Dallas Mavericks: Is the Leadership Council a good thing?

There hasn’t been much to get excited about this season for the Dallas Mavericks. Standing 2-1 after some up and down performances, things could certainly be worse. But they could also clearly could be going better.

It’s hard to gleam any worthwhile trends from such a small sample size, except, of course, the influence from the so called, “Leadership Council.”

The Dallas Mavericks are makin some pretty big decisions based on recommendations from the Leadership Council.

The three member council, likely consisting of Luka Doncic, Kristaps Porzingis, and Tim Hardaway Jr., has been a topic of conversation this season. Handing leadership roles to top players is nothing new, but giving them decision-making powers is certainly rare.

Upon the council’s recommendation, coach Jason Kidd rolled out all 15 players in last night’s game against Houston. Going that deep so early in the season is extremely rare (a first in many ways) and kind of a headscratcher considering the Mavs are still trying to optimize their top-8.

It’s undeniable the players in the council are enjoying the added power and influence (not so surprisingly). Players had grown disgruntled with Rick Carlisle’s iron fist over the years so it’s a welcomed sight to have a player-friendly coach like Kidd getting buy-in and even direction from the players.

Whether or not this is a wise thing remains to be seen. Coaches are coaches because they are good at making the tough decisions. The team’s success is their highest priority, while players often grapple between individual success and team success since those two don’t always go hand in hand.

So while the win against a terrible Houston team wasn’t convincing, it offered some hidden benefits in the way of moral. Dallas dug deep into their roster against a beatable opponent. They secured the win (the main objective) and rewarded players. It also bought tremendous good will between the lower rotation players and the stars AND between the star players and the coach.

This could all pay dividends down the road.

One has to assume Jason Kidd would not have done this against a more feared opponent. If this was a tough match-up late in the season it would be irresponsible to employ such methods of “reward” to lower tier players. Kidd may just be picking his opportunities here and their seems like a pretty smart thing to do.

We’ll have to see how this all plays out this season. How much influence the Leadership Council has this season will hopefully be directly related to the situation at hand. The Dallas Mavericks need their head coach making head coach decisions and can’t be relying on his council to always make the smartest choices.

It’s a new day in Dallas and that’s pretty clear just three games in.