As he finished his postgame remarks Saturday night, responding to a question about Willie Cauley-Stein’s second straight start at center, coach Jason Kidd patiently explained that the Mavericks are still tinkering with starting lineups.
And, yes, he emphasized, Cauley-Stein will again start when Dallas hosts Cleveland on Monday night, regardless of whether fans and reporters agree with the decision.
Furthermore, Kidd added: “I hope we don’t get caught up on [who is] starting because that doesn’t get you a sticker or anything.”
In other words, until the Mavericks (10-8) start producing consistently-strong results, lineups likely will remain fluid. Also, what matters more than who starts is who finishes games and plays the most minutes along the way.
While fans on social media howl in discontent when Cauley-Stein or Dwight Powell start — “free Moses Brown!” they tweet, game-after-game — Kidd strongly hinted after Sunday’s practice at the American Airlines Center that the next starting lineup insertion probably will be Maxi Kleber.
Displacing Cauley-Stein on Monday night, though, would not be prudent, as the Cavaliers start a frontline of 6-11 Jarett Allen at center, 7-foot rookie Evan Mobley at forward and 7-foot Lauri Markkanen at the other forward spot.
Coming off Saturday’s 120-114 home loss to Washington, in which the Mavericks allowed 41 first-quarter points and 57.7% shooting for the game, Kidd must consider all options, but going smaller to start the game against the Cavs probably isn’t one.
“We talked today about giving up 120 points, 41 in the first quarter,” Kidd said. “That’s not who we are. And so we’re working through that. We’re talking through that.”
Although Kleber has started only one of the nine games in which he has played, it seems only a matter of time before he becomes the regular starter at power forward, which would move Kristaps Porzingis from power forward to center.
Kleber missed nine games with a left oblique strain. In his first game back, against the Los Angeles Clippers, he totaled five points and four rebounds in 20 minutes. But, in the two games since he has combined totals of 21 points, 15 rebounds, seven assists and 8-of-15 shooting.
“When you talk about Maxi, he’s the glue on both ends for this team,” Kidd said, citing Kleber’s basketball I.Q., ability to play and defend multiple positions, shoot from the perimeter and create off the dribble.
Kidd’s “glue” definition is apropos, since the German-to-English translation of “kleber” is “glue.” Scheduled to speak to reporters on Sunday, Kleber ran a bit late after spending extra time on the practice court going over defensive breakdowns the Mavericks had against Washington.
“That’s very high praise from Coach,” Kleber said. “Obviously there’s a lot of responsibilities. And you know, I take a lot of pride on the defensive end, so I have to do a better job when communicating.”
Kidd said he would like to see Kleber regain more stamina before he considers moving him into the starting lineup.
Against the Wizards on Saturday, Cauley-Stein was a minus-7 during the 10:16 he was on the court; Powell was minus-12 in 10:24 of court time. But, hey, Luka Doncic was minus-11 in 37 minutes.
The Mavericks’ most-used lineup this season: Doncic, Tim Hardaway Jr., Dorian-Finney-Smith, Porzingis and Powell. The five have played 100 minutes together and have a net offensive/defensive efficiency rating of minus-16.3.
The starting lineup of the past two games — Doncic, Hardaway, Finney-Smith, Porzingis and Cauley-Stein — has played only 20 minutes together and has a net efficiency rating of minus-10.5.
That isn’t much of a sample size. Nor is the 16 minutes that Doncic, Hardaway, Finney-Smith, Kleber and Porzingis have played together, though that group’s net-efficiency rating of plus-29.7 certainly is encouraging.
Kidd said that against the Wizards the coaching staff “looked at KP and Maxi [together] heavily throughout the game. We’ll continue to look at that.”
In 78 minutes of court time together, Porzingis and Kleber have an offensive rating of 98.1 and a defensive rating of 96.2, for a net-positive of 1.9. In 24 minutes together, Porzingis and Cauley-Stein have an offensive rating of 104.0 and a defensive rating of 118.8 for a net-negative of 14.8.
Again, though, small sample sizes. The season is less than a fourth-complete and Kleber has missed half of Dallas’ 18 games.
“Obviously, I’m not in best-condition yet,” Kleber said. “I’ve been out for a long time, so game condition is always a little bit different. But, I’m going out there and playing as hard as I can for as long as I can.”
Kidd stressed that Cauley-Stein starting is not a result of Powell doing anything wrong.
“We wanted to be able to check this box, come March and April, that we’ve looked at different centers starting,” he said. Asked on Sunday whether that potentially means playing time for 22-year-old Brown, who has only played 18 minutes this season, Kidd nodded — but also noted that the Mavericks also have Boban Marjanovic.
“He could get a chance,” Kidd said, when told that fans have been clamoring for Brown. “I think for fans, or for anybody, if they look at our roster we have quite a few centers. So, there’s a committee of centers.
“And at some point, maybe he (Brown) has an opportunity to play.”
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