The Whiteboard: Suns struggle, Mavs wild out and Bucks need to adjust

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The Mavericks have apparently settled on Jason Kidd as their next head coach. Setting aside the issue of an organization trying to repair a culture of unaccountability and sexual harassment while hiring a head coach with a history of domestic violence, a serious drunk driving incident and a slew of other culture-disrupting incidents with nearly every team he played for or coached, what in his history leads the Mavericks to think he’s a good choice from an on-court standpoint?

Kidd’s career head coaching record — one season in Brooklyn and four in Milwaukee — includes a .491 winning percentage, a single playoff series won and exactly two seasons with a top-10 offense or defense — the 2014-15 Bucks finished fourth in defensive efficiency, the 2017-18 Bucks finished ninth in offensive efficiency. There is no history of his teams overachieving, there is no demonstration of special tactical expertise at either end of the floor, no track record of accelerated player development and fractured relationships with players at the end of both of his last gigs.

Again, his off-court history has enough red flags that he should have been ruled out by an organization like the Mavericks. But there’s nothing in his coaching record screaming out for those concerns to be waived aside. Maybe there’s something I’m missing here but this seems like a train wreck waiting to happen.

Everything went wrong for the Phoenix Suns in Game 3

Phoenix is deep and talented enough that they can survive an off game from Devin Booker. They won Game 2 against the Clippers even though he finished 5-of-16 from the field with 8 turnovers. And they took a pivotal Game 4 from the Lakers in the first round, a game in which Booker went 5-of-14 with 5 turnovers. And they can clearly win without Chris Paul’s contributions if they have to — they built a 2-0 series lead against the Clippers while he was in the league’s COVID health and safety protocols.

But both players struggling on the same night is a bridge too far.

In the Clippers’ Game 3 win, Paul and Booker combined to shoot 10-of-40 from the field and 3-of-14 from beyond the arc. The mid-range jumpers they’d been feasting on throughout the playoffs were there, they just didn’t go down. In the playoffs to this point, Paul and Booker had combined to shoot 93-of-184 (50.5 percent) on pull-up jumpers inside the arc, a shot that both players could create pretty much anytime they wanted. In Game 3, they combined to make just 3-of-16.

Their shooting woes were exacerbated by the absence of Cameron Payne, who left with an ankle injury after just four minutes and did not return. He’s been a reliable shot creator and ancillary initiator throughout these playoffs and his absence just ratcheted up the pressure on Paul and Booker. The Suns can probably feel confident they won’t see another similar shooting performance from their star guards but Payne’s potential absence is a real concern. If he’s out, it means Booker has to function as the backup point guard and his minutes with Paul need to be separated a bit.

Game 4 will be played Saturday night so there’s a quick turnaround here and as of now, there have been no updates from the Suns on his status. Hopefully, Payne will be okay for later in the series, even if he can’t go for Game 4.

What will the Milwaukee Bucks do with Trae Young in Game 2?

Young carved up the Milwaukee defense in Game 1, exploiting Milwaukee’s well-known drop pick-and-roll defense to sashay into a seemingly endless array of floaters and open mid-range jumpers. The Bucks have played this defense long enough and gotten consistently strong results so they’re not going to completely abandon it because of one big scoring game from Young. But there are some tweaks they could make.

The issues for the Bucks are more complex than Young just scoring around the free-throw line. As the Bucks worked to get more aggressive, bringing a non-Brook Lopez defender higher or not dropping as aggressively, Young was able to hit cutters or rolling bigs on the lob. More attention to detail and better rotations on the backline can hopefully reduce these breakdowns and make sure Young isn’t choosing between two high-value offensive options.

Trae Young is a strong mid-range shooter but the Bucks are much better off with him taking contested floaters and pull-ups than dumping it off to Capela or Collins directly under the basket.

Seth Parnow also offered up the idea of trying to make Young work a bit more at the other end of the floor — he spent about 70 percent of his Game 1 possessions on either P.J. Tucker, Pat Connaughton or Jeff Teague. As Partnow pointed out. Tucker’s defense is usually a huge key but in this case, it might make more sense to start Bryn Forbes, make Trae guard him and let Forbes guard the hobbled Bogan Bogdanovic.

The Bucks have had trouble making solid mid-series adjustments over the past few years but that problem has typically been a much bigger issue on offense. Some small rotation tweaks, better execution around the point of attack and some regression to the mean could make a big difference in Game 2.

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