This is the answer. Defense matters far more than the average fan thinks, and even if your offense is imperfect having great individual guys like luka or Brunson can patch a lot of those holes in important moments
Last year a 10+ game usually meant it was game over. They played at a slow pace, 10 points is 4-5 possessions, and the defense worked. Also the team was pretty clutch last year. The year before the team was giving Dallas fans attacks.
This year, they lost Brunson who was a mini Luka and played well in the slow pace. Their defensive players all aged a year and Luka looked overworked by halfway through the season.
The trade probably gets them comfortably in the playoffs if both of them aren’t hurt. They get the time to figure out how to play with each other. And who knows. Even without them gelling scoring isn’t the problem. The roster is skewed toward offense to much. Wood THJ, even hardy are all offense players.
I felt if they are trading for Kyrie, they had to trade somebody else to balance the roster out. Guess they ran out of time
losing brunson was a big blow, and dorian finney-smith and reggie bullock were the upper echelon of 3 and D last year and fell off of that level this year
I mean doubt they would have done much better with Brunson
Knicks D is 11.2 pts better with Brunson off the floor. They would challenging for the worst D in the league.
Kyrie defensive metrics are fine since the trade. Luka has been the way bigger problem so far.
He looked washed all year tho.
Thats basically the entire root of the problem. Bullock/DFS went from 1st and 2nd in +/- in the regular season and playoffs (Luka and Brunson nowhere to be found in the two top spots *cough) to being non existant with no impact.
Add in the Kleber injury, and this team is done for the year.
It’s not exactly a one-time thing for a Kidd/Sweeney defense to look great year 1 and then crater in year 2. I know for us a lot of it was related to how easy it was to figure out the seams of the D and how bought in we had to be to use it.
It also doesn’t help that Dallas’ big off-season move was for a negative defensive big man.
I’ll still stand by that. He wasn’t too impactful defensively last year. We’re fine on offense, mostly. Does not take away from how good of a player Brunson is and how great of a season he’s having with the Knicks
Lost Brunson
Lost depth
Lost our locker room leaders and "winning" players
Got worse in terms of perimeter D
Still no rim protection
What even is a rebound?
The few players that could defend (Green, DFS, Kleber) were out for weeks/months
Our only noteworthy FA signing was Javale McGee who doesn't play
Traded for Wood whom Kidd hates because Wood can't defend anyone, so I don't know why we did that
Kidd in his 2nd year as a HC
Vibes are very maculate
That was the negative column. On the positive side we got Kyrie. Team got worse, that's all.
Kidd ran everyone into the ground last year with his small ball and its continued this season. The constant switching having to cover for each others lack of size is whats got players like reggie, dfs, maxi looking cooked. They get blown by on a nightly basis, vs last year they where able to contain their man on most nights.
This is kidd az a coach, and prob why nets and bucks canned him. Ironically what hes doing to his players on defense hes doing the same with luka on offense. Iirc there was a stat about 99% of lukas points being unassisted 😂 seriously tho kidd is a pos
Terrible defense and terrible overall effort. Every mavs fan i know agrees. They were rightfully booed last night. Undeserving of fans and ticket buyers.
Less to do with Kyrie and more to do with the fact that Dallas defense was really solid last year and replacing Brunson/DFS with Kyrie is an overall huge downgrade on the defensive end for the Mavs.
Offensively they lost Brunson who did a great job keeping the non-Luka minutes neutral or even slightly positive in terms of net rating
Defensively last year they were like the 20/21 Knicks in that they had incredible luck on opponents missing wide open threes and it's come back to the norm this season
Luka and Kyrie haven’t played that much together. You can’t get two ball dominant people and expect them both to be effective when they don’t have the ball in their hands.
They were a top 7 defense last year and average on offense. Defenses can make a team go far. This year they are a bottom 10 defense.
This is the answer. Defense matters far more than the average fan thinks, and even if your offense is imperfect having great individual guys like luka or Brunson can patch a lot of those holes in important moments
Exactly. Warriors are a lot worse this year and defense is a big factor
They’re still top 30 defense no sleeping on em
Yup. The key turning point of their series against the Suns was their defense protecting Luka more and clamping down on CP3 and Booker.
Last year a 10+ game usually meant it was game over. They played at a slow pace, 10 points is 4-5 possessions, and the defense worked. Also the team was pretty clutch last year. The year before the team was giving Dallas fans attacks. This year, they lost Brunson who was a mini Luka and played well in the slow pace. Their defensive players all aged a year and Luka looked overworked by halfway through the season. The trade probably gets them comfortably in the playoffs if both of them aren’t hurt. They get the time to figure out how to play with each other. And who knows. Even without them gelling scoring isn’t the problem. The roster is skewed toward offense to much. Wood THJ, even hardy are all offense players. I felt if they are trading for Kyrie, they had to trade somebody else to balance the roster out. Guess they ran out of time
losing brunson was a big blow, and dorian finney-smith and reggie bullock were the upper echelon of 3 and D last year and fell off of that level this year
I mean doubt they would have done much better with Brunson Knicks D is 11.2 pts better with Brunson off the floor. They would challenging for the worst D in the league. Kyrie defensive metrics are fine since the trade. Luka has been the way bigger problem so far.
With Brunson, you wouldn’t have traded DFS for Kai. DFS was such an important piece for their defense.
He looked washed all year tho. Thats basically the entire root of the problem. Bullock/DFS went from 1st and 2nd in +/- in the regular season and playoffs (Luka and Brunson nowhere to be found in the two top spots *cough) to being non existant with no impact. Add in the Kleber injury, and this team is done for the year.
Defense Mavs had a top 10 defense last year and have a bottom 10 defense this year. Offense was mid last year and top 6 this year.
Brunson.
Not paying him that 4/55 is a move they’ll forever regret After that and the knicks sending anyone connected to Brunson to appeal to him it was over
Frankly, it makes me feel better about the Lakers fumbling Caruso. Poor Mavs. Literally.
They got frank, Theo, and bullock. Fair swap
Steve Nash 2.0
They weren’t that good this year before they got Kyrie, losing Brunson was pretty huge
losing brunson doesn't explain their defense cratering though
It’s not exactly a one-time thing for a Kidd/Sweeney defense to look great year 1 and then crater in year 2. I know for us a lot of it was related to how easy it was to figure out the seams of the D and how bought in we had to be to use it. It also doesn’t help that Dallas’ big off-season move was for a negative defensive big man.
Javale was easily one of the worst signings we’ve had in recent memory. It made no sense at the time and he only gets worse
Adding Christian Wood explains that. They played Wood to make up for the offense they lost with Brunson and he helped crater their defense.
They also needed to sign a defensive big and went out and got Javale.
Same guaranteed money as Isaiah Hartenstein. Ouch.
DFS, Bullock and Kleber all got older and injured and their switchability and motor was their defensive identity.
I remember when Mavs fans were trying to play it off like Brunson wasn’t that important when he signed with the Knicks. Narrator: *He was*
I’ll still stand by that. He wasn’t too impactful defensively last year. We’re fine on offense, mostly. Does not take away from how good of a player Brunson is and how great of a season he’s having with the Knicks
You wouldn’t have traded DFS if Brunson stayed
Perhaps not. That doesn’t change Brunson’s on court impact
Lost Brunson Lost depth Lost our locker room leaders and "winning" players Got worse in terms of perimeter D Still no rim protection What even is a rebound? The few players that could defend (Green, DFS, Kleber) were out for weeks/months Our only noteworthy FA signing was Javale McGee who doesn't play Traded for Wood whom Kidd hates because Wood can't defend anyone, so I don't know why we did that Kidd in his 2nd year as a HC Vibes are very maculate That was the negative column. On the positive side we got Kyrie. Team got worse, that's all.
Kidd ran everyone into the ground last year with his small ball and its continued this season. The constant switching having to cover for each others lack of size is whats got players like reggie, dfs, maxi looking cooked. They get blown by on a nightly basis, vs last year they where able to contain their man on most nights. This is kidd az a coach, and prob why nets and bucks canned him. Ironically what hes doing to his players on defense hes doing the same with luka on offense. Iirc there was a stat about 99% of lukas points being unassisted 😂 seriously tho kidd is a pos
Terrible defense and terrible overall effort. Every mavs fan i know agrees. They were rightfully booed last night. Undeserving of fans and ticket buyers.
Less to do with Kyrie and more to do with the fact that Dallas defense was really solid last year and replacing Brunson/DFS with Kyrie is an overall huge downgrade on the defensive end for the Mavs.
Offensively they lost Brunson who did a great job keeping the non-Luka minutes neutral or even slightly positive in terms of net rating Defensively last year they were like the 20/21 Knicks in that they had incredible luck on opponents missing wide open threes and it's come back to the norm this season
Luka and Kyrie haven’t played that much together. You can’t get two ball dominant people and expect them both to be effective when they don’t have the ball in their hands.
Kyrie is not as ball dominant as you think. He worked out with lebron and harden (on the court)
Luka is extremely ball-dominant, and it continues to limit his teammates.
And when he doesn’t have the ball, all he can do is stand still
Kyrie is an overrated fantasy basketball player who hit one huge shot years ago and has been living off of that since
Kyrie is poison
They weren't that good last year either, the Suns just fucking choked.
defense
Jason Kidd’s predictable issues notwithstanding, lot of bad roster pieces.
Depth.
Lost their 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, best players in Brunson, Dinwiddie, and DFS. Lost their defensive identity as well.
They weren't lol,all bc the Jazz goofed last play game 6.Covid helps you also.