Mavs Coach Jason Kidd Admits to Lack of Reliable Third Ball Handler

The Dallas Mavericks have yet to receive reliable production from a ball handler outside of Luka Doncic and Spencer Dinwiddie.

In the first half of their 103-101 win over the LA Clippers on Tuesday, the Dallas Mavericks built a 25-point lead. As has been the case in many of their games early this season, the Mavs' lead got withered away after halftime — requiring them to make big plays down the stretch to achieve a victory.

For the Mavs, producing strong results in the first half and poor execution in the second half has become a major theme early this season. They lead the NBA in net rating (14.2) in first halves but rank 26th in the category (-6.9) in second halves. A significant contributing factor is the lack of a third, reliable perimeter creator in addition to Luka Doncic and Spencer Dinwiddie. 

There is a heavy burden placed on both Doncic and Dinwiddie to shoulder the workload on offense. Doncic leads the NBA in time of possession (10.2) and accounts for roughly 45.5 percent of the Mavs' overall time of possession. Given how effective he is at controlling the half-court game, it's reasonable to have a high workload, but again, finding balance makes for a more layered attack. 

Dinwiddie's time of possession (5.6) accounts for about 25.0 percent of the Mavs' overall time of possession and is more than players like C.J. McCollum, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Devin Booker, Paolo Banchero, and Paul George among others. Overall, Dinwiddie and Doncic are responsible for about 70.5 percent of the Mavs' time of possession. 

The Clippers were content with deploying neutral defensive coverages for much of the first half, but changed things up to hedge and trap Doncic more when he received a screen. As a result, the superstar often had to give the ball up after drawing two defender — putting the onus on the rest of the unit to make plays. 

In the third quarter, the Mavs were limited to just 15 points with Doncic accounting for 10 of them. When excluding Doncic's contributions, his teammates shot a combined 2-14 (14.3 percent) from the floor and 1-9 (11.1 percent) from 3-point range. The Clippers made it a priority to make non-Doncic players beat them and 3-pointers weren't dropping along with a struggle to make successful plays off the dribble. 

"We're not built yet in the sense that we only have two ball handlers," Mavs coach Jason Kidd admitted after the game. "The way that (the Clippers) play, they switch everything and their length, you have to have multiple ball handlers out there to have any success." 

It wasn't until the fourth quarter that perimeter shots started to fall for the Mavs' complimentary players. The Clippers essentially were betting that if they loaded up on Doncic and protected the paint, that Dallas wouldn't shoot well enough to beat them down the stretch. They shot 7-11 from beyond the arc in the final period with Bullock (four) and Dorian Finney-Smith (two) combining for six of those makes. It didn't hurt that Dinwiddie's drives were converting, too. 

The Mavs began to hit a major stride last season when they established a three-headed monster in the backcourt by acquiring Spencer Dinwiddie via trade. Suddenly, there were three threats to utilize at times throughout a given game to run pick-and-rolls or attack in isolation. With Jalen Brunson gone, they no longer have the personnel necessary. 

Kidd stated that it's too early to discuss potential trades to address the third ball handler role, but they will need the options on the roster like Frank Ntilikina and Facundo Campazzo to make an impact when used. 

"Frank (Ntilkina), (Facundo) Campazzo, the other guys will have to step up," Kidd said of the Mavs' need for a third ball handler. "The marathon is too long to put this type of pressure on those two."

With the level of switching that defenses deploy against the Mavs, it a legitimate scoring threat will likely end up being needed as the third ball handler. While they have helpful attributes, neither Ntilikina nor Campazzo have fit the description of being a scoring threat in their NBA careers. 

One option the Mavs will need to integrate more is to attack defenses using Christian Wood's skill-set. He is the only reliable isolation or post-up scoring option they have and given he's a big man, there's a natural level of cohesion when it comes to attacking switches. 

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