The Dallas Mavericks offense struggled mightily after the Luka Doncic trade at the end of last season. As per Cleaning the Glass, Dallas was 23rd in offensive rating from Anthony Davis’ debut against the Houston Rockets through the end of the regular season. It’s no secret that if the offense can’t improve from that number, the team will not perform up to even the slightest expectations that you may have.
With that in mind, what steps are the Mavericks taking in order to make improvements there? According to Jason Kidd, via Marc Stein and the good people over at DLLS, it’s an entirely new system built with new assistant coach, Jay Triano.
Most of what Kidd said during his answer to that question was the basketball equivalent of “We’re going to establish the run”. You can spare me the whole bit of “increased spacing”, “unselfish basketball”, “increased ball and player movement” and “upping the tempo”. Maybe the Mavericks, behind a bulkier than usual center in Anthony Davis, are looking to establish the ground game early on to open up the play action game. The shaky quarterback (playmaking) room can succeed, but only if the run game is able to take some of the workload off their plate. If they can do that, perhaps their brand of ball will be good enough to stick around in the playoff race.
Kidd explained how he expects this “flow” offense will look a lot like the Sacramento Kings offense from the past few years, where Triano was an assistant. That team led the league in dribble hand offs, something that the Mavs will probably look to replicate this season. Kidd also specifically mentioned the De’Aaron Fox trade, in regard to how the Kings operated without a true point guard. Sacramento was 10th in offensive rating following the Fox trade last season, in part due to being 3rd in the NBA in mid-range efficiency. Do the Mavericks have someone who can replicate that? Time will tell.