With several key Mavericks players exceeding their season-long minutes per game averages since the All-Star break, head coach Jason Kidd wants to make a concerted effort to ease those players’ workloads going forward, per Eddie Sefko of Mavs.com.
“We’d like to get more guys involved here, Sterling (Brown) and Trey (Burke),” Kidd said. “We’ve been running the minutes for those eight to nine guys that we have been playing. So we want to get everybody involved and get some of the minutes down for Luka (Doncic) and Reggie (Bullock). We’re playing Reggie over 40 minutes a night. So those are the things I’m looking at.”
As Sefko outlines, Doncic (37.5 MPG) and Bullock (37.0 MPG) have been the Mavericks’ most-used players since the All-Star break, but the team is also leaning heavily on Jalen Brunson and Dorian Finney-Smith. Expanding the rotation should help the club avoid overusing those players without having to rest them for full games.
Here’s more from around the Southwest:
- Mavericks assistant – and WNBA star – Kristi Toliver spoke to Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic about how she ended up on Dallas’ coaching staff, what it’s like to remain active as a WNBA player while holding an NBA job, and her future coaching aspirations.
- In a separate story for The Athletic, Vorkunov examines Zach Kleiman‘s rapid ascension through the Grizzlies‘ front office and the admirable job he has done since becoming Memphis’ top basketball decision-maker. Kleiman has helped turn the team into a legit contender since being named executive VP of basketball operations at age 30 in 2019. “I wouldn’t be in this position without (Grizzlies owner) Robert Pera’s vision and emphasis on organizational culture,” Kleiman said. “He entrusted me to lead basketball operations despite me being a relative unknown in NBA circles, and has challenged us to be intentional about establishing and sticking to our core tenets.”
- The Rockets are in position to finish with the NBA’s worst record for a second consecutive year, but all is going according to plan, according to Rahat Huq of The Houston Chronicle, who argues that team owner Tilman Fertitta deserves credit for signing off on a full-fledged rebuild rather than trying to stay competitive as a borderline playoff contender following last year’s James Harden trade.
Kleiman outstanding efforts thus far
Ah geez fellas can Tillman really be praised for what’s he done to a team that just won 67 games when he bought them?
And they were not supposed to,lose so much in a quick turn-around. Or those were just lies.
The Grizzlies have drafted very well. We shall see if they can win a series.
Drafting Morant #2 was obvious, then Brandon Clarke & Desmond Bane, brilliant.
John Konchar, Xavier Tillman, Killian Tillie, Sam Merrill, are low-risk picks/signings I might have made too.
Zaire Williams & Santi Aldama last summer not so much, and MEM had to trade up to make them. But credit to Kleiman, #2 WC now.
According to those quoted, Kleiman never argues sports and is a total lawyer, sticking to (his mantra of) “core tenets”. Not more fun than “grit n grind”!
At least he moved Conley on to a better situation. Right after hiring, there was a flurry of trades for players no longer there, and two middle firsts. Hard to rate them, except that they did get made…
Was the predecessor, Chris Wallace, unwilling to trade, and Kleiman willing?