Tim Cato On The Mavs’ Trade Deadline Options, Tim Hardaway Jr.’s Future In Dallas | The Get Right

Tim Cato On The Mavs’ Trade Deadline Options, Tim Hardaway Jr.’s Future In Dallas | The Get Right

First of all just watching the first half of this game how impressive has it been seeing these guys who are you know the bench mob come in play against the number one team in the west and kind of really compete especially considering how inconsistent some of these guys have

Been really impressive it’s it’s I was not expecting this uh the all credit to the to the bench players who step up uh have stepped up Minnesota I know they’re better than they’ve played the Mavs but they have not played the Mavs very impressively at any point this season in

My opinion and Josh Green Remains the one of the strangest players I’ve ever watched uh I thought Mavs money balls Josh Bo he tweeted this and I’ve said very similar things in the past but he tweeted this earlier tonight it’s not just that Josh green looks better when

When Luca and Kyrie are not on the floor he looks like a completely different player and I thought that was so right and it’s something I’ve said a lot he is a strange player to watch to try to understand how does all these different things he does well like when they

Translate how they translate it’s it’s such a fascinating and confusing thing to watch but uh he’s been good tonight so with those things I mean considering him I mean Jaden Hardy is another one of those players that’s you know sometimes incredible and sometimes just a little

Quiet um with those things as you had towards the trade deadline these guys were kind of the question marks that you have as maybe potential trade circumstances where do you feel like they stand or where do you think they should stand when it comes to whether or

Not those guys are trade candidates or whether those guys are Untouchable in a way I mean the annoying answer is it depends on the deal it depends on you know what you’re actually looking at I I think that they’re available but I don’t know how much they’re available I think

That all of those players you named would have been available for a pascal seak but that was not something that you know Toronto looked at and and decided this was enough I think the same thing certainly goes for anobi and you know are those guys available for PJ

Washington I have a lot less faith that that’s the case um you know maybe maybe one of them maybe Hardy um you know but we don’t even know that for sure you know it’s you know like the Mavericks are buyers and they’re active but being active buyers does not mean they have

Anything that another team is willing to give up for a player that Dallas wants I think it’s likelier than not that that it’s going to be either a very small move for maybe a like a backup big or or or just a completely quiet trade deadline for Dallas but you know it’s

It’s you know when I say likelier Liker than not that could be 55 you know 45 or 60 40 so I know they’re active I know they’re interested in buying I know what they want which is you know tall fours and that’s what they should be wanting

The question is you know do any of them on the market that are available move the needle in a way that you’re willing to give up players and picks for and you know if if they don’t then are they available for a much smaller deal and I’m not sure any of those players

Are you’ve been watching them all year long are you surprised that they’ve won 25 games with all these different injuries or are you not impressed at all of course I’m impressed you know I after last season you know how can you not be that’s way I look at it too but

Some people like right uh you know impressed uh yes it is it has been a it has been an impressive season in context it has not been an impressive season you know just straight up in my opinion you know few games over 500 you know some some good wins some

Bad losses I think that the floor of this team has been D drastically raised from what it was last season I think they have more Defenders I think Derek Lively alone really raises the floor of what this team is able to do um what what it’s able to be just having a

Consistent big man Center you know who is who is impressed you know talk about someone who has objectively impressed you know like I know we’ve been talking about this guy all season but you know impressive both ends of the floor uh you know maybe even more impressive offensively than defensively so far and

And that’s even acknowledging that he has a huge defensive uh you know upside and and ceiling to him so I I am very curious to see whether this team can impress me outright once they finally get healthy obviously in this game you know the five starters that I you know

The the starting lineup that I think they’re going to end up with down the stretch of the Season assuming they can finally get healthy you know all five of those players are out and so that’s really the remaining question for this team is just what is uh you know what

Are they going to look like are they going to show a bit more upside and ceiling if they can get these five players together um and and how does that go but but at minimum this is not a team that’s going to flame out and collapse it’s it’s a team that’s that’s

Going to be solid and it’s going to play you know a few games over 500 I I’m convinced of that at at at you know at least that’s what they’re gonna that’s how they’re going to finish the season we’re talking to Tim KO of the athletic he covers the Mavericks for the athletic

And we’re talking to him right here on 105 through the fan Tim someone just texted in the idea that Josh Green J Hardy are better when Luca is out because kid Parks them in the corner to do nothing but be B Spot up Shooters and

That that kind of leads to an idea that I was you know kind of ruminating on with this team and the way that they’re built not even talking about like the talent capabilities but do is there any chance or what is the chance that the way that this team is going around

Building their team especially when you look at the ways that Kyrie and Luca take a lot of the usage and it the way that it shapes some of their other players is it built wrong or is it just kind of incomplete in the way that they’re building it right now I I get

The sentiment you know I understand like you know the person who texted and and I’ve seen many many more people kind of share this thought but I’m sorry Josh Green you’re a role player yeah Luca donic you’re a top five player in the NBA this is how it is this is how it

Goes is there room for marginal you know reshaping of how Dallas works yeah potentially probably not this season but I think with each passing year it would probably be in Luca’s best interest to find ways to be you know give up the ball just a little bit less with each

Year and find ways to be effective off the ball but ultimately there’s no team that you go to that has a lead guard who is their best player you know there there are teams that look different because they generate offense from threes and fours who are not just so

Pick and roll dominant that’s who Luca is and Luca gets the ball to do that and that is how the NBA works it’s not just how Luca Works yes he can be a little bit better about this and I think he’s been a little bit better about this this

Season especially with his willingness to take catch and shoot threes but at some point Josh Green you know he either needs to go to a bad team where he can have the ball more but he’s you know he’s not going to be a star he’s not

Going to be a first second third option on any team unless it’s a bad team or he needs to learn to be more effective sometimes without touching the ball as much as he’s going to touch it in a game like this that is simply how it works

For role players and that is simply how it works for lead ball handlers so yes marginally big picture no I love your breakdown can I ask you this with that being said are some of the guys on this team guilty of watching Lucas’s greatness in other words they’re not

Quote unquote totally standing around but it’s like they’re like so much I only bring this up because I think I I mentioned this over the weekend that I watched this Nolan Ryan documentary they talked about how Nolan Ryan never won a bunch of games never won the S Young and

His team teates at that time they were interviewing them years later like we were watching him we were so busy watching him and we knew once he stepped on the mound we wouldn’t have to do that much offensively we it was going to be and we just got caught up watching him

So I was actually wondering do you think some of these guys spend a lot of time watching the greatness of Luca instead of doing the little things that maybe they could help the team with more that’s a hard thing to know um what I’ll say about the idea is that yes that

Is absolutely something that can happen to to young players who are on a yeah youngers you know yeah yeah young players looking up to to Luca and even more so than that young players looking up to Kyrie and being like this guy is my peer you know just in terms of like

He’s my cooworker I can’t believe you know he’s my cooworker at this company like that is a and Jason kid has actually talked about this and and I think you know really smartly he’s he’s said a few things about you know how it is easy to get kind of ODed even even

Being a teammate of one of these guys it can be easy to get odd I I would say but I would say Jason kid and and the coaching staff is ultimately responsible for making sure players play the same way you know whether they’re on the court with Luca or not so that might

There might be a little bit of that I I don’t think I’ve seen it as you know a enormous theme of the Season or anything like that but but there might be a little bit of that and there might be you know even on an individual basis

Like clearly Josh Green seems to play more confidently when you know he can touch the ball and so you know that’s an individual thing for him to work on whether that includes you know some sort of awe or you know I don’t think that’s the case for him he’s been around since

Luca’s rookie year you know they’re friends I I think for him it’s it’s more just touching the ball and then vice versa you know I think there’s definitely players who are dragged down when Luca is is not engaged when when Luca aru frustrated yeah yeah I think that is something that absolutely drags

Down the players on on the team especially the young ones um you know and and that’s something that as they grow and mature they can learn to to move past that but you know that that is something Lucas should be better at and certainly for more of the Season than

Not he has been even if there’s been a couple notable instances in the past couple weeks but but again I mean this is a guy who just scored 73 I don’t want to I don’t want to spend too long on you know we’re talking about nuanced uh

Constructive criticism uh and I kind of took a sidebar from your question so back to yall no I I app appreciate that Tim because it feeds into one of the things that’s been playing in this team which is defense and particularly the effort defensively and how that changes

The way that the Productions defensively uh comes out like the tough part about this is I I don’t even know does where does the where does the blame for lack of a better word lay with that because obviously there needs to be some level of individual motivation but Jason kid

Is the guy who’s ultimately responsible for all of this and it seems like he’s just constantly gone to the idea that they’ve got find it within yeah in the in the last game they played against uh Orlando uh Jason kid said that you know he really went at the

Team or or really really you know yelled at them challenged them whatever word you want to use at half time and they did come out and they showed that I I I think that at times absolutely you know effort and you know the MB playing

Defense in the NBA is about effort I I do think that it’s it’s it’s a complic it’s a tricky one because a lot of when Dallas plays good defense is when they’re playing good offense some of that is natural effort momentum swings stuff like that some of that is is not

Really this esoteric you know uh high-minded thing some of this is literally just the facts of what happens when you’re playing bad offense when you miss threes especially when you miss Corner threes it is often because someone drove into the room uh drove to the Lane usually Luca Luca’s momentum is

Taking him to the Baseline uh you know the ball goes out to the corner and you have a a corner shooter engaged in a basketball action all of a sudden if that is a Miss shot it might go long it might be a long rebound that’s easier to

Run with um and if you’re instant you know if the opponent is instantly running with it you have two players at the baseline or even behind the Baseline who now have to catch up into the play and so because Dallas shoots so many threes because threes are more likely to

Lead to Long rebounds uh because Corner threes especially are are the likeliest way to get run on um other than lightball turnovers you know that that is something where when the team is struggling offensively you can see them struggle defensively as well and so yeah there’s some emotional momentum swings

That go to that and then there’s just some effort that they they need to do better which you know for example Orlando was a good example of that but it’s also something just baked into the way that this team plays there’s one guy on this team I like him

As a person he scares the hell out of me you know what I’m talking about o he wears number 10 that could be a couple that could be I’m so bad at numbers I literally don’t know who Tim Hardway Jr he’s scares the hell out of me

Because he’s either on or he’s off and it is a scary thought when he is off because he’s still shooting what are your thoughts about Tim and do you see him going into the season a lot of people thought he might get traded at some point because contract was friendly

And he’s just a a pure shooter at the same time he’s the he’s the leading scorer in the NBA coming off the bench it’s like a good problem to have but he just scares the hell out of me I don’t know how do how do you see his role and

I mean how you feel about Tim Hardway Jr yeah it’s I I think that for Dallas to reach a championship level he is probably a player they’re going to have to to move on from I just think it’s a lot harder to move on from a player like

That than you know some some might think and someone who shoots that many threes who is that prolific of a catch and shoot guy who has that sort of gravity around him that’s so important to the Dallas offense you know I I don’t have you know I haven’t pulled the the plus

Minus numbers onoff numbers recently but you know that’s a that’s a big part of it is that you know when you know when he’s on the court the offense TRS up now the defense TRS up and TRS up in a bad way as well and and so this is a

Constant problem that you know uh Jason kid finds himself with when he’s when he’s trying to put the right lineups in there is juggling you know how do we you know how do we put enough defensive defense out there enough offense out there how do you know when do we Mi mix

And match um which lineups that are not Tim Hardway lineups can get enough shooting that Luca and Kyrie when he’s out there can you know still be as good and and you know as as we know they are and so I I am I’m surprised that he is

Not someone with a little bit more interest around the league and you know he’s got to be one of the most underd discussed or undervalued or maybe not undervalue just guy who can get 30 On Any Given night who doesn’t have a lot of leak white value um I’ve talked to

People who are connected really well connected to the league that are surprised by this too so I don’t anticipate moving at at this deadline I I don’t think that’s the type of deals that you know really make sense for even you know the the the tall fours that are

That are available but really confusing player uh just inconsistent player he’s not that confusing Josh Green is confusing Tim Hardaway we we get him Mak sense just yeah you don’t know it’s scary he’s not confusing scary yeah yeah yeah that’s that’s a good way to put it

Super nice super nice guy you know not not scary not great fashion sense started shooting layups again you know last season he could he could have make he was making like barely over half of his layups and he’s back up to like 70% which is really respectable percent so

He brings a little bit even when the shots not falling lately but yeah maybe a player they got to move on from but I I don’t think it’s this Year

Tim Cato of the Athletic joined the Get Right on Zoom last night to discuss what the Mavericks’ options look like at the trade deadline, if this is the year the Mavs move oft-rumored trade candidate Tim Hardaway Jr., and more!

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