As the Dallas Mavericks prepare to face their old coach for the first time since he left for back home again in Indiana, it is clear the state of the team was never about Rick Carlisle.
In the NBA it’s seldom about the coach.
As much as the Mavericks and specifically the suddenly “fat” Luka Doncic needed a change from Carlisle, expecting the results to change with the turnover at head coach was stupid.
The 12-12 Mavs play the Carlisle-coached Indiana Pacers on Friday night in Indianapolis.
Turns out Carlisle won’t be there to coach. According to ESPN NBA reporter Tim MacMahon, Carslisle is in the NBA’s health and safety protocols, which means he won’t be on the sideline to see his old team.
Jason Kidd as Carlisle’s replacement has not been bad. He’s (politely) called things out and is a good addition for Doncic.
The bad idea was a roster of guys built to take outside shots and asking them to be something else. This is a terrible fit, and it’s going to take at least two years to change.
Some of this is on Luka Doncic, but most of it is on the construction of the roster. The Mavericks built a team based on the analytics of 3-point shooting, but they are not the Golden State Warriors or Utah Jazz.
The Mavs rank fifth in the NBA in 3-point attempts per game and 24th in 3-point accuracy.
In their loss against the Nets on Tuesday, the Mavericks shot 9-of-46 from 3-point range. They lost by three.
The Mavericks are “that guy” in the pickup game who keeps shooting even though he never makes a shot.
They are asking all of these “3-point shooters” to be defensive oriented when they’re not built for that style.
We are only a little more than one quarter through the NBA’s regular season, but these are terrible trends.
The Mavericks and team owner Mark Cuban need to get real about some of the guys on this team. As much as he likes some of these players, he has to be honest about the results.
Dorian Finney-Smith, Dwight Powell, Maxi Kleber and Reggie Bullock are all good guys and NBA players, but no team is going to advance deep into the playoffs riding these players as their wing men.
The addition of Kristaps Porzingis looked so promising, and the injuries he has sustained have changed him as a player.
He’s has missed seven games and he’s considered “healthy.” His defensive presence is not what it was when he was with the New York Knicks.
Can’t fault the effort by the Mavs to acquire him. It just has not yielded the desired results.
Which leaves Luka Doncic “stuck” amid the fun for a while.
He agreed to a five-year, $207 million extension in the summer, so he’s here until 2027.
Cuban may be crazy, but he’s not dumb enough to trade one of the best players in the league.
For some reason, it took us until the second week of December to realize that Doncic for the second consecutive season came into the season not in basketball shape.
It was not until the Mavs hosted the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday night, which was nationally televised by TNT, did “we” see it when analyst Reggie Miller noted Doncic looked heavy.
Doncic admitted after the game that he came into the season not in proper condition.
The same thing happened to Dirk Nowitzki … the season after the Mavs won an NBA title.
As good as Doncic is, he’s 22. It’s also time that he figure some of this out.
One consistent theme from the Mavericks in the last few seasons is that Doncic is worn out. That has to change.
Conditioning was an issue in the playoffs last season, when he routinely was finished by the start of the fourth quarter in the seven-game series against the Clippers.
It’s not fair but what the Mavs are asking Luka to do is similar to the same request the Cleveland Cavaliers made of LeBron James early in his career.
In his fourth season, at 22, LeBron single-handedly carried a bad Cavs roster to the NBA Finals.
Doncic is great, but he ain’t LeBron.
Doncic is not going to carry the Mavericks to an appearance in the NBA Finals this season. It will be impressive if he carries them to the playoffs.
Much as it was true this time a year ago it remains the same that the Dallas Mavericks are a poorly constructed team built around one of the best players in the world.
Changing the head coach may have been necessary, but it was never going to change much.