The Mavericks have a KP problem

Every time the Mavericks see a guard in the same vein as Lillard, their defense gets completely exposed.

Its always been a challenge for KP, given his 7’3 frame, but it’s been especially apparent this year. Teams target him relentlessly for points and he’s helpless to defend them in the Mavericks drop scheme.

He currently owns the league worst defensive rating. This is the Mavericks $158 million co-star to Luka. The one who is supposed to anchor the defense.

Right now, that’s not happening. And him being so stiff, you’re left to wonder about the impact of the knee injuries. Especially at his height.

Either way, it’s a problem. Hopefully one KP works out himself, or something might need to be done about it.

Josh Richardson’s acquisition has become a head scratcher

Seth Curry was a wonderful player for the Mavericks. An played on an extremely cost-effective deal.

Trading him away hurt, but knowing you were getting a top-flight point-of-attack defender in Josh Richardson made it worth it.

Tonights game was the perfect opportunity to display that. J-Rich was born to guard the twitchy, explosive scoring guards like Dame.

But he barely saw any time on him. Finney-Smith drew the primary assignment, and god bless him, he did his best. But you’re asking a lot of him to put the clamps on Dame.

Why not J-Rich? That’s what he was brought here to do, right? You didn’t trade in Curry’s offense for his defense, only to watch him stand idly by while Dame buries you in the clutch.

It’s one of the many head-scratching decisions from the staff on the defensive end this year. That side of the ball is a total mess.

Games like these have to be frustrating for Luka

The lasting image of this is one will be Luka with his hands on his head, speechless as his game-tying three was tantalizingly close to dropping. He will unfairly catch flack for that and likely take it to heart.

He shouldn’t. He’s been utterly brilliant and is delivering this franchise some of the greatest play it’s ever seen. But it’s not reflecting in the win column the way he would hope. And that, is a failure of the front office.

The unfortunate truth is that basically everybody in the organization has let him down. He’s ready to compete for titles NOW. But his co-stat isn’t, his supporting cast isn’t, and neither are the franchise executives.

We’re too far out to worry what that might mean, but losing years of a player of this caliber is painful. It can be crippling for a franchise.