Why Don’t the Dallas Mavs Play Center Moses Brown?
While the Dallas Mavericks navigated a stretch of basketball in which included missed games from Maxi Kleber and Luka Doncic, the Western Conference team lost three consecutive games.
Losing causes frustration, naturally.
Leading up to training camp, first-year Mavericks coach Jason Kidd assured that Dallas would focus on player development. Lately, the game logs, for the most part, indicate otherwise. Already-at-their-peak players such as Dwight Powell and Willie Cauley-Stein receive minutes despite lackluster production, triggering a fair question from the fanbase.
Why isn't Moses Brown playing?
Logging only 18 minutes in six games, Brown's presence on the roster remains a puzzle for a team lacking young talent.
Why trade for a young center if you don't play him?
During his time with the Oklahoma City Thunder, he produced a 23-rebound game, but Brown is not a polished player.
Still, Kidd's insistence on playing Cauley-Stein (despite some missed dunks and layups) … combined with Powell's signature energetic approach translating to only a few hustle plays. … don’t add up.
The two centers combined averaged eight rebounds and .33 assists during this Mavericks' three-game skid.
How about the "Brown is not ready" take? Maybe. Perhaps, though, Brown represents an unlocked X-Factor at the center position. The "he's young and inexperienced" line leads to the ultimate counter: He can't gain experience without experience. Utilizing Brown at this stage in the season can't do any significant harm.
Meanwhile, Brown's youthful burst can do wonders for a team searching for a jolt off the bench. …
We know who Powell and Cauley-Stein are, as their story reads as a cautionary tale of theoretically athletic centers without much else to offer. Opening the book of Brown could provide Dallas with a much-needed jolt in production, as a few of its newest roster additions haven't precisely started their chapters with a bang.
Coaching in the NBA is can fit the "damned if you do, damned if you don't" idiom. But we will argue: Developing Brown in-game can only hurt the team so much - especially when the team is losers of three straight.
