Mavs Built Summer League Roster to Help Jaden Hardy ‘Polish His Tools’

The Mavs' focus during NBA Summer League in Las Vegas is to further Jaden Hardy's development as the "head of the snake" for their attack.

LAS VEGAS — As the Dallas Mavericks continue to build toward a return to contention in the 2023-24 season, the development of second-year guard Jaden Hardy will be an important factor. Hardy averaged 12.8 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 17 games after the NBA All-Star break last season, and he's remained motivated to build on those results. 

"My focus going into Summer League is just trying to play the right way," Hardy said. "Obviously playing my game, but still trying to play the right way, make the right plays as if I were playing with — if Luka [Doncic] or Kyrie [Irving] was out there. ... Just trying to make the smart play." 

Hardy has been a frequent visitor of the Mavs' practice facility after taking two weeks to recover following the end of the team's 2022-23 campaign. Jared Dudley, the Mavs' coach for Summer League, has worked directly with Hardy to continue to assist in growing his overall game. He's changed his diet, worked on his body more, studied film to lock in on the team's concepts, and sharpened his skill-set. In Las Vegas, he'll be able to put all of that into action.

"Just continue to develop my game," Hardy said. "You know, polish my tools, getting stronger, getting faster, and continue to learn the defensive concepts here and continue to better myself and continue to learn and grow." 

The focus of the Mavs' attack in Las Vegas will be on Hardy's development, even with having two first-round picks in this year's NBA Draft — Dereck Lively II and Olivier-Maxence Prosper. With Hardy already showing he's a talented scorer, much of the team's focus has been the continued development of his passing reads, whether it's against traps, a pre-rotated low-man, or generally setting up the weak-side corner space by using pace to his advantage. An important element is to find a balance between being aggressive to score and using the pass to keep the defense honest. 

"Yeah, so the first month, Jaden [Hardy] was just working on his overall game," Hardy said. "You don't want to hold someone back who is so young. His potential is so high. ... And then the last month, I took over getting him ready for summer league where he could see traps, he could see [the] low man over there, making the right pass. 

"Hardy's going to get his 18 to 20 shots. 15 to 16 have to be good looks. Everyone knows he's gonna be the No. 1 player in our offense, but you have to be able to make the short roll pass to the big. You have to make the skip pass to AJ [Lawson] in the corner. And for [Hardy], he can get by the first guy. It's seeing that low man, the guy in the corner, and reading that. ... His confidence and his array of shot-making abilities are elite." 

Among the various areas of emphasis for Hardy's development is the continued refinement of his decision-making when playing out of high pick-and-roll. As an offensive player wired to score, the Mavs' goal is for him to open the game up for himself more by advancing his passing reads. 

"He's really good versus drop coverage [but] he struggles when the big is up [closer to the level] and when the low-man is over there early because he wants to score. Jaden naturally wakes up as a scorer. For him, in his mind, to have a good game is [to score] 20 points. I don't know in his mind if he had eight points and 12 assists, if he feels like he'd have a good game. It's just not who he is. So he's looking to score.

"So for him, how I tell him, is if you make the corner pass, which he did today here when he threw the left hand here in the wing, I think they missed it at the time, it's the right play. You throw that, then you might have to throw it two, three times in a row. It's going to open you up now to get downhill.

"Also, once he gets in there, the lob pass, the corner fakes and the low-man goes to the corner — can you throw the late lob? Luka's the best at it. It takes these rookies three, four years, and some of them still can't do it now. It's a hard one, and that's why we just keep stressing on him, and one day it's going to click for him."

Another element of Hardy's continued growth will be mismatch hunting. He became noticeably more effective in this area after the NBA All-Star break by seeking out favorable switches and being patient in attacking them with an advantage. If he was given space to shoot, he made the big pay on the pull-up. If the big played up, he attacked the rim to make a play downhill. Being the main point of attack in Las Vegas will enable him to continue to work on this part of the game as the focus.

"I mean, he saw the last play right when he got [the switch], and he has a center on him — I don't care what center it is, ISO clear space, let him work," Hardy said. "He's a natural one-on-one player. That's what he does when it comes to that situation. And for him, he's going to be in these situations a lot, and sometimes, it's going to be a game-winner, and you get the praise. Sometimes you're going to miss it; you might get the blame. That's how it works when you're the best player." 

Last year, the Mavs found success by putting Hardy in off-ball actions like Zoom or pindowns to help simplify the game in his first Summer League. The team worked on these sequences significantly during the open portion of Friday's practice. Hardy will continue to be involved in these actions as a counter to the more intense ball pressure that tends to be present in Summer League action compared to regular NBA defense.

"Yeah, I think the little experience I had last year, the ball pressure in Summer League is so much more intense compared to NBA regular season games," Dudley said. "So you have the five men to relieve pressure because most fives don't ball pressure. So we're lucky to have [Chris] Silva, [Dereck] Lively, and Marcus [Bingham Jr.] that can handle a little bit and have good IQ decision-making. They made a couple big-time plays — big-time assists. So I'm looking for that."

"Also, it's hard to guard [Jaden] Hardy and Brandon Randolph, and some of these guards and McKinley Wright [when they're] on the move," Dudley explained. "So you set a screen, it opens up Lively to give the ball on the handoff and now roll [with] speed and the momentum. And now you have Hardy coming at you full speed. And we love that."

There are a few key focus areas the Mavs have when observing Hardy's performance in Summer League with next season in mind. Among them are his off-ball awareness on defense and his decision-making and passing reads on offense. As the focus of the team's offensive gameplan, he will have many chances to work through it. 

"I'm not a head coach, but he averages, what, 15 minutes? For him to get to 25, 27 minutes, his defense has to [be there] — his awareness off-ball, being low-man, [guarding] pin-downs," Dudley said. "It took me when I played two, three years of that, and I went to [Boston College] for four years. So by asking the guy in the fire, he's having to guard the likes of Kyrie [Irving] and Luka [Doncic], where these guys are elite. So for him, it's off-ball awareness."

"And then offensively, I mean, I think he shot 40 percent on step-back 3s. So it shows you his capability, but can he make the reads? Can he make the lob pass [after reading the] low man? Can he make the corner pass? Will he let the game come to him if he's [shooting] 1-6? Is he going to shoot two more bad shots? And that's why I try to try to ease him, 'Hey, you're getting 20 shots.' All my plays are for Hardy." 

Despite the focus of Summer League being on player development, Hardy is motivated to lead the Summer Mavs to winning results this year. As a more experienced player, he feels ready to get the job done as a more "seasoned" player.

"I feel more seasoned," Hardy said. "I feel like I had a good summer league debut last year, but we didn't get to win. We didn't win last year, but that's my main goal this year is to get wins, you know? And I feel like going into what I know now versus from last year going into summer league, I for sure feel like I'm more prepared — more seasoned." 

The Mavs open Summer League on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CST when they take on the Oklahoma City Thunder's Summer League squad.

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Grant Afseth is a Dallas Mavericks reporter for DallasBasketball.com and an NBA reporter for NBA Analysis Network. He previously covered the Indiana Pacers and NBA for CNHI's Kokomo Tribune and various NBA teams for USA TODAY Sports Media Group. Follow him on Twitter (@grantafseth), Facebook (@grantgafseth), and YouTube (@grantafseth).

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