

Taking this a step further what we didn’t get this offseason is a single rotation-level big who can defend. The NBA has gotten bigger and we don’t have one player who can credibly guard the basket on D or play with force on O. We keep rolling out lineups where 3 guys are 6-5 and under (with short arms), the 4th is 7 feet but 180 lbs, and the 5th is either Nurk (immobile) or Drew (clueless). It’s a soft roster. We need some beef.

We kept doubling Luka with Grayson and EG yesterday and he couldn’t have been less bothered seeing over the top and finding the open man. Red Auerbach couldn’t get this lineup to be a plus defense.

[Split T]

Eubanks and KBD have been the biggest disappointments to me. They just don’t seem playable even in the regular season. Metu needs to be the backup C now and maybe get minutes at the 4 too.

I think Little has some promise, but he’s about the only tradable piece with any type of salary that we have. I wouldn’t hesitate to package him with two of our disappointing vet min signings and a bunch of 2nds for a rotation player with some size.

[Split T]

I wrote a whole post on who I’d target and my browser lost it, but a quick rundown:

Larry Nance Jr
Isaiah Hartenstein
Joe Ingles
Monte Morris
Patrick Williams

Those are the guys I’d call about right now. You’d probably be told no, but see what it would take as they fit our needs and would be acquirable with Little + 1 or 2 vet mins money wise.

[Wally_West]

Flex is saying that divide in the lock room. Half a team fucks with Kevin Young, other half don’t. Fantastic. Fuck this season.

I’m down bad, absolutely love Rivers right now.

[TOO]

How would Young be the issue? He's the assistant to the HC, that doesn't make sense to me.

[Split T]

We probably should’ve hired Nurse…clearly something broke as this isn’t just health, but I don’t know what it is…I agree that something happened…I’m curious to see who the scapegoat is as this won’t be allowed to continue for long.

[SunsSince92]

Flex is saying that divide in the lock room. Half a team fucks with Kevin Young, other half don’t. Fantastic. Fuck this season.

I’m down bad, absolutely love Rivers right now.

That for me was the fundamental mistake that Ishbia and Jones made. Keeping Kevin Young around when it wasn't necessary to do so felt like an odd move that had the potential to cause a rift at some point. Upon reflection, it seems as though it was a move to appease Booker and KD who clearly wanted him as coach and almost certainly still do.

[Split T]

How would Young be the issue? He's the assistant to the HC, that doesn't make sense to me.

He’s basically the offensive coordinator…some people might not like the offense he’s running and want it flipped…I wonder if maybe we gave more power to Young than most assistant coaches have and Vogel is struggling to keep the locker room because of it.