Will Mavs Coach Jason Kidd Finally Start Christian Wood with Luka Doncic?
Although the Dallas Mavericks enter their Thanksgiving break with a two-game losing skid, there were some positives to take away from Wednesday's 125-112 loss to the league-leading Boston Celtics.
After falling down by as many as 27 points in the third quarter, the Mavs duo of Luka Doncic and Christian Wood trimmed that deficit to nine points with about four minutes remaining in the fourth before the team ran out of gas. Doncic finished the night with a team-high 42 points on 17-28 shooting, and Wood pitched in with 26 points on 10-14 shooting in a season-high 34 minutes of action.
As it turns out, playing your best two players together seems to make good things happen on the court. It's almost as if Wood is talented enough to be starting alongside Doncic going forward, as we've written about extensively over the last few weeks. Well, it looks like coach Jason Kidd might finally be at a breaking point when it comes to his stance on bringing Wood off the bench.
"I'm not hard and fast about anything," said Kidd when asked about his stance on Wood starting or not. "[Doncic and Wood] have a great connection. ... Look at what they did [in the fourth quarter]. They did a good job against one of the best teams in the league. So hopefully we can grow from this and we can have those two out there in Toronto.
"We've talked about changing the starting lineup," Kidd said when asked about possibly shaking things up. "That's one of the questions I ask every day to the staff. ... We'll talk about it tomorrow. We'll talk about it Friday, and we'll see what happens Saturday."
If Wood does finally get to start with Doncic, it will be a long time coming. Many assumed Wood would be the Mavs' starting center as soon as they made the trade for him in June. Then, after a weird free agency period where the Mavs not only signed 34-year-old JaVale McGee to a three-year deal, but promised him the starting job, things got confusing considering Wood was clearly the superior talent.
Although the idea of having Wood's point production off the bench is a good one in theory, his minutes aren't best utilized unless they're matched up with Doncic's. Yes, Wood's defense needs work, and yes, Doncic's defense does too when he gets discouraged. But the Mavs having a real, consistent offensive threat like Wood on the court with Doncic means a lot, as it forces opposing teams' defenses to respect more than just one player.
Wood should start against the Raptors on Saturday, and he should've been starting for the Mavs since the first game of the season. And while Kidd is in the notion of potentially making starting lineup changes, how about moving Reggie Bullock, who has been a 3-and-D guy without the 3-and-D abilities this year, to the bench in favor of 21-year-old Josh Green, who has had a promising start to his third season?
Talk is cheap. Let's see if any real changes are actually made.
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