J.J. Redick Praises Mavs’ Seth Curry Signing: 'Perfect Fit’
DALLAS — After finishing with a 38-44 record and failing to qualify for the play-in tournament, the Dallas Mavericks underwent a variety of different roster changes around Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving in the offseason.
Among the various moves made by the Mavs was a free-agency reunion with Seth Curry, who had two previous stints with the organization, including 52 games played with Doncic. Curry signed a two-year, $8 million contract to return to Dallas after spending last season with the Brooklyn Nets.
When identifying the top under-the-radar signings from around the NBA on an episode of "The Old Man & the Three" podcast, J.J. Redick started off by naming Curry rejoining the Mavs.
"My first one is, I think, really under-the-radar, even though he's historically the best three point shooter in terms of percentage in NBA history, and that's Seth Curry," Redick said.
During the 2021-22 season, Curry was in the midst of his most productive year, averaging 15.0 points and 3.4 assists with the Philadelphia 76ers, before being traded midseason to the Brooklyn Nets. In the offseason, Curry underwent ankle surgery and was not healthy enough to participate with the Nets in training camp before the 2022-23 season, and Redick believes that prevented Curry from figuring things out.
"Seth had ankle surgery in May of 2022, and that was when he was coming off the best season of his career," Redick said. "He averaged 15.0 points per game for Philly, averaged just under 15 points per game in the 19 games he played in Brooklyn after the trade, has ankle surgery, comes back after the season has already started, which is always difficult to not have the normal routine, the training camp, the early season, the preseason, all that stuff. He had a fine season. Minutes were down. I don't think he was ever really himself."
Redick was impressed with how Curry remained efficient from beyond the arc, shooting 40.5 percent on his attempts, given the circumstances. By playing alongside elite driving and passing threats like Doncic and Irving, the conditions appear favorable for Curry's catch-and-shoot versatility to be a strong complement. The production Curry has already proven capable of achieving when previously playing alongside Doncic is all the more reason for confidence for Redick.
"Last season, he still shot 40.5 percent from three. The reason I love this, last time he was in Dallas, which was the 2019-20 season, he shot 45.2 percent from three and averaged a little over 12 points per game," Redick said. "He was 48.1 percent on catch and shoot threes and when you think about the way this offense is going to function, it will primarily be pick and roll and ISO. That is what Kyrie does, that is what Luka does.
"Having him as one of your spot up shooters, having him maybe even some movement sets, the hand back to Luka coming off a flare screen, like they're going to figure out ways to use him," Redick explained.
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Redick sees the highly-efficient shooting of Curry potentially filling an important role that aligns with the identity that helped the Mavs reach the Western Conference Finals in 2022. When getting past the Utah Jazz and Phoenix Suns during that run, the Mavs shot at a very high clip from deep.
"I don't know that [Curry] starts, but I think he helps this team. And a couple of things on Dallas, when they made that run to the Western Conference finals two seasons ago, it was primarily with switchable defenders and shooting," Redick said.
"They had some outlier series in terms of their shooting percentages, but they were eighth in three point shooting percentage last year, third in makes there's an emphasis to give Luka and Kyrie the ball, while everybody else spaces the floor, Seth fits perfectly on this team."
For the Mavs to get back to making deep playoff runs, Redick views the defensive contributions of Maxi Kleber, Grant Williams, and Josh Green as being especially important.
"Some of this, of course, is how much is this ankle going to bother him long-term, certainly defensive question marks as there have been at certain times in his career, but I like a healthy Maxi Kleber, the Grant Williams addition, Josh Green came on strong last year, had a much improved third season,” Redick said. "He's another guy that shot over 40 percent last year. This is a Dallas team that was six overall in offense. Like there's a lot to like.
"They're going to have some defensive issues because Luka is not always engaged. Sometimes he doesn't run back on defense. We all know he likes to talk to the officials and have conversations with them while transition baskets are happening at the other end.
“That's probably my only knock on Luka. Kyrie, I thought last year, prior to the trade, was super engaged defensively in Brooklyn, but there's a size issue there. I think it does come down to Maxi and Grant specifically."
While Redick believes Dereck Lively II could one day be an impact player, he is unsure of the impact the rookie rim protector will provide. Given the need for frontcourt size to fill roles as anchors of the unit, Redick is of the belief that Kleber and Williams must execute at a high level to set the tone.
"I don't know how much you're going to get out of a rookie Dereck Lively protecting the rim," Redick said. "So it comes down to [Kleber and Williams] figuring out ways to anchor the defense."
