Who are the Jason Kidd Dallas Mavericks?

The hiring of Jason Kidd brought mixed emotions upon the Dallas Mavericks’ fan base. An important player during the team’s lone championship season, Kidd’s track record as a head coach in the league has been all over the place. A known players coach, his coaching record and relationships with former assistant coaches are less than ideal.

Almost instantly, fans knew the team would look stylistically different than under former coach Rick Carlisle. Known for his basketball acumen, Carlisle could strategically outscore his opponents on a nightly basis. Unfortunately, his defensive adjustments seemingly plateaued in 2018 due to his passive approach to defense.

This is quite the contrast to Jason Kidd. Kidd’s teams were more defensively engaged and scored with grit often showing great disorganization on both sides of the ball. The aggression was very necessary for a team that consistently placed in the bottom half of the league in defensive rating the last three seasons, but there was legitimate concern about how a really good offense would operate with a coach who didn’t have the intelligence of his predecessor.

Who are the Dallas Mavericks under Jason Kidd?

The Dallas Mavericks have started their season currently above .500, which means there is a model of success, or so we think. Competition aside, the Mavericks are 3-2 in their first five games of the season, and many times in that five-game span the team has looked quite ugly. (Specifically the offensive play in both losses)

By far the biggest takeaway so far is that Dallas has stepped up their defensive intensity. Kristaps Porzingis is averaging 2.8 blocks per 36 minutes. Maxi Kleber had six blocks against San Antonio Thursday night raising his average to 2.4 blocks per 36 minutes. Dallas is currently 11th in the NBA in defensive rating posting a 105, currently 8 points per 100 possessions fewer than last season.

The offense has looked fairly clunky so far posting some bad shooting efficiency numbers, but they fare worse, relative to the league, at converting two-point field goals compared to three-point field goals. Their 31 percent from 3 is the fourth-worst percentage in the league while their 47.4 percent from 2 is second-worst in the league. In years past the Mavericks would be hovering around league average from 3 while being elite at converting 2 point shots.

The open looks are there, they just aren’t going in. With time and greater sample size, this should fix itself, hopefully…

But what probably stands out more than anything is the team is currently shooting more three-point attempts than they did last season while shooting fewer two-point attempts from the year before. It’s only one attempt in each category, but this feels awfully contradictory to what Jason Kidd said during the summer. Was it really just a facade?

Kidd mentioned how he wanted to make sure the team didn’t live by the three-point shot like in years past, but they proceeded to sign Reggie Bullock, Sterling Brown, and Frank Ntilikina who were quite proficient at converting from outside the three-point arc. The team needed wing defenders and they got them, but by contrast, they don’t have Josh Richardson’s ability to attack the rim or convert from mid-range. Was Kidd playing with us the whole time?

With the exception of Tim Hardaway Jr and Jalen Brunson, everyone’s shooting numbers have been noticeably down. In theory, this should be seen as a good thing because when the team regresses to the mean Dallas will look better on offense. However, if the team continues to play with the same tendencies throughout the season do they get stuck in the same traps that prevented Rick Carlisle from getting past the first round of the playoffs for the nth time?

We were sold on something different with Jason Kidd, but it looks like a lot more of the same? I don’t really have a problem with this, but if the offense continues to sputter how much do things change given how the roster is currently constructed. I suppose it’s something to think about?

• Published on 10/30/2021 at 12:06 PM
• Last updated at 10/30/2021 at 12:06 PM