Kyle Kuzma figures for the Washington Wizards and shows exactly what Luka Doncic’s Dallas Mavericks are missing

The Dallas Mavericks They become a team with one of the most negative traits that can exist in the NBA: predictability. A set where roles and functions appear etched in the fireno room for surprises or unexpected nights.

with his own Thursday’s 113-105 loss to the Wizards without Bradley Beal or Kristaps Porzingisthe Texans remained Point 6-5 (Facundo Campazzo played just 10 seconds). A record that, while not worrying, is well below expectations for a team that has just reached the Conference Finals in the previous campaign.

The loss to the Wizards featured a special star: Kyle Kuzma. The former Lakers forward had one of his best nights as a pro. I ended up with 36 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists and a 14-26 from the fieldbreaking the game open in the final period with a burst that broke the parity he had managed up until then.

One such performance of Kuzma is the perfect reminder of this lack of surprise which the Mavericks have. Exactly the player Dallas needs and doesn’t have on its roster.

How is this? Simple. The Mavericks have four players with scoring ability: Luka Doncic, light years ahead of the rest, followed by Spencer Dinwiddie, Christian Wood (currently injured) and Tim Hardaway Jr. None of the four provide solutions defensively (and almost all are weak on that side), but night after night they charge the Texan attack.

The problem is absolute lack of rating risk from role players. A nickname that can easily be placed on Kuzma, beyond games like tonight where he looks like a figurehead. Dallas defenders defend. And nothing more.

Dorian Finney-Smith barely above 8 points per game, even playing 33 minutes per game. Josh Green, Maxi Kleber, Reggie Bullock and JaVale McGee does not exceed 6 units. Kleber and Bullock are particularly notorious: between them they accumulate a few 57 minutes per game, but they combine for just 10 goals.

Whatever quintet they have on the court, the Mavericks’ opponents barely have to worry about two or three players.

And it’s not just the averages, it’s the regularity within that small contribution. Because it’s not like any of them go from 15 point nights to 0 like those hideous subs who on a good day can win a game by themselves. No, Dallas’ role players are, almost without exception, a non-factor when it comes to attacking the rim.

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What separates the Mavericks from the best teams in the competition (among other things) is their lack of them role players and good defenders who, like Kuzma, can be instrumental on the opposite end. Not every night, because otherwise he’d be a superstar, but with some frequency.

That championship Mavericks team in 2010-2011 had that figure in someone like Sean Marion. A classic double directioned who, although his main role was a defender, managed to be a threat and a player to score. Instead, this his present absolute passivity of Finney-Smith, Kleber, Bullock and company makes Dallas a Doncic one man, at most, along with one or two of his sidekicks.

And although when Luca is on fire, he may be enough to beat a large portion of the competition’s teams to take the next step up the western ladder They have to somehow find that piece that breaks the mold and don’t get bogged down in just one specific role.

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