![]() Kidd’s history of being an abusive, old school motivator is well documented. The league needed time to adapt.īut beyond that, a lot of first-year coaches can motivate their teams to play harder and tougher on defense, but that has a limited shelf life. And he had been out of the game for a while when he signed on with Dallas, and came back running a fairly different defense than he’d utilized before. Kidd was new to coaching when he went to Milwaukee. It takes a while for the league to adjust to a new coach’s schemes. But I’m a firm believer in the first-year coaching bounce. There are a lot of reasons for Milwaukee’s defensive awakening (they were 29th in defensive rating the year before Kidd took over), and subsequent fall. And in his sophomore campaign? It was awful. What does an old Milwaukee Bucks team have to do with any of this? That 2014-15 season was Jason Kidd’s first year as coach of the Bucks. But Kleber is much better suited at the 4 than the 5 – both on offense and on defense – and he suddenly finds himself being asked to be the center that he really shouldn’t be. They’ve attempted to patch the defensive hole at center with Maxi Kleber, who’s a very strong defender. The Mavs seemingly realize this, as they’ve been starting JaVale McGee, albeit with non-starter minutes.Ĭhristian Wood should start for the Dallas Mavericks Suddenly wings and guards had to do less on defense, and when you do less you usually do it better.ĭallas replaced Porziņģis this offseason when they acquired Christian Wood … a solid replacement if you’re committed to only watching one end of the court. His length, timing, and disruption at the rim not only stood out, but had a domino effect on the rest of the team’s defensive pieces. From then on, they were barely a shade above average.įor all of the flack that Porziņģis received – and deserved – the fact remained that he was a very good defensive player last season. From the start of the season through Kristaps Porziņģis’ final game in his failed Dallas tenure, the Mavs sported a top-five defense. You can probably guess the significance of that first pairing. A lot worse.Īs evidence, let’s look at two sets of garbage-time adjusted defensive ratings, courtesy of Cleaning The Glass.Ģ021-22 Mavericks, start of season through January 29: 108.2 (5th in the league)Ģ021-22 Mavericks, January 30 through the end of season: 113.7 (13th in the league)Ģ015-16 Bucks: 108.6 (23rd in the league) Dallas’ offense was fairly pedestrian a year ago, but a defense that was comfortably in the league’s top 10 helped them glide to a 52-win season. Not unlike the Golden State Warriors with Steph Curry, last year’s Mavs squad rode the high of an All-World offensive player … while actually being a better team on the defensive end of the court. The defense is primed for massive regression I don’t see them making any playoff noise, other than a 50-piece by Luka to steal a game or two from an actual contender. But beyond that? I don’t see them earning a high seed, or improving on last year in any form or fashion. The Mavs have Luka Dončić, and that’s good enough to sneak into the playoffs. 4 seed and a trip to the Conference Finals, will methodically put one foot in front of the other and move up again this year. So it’s fair to presume that the Dallas Mavericks, fresh off of earning the Western Conference’s No. We just assume those teams will keep climbing the mountain. We don’t really think about the machinations involved. A one-year hiatus hasn’t changed the trajectory for Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks all that much. Ja Morant’s Memphis Grizzlies are presumed to do the same. Fans expect the Cleveland Cavaliers, with their young All-Star core, to move forward this year. They’re supposed to slowly climb towards the peak. Up and coming teams with young stars are supposed to be … well … up and coming. ![]() There’s an unspoken understanding in the NBA. ![]()
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