Those those four starters
that did not play last night,
they're back tonight, yes?
The plan just to get them a
little bit of let them break a
sweat a little bit before. Yeah,
keep the rhythm and get a good workout.
When you guys were in
here way back in October,
you predicted that The Mavericks would
take on Jason Kidd's personality,
especially on defense.
Don't know how much you've
actually seen of the season,
but from what you have,
do you think that's
happened? I was correct.
That's the bottom line that
was correct for once. I wish I
was more correct about my team.
Yeah, you know they're they're one of the
better defensive teams in the league.
You know team defenders.
We got some good individual defenders.
Even Lucas trying.
So I get a screw with them a little bit.
But they you know, obviously you know
they can score and their talented,
but you don't go anywhere if you
don't play D once the playoffs begin.
So he's made a great effort to set
some standards, and they've bought in.
And they can get even better.
You know, as time goes on, so.
Future is very bright.
Given the many, many years and many, many
battles, what satisfaction is drawn from?
Getting 10th ahead of the Lakers. Yeah,
I didn't even think about
that to be honest with you.
That's you know so far in the
past this is now and I don't get
satisfaction out of things like that.
You've had more than your fair share
of good leaders through the years.
I'm sure they all had different
ways of bleeding, but what in your
mind makes a a good leader for?
Well, for any team, but especially
if it happens to be your best player,
that's a tough question.
People write books about that
stuff and you want me to answer
you in a minute and a half,
you know, so that's
that's. You know that's.
No.
You know you, you know who the leaders are.
Pretty quickly. On any one of these teams.
The the the person who garners the respect
of the group ends up being your leader,
and usually that individual.
Is intelligent. But in a fair.
And genuine way I've always said that
NBA players have great ******** antennae,
and they do, you know,
they know if the coach is full of baloney,
they know if a player is full of baloney,
and faking it, that kind of thing.
So the the team will decide who the play,
who the leader is, but that's that's
a person of substance who is genuine.
Who walks the walk and gets everything out
of you know what he might have, whether it's.
Just effort and not that talented or
super talented and effort is on top of it.
A discipline that.
Sort of by osmosis,
gets through the whole team,
whether it's a practice every
drill that's run.
Being serious about his craft.
And a lot of people can't do that.
Practice to practice at night after night,
so the cream supposedly rises to the top.
And.
Athletic teams,
I think it happens quicker with
them because of the competitive
nature of the whole deal.
There's some teams, several teams,
that pretty clearly have not
prioritized winning down the
stretch to put it politely,
what benefit do you think your team
your young guys in particular get
from being in competitive situations
and you know, playing to win?
Well, you know it's it's a
really incisive question.
Unlike most that I receive.
It is because there's a lot to unpack there.
Part of it is it's just not who we are.
It's not who I am, I can't.
I can't operate like that, which might
not be the most intelligent. Overall.
Philosophy to have and I get that.
But we am who we AM and we're
going to go ahead and compete.
And I think that.
The young players gained a
real understanding of. Just a.
Philosophically. Moral space where?
It's the right thing to do.
To continue to compete.
And frankly, I don't.
I don't know how it would go
to my team and say, OK guys.
We're we're.
Not going to compete the way we
should or how you get that across
or you do it with a wink and a nod.
That kind of thing.
I think you do the the players
a disservice if they're not
able to go out and perform at
the best of their ability, so.
You know?
I think the lessons to be learned are are
very important as their careers advance.
And you hope that in the end,
in the long run.
They'll that value they gain
from that will help them compete
at an even higher level later.
But I understand the opposite,
I just can't do it.
Do you think the league and
they they've tried with the
play and they tried with some?
But do you think the league needs
to take another look to make?
Losing not such an appealing
strategy for teams.
Well, if there was a way to do that,
I think that would be good.
But you know, Adam and his staff are
pretty smart people, and if there was a.
You know a silver bullet.
In that regard,
they would have already shot it.
I think you know I,
I respect their intelligence.
To a great deal with a lot
of things they've done.
And and that would that would be
a good fix if it was possible.
Just just like with the play in,
you know, people ask about it.
You know if you're seven or
eight you don't like it.
If you're 9 or 10 you go.
Hey, this is kind of cool.
You know, so a little bit of both.
I mean,
I wouldn't like it if I was suffering.
The the numbers community that I'm
not really smart enough to be part of,
but they they point to your guys
night nightly average margin,
which is still a positive and say
that you guys are actually more
representative of a team that would
be in the 500 range as opposed
to what your record actually is.
Do you see it that way?
It took a while to figure that out
because I'm on their *** so much,
but they. It's more of a.
A use and fourth quarter thing like we don't.
We don't have go to guys in the sense
of giving the ball to this guy or
that guy in the fourth quarter and.
Taking over some of those games,
we have to do it as a group and I think that.
Has allowed us to have some losses that you.
Wouldn't necessarily have if you had that.
Type of player you know on your team
because it's pretty necessary in the NBA.
In the fourth quarter to have
those guys to go to.
So we've got to do it a different way,
and sometimes that doesn't always work out,
and the youth is the other part of it.
You know, playing you know rookies and.
Guys that are having played
a lot in the past,
you know we made a big decision last year.
We gave up 60 points a game.
By not bringing back three or four guys.
That was 60 points.
And we didn't add anybody
to replace those 60 points.
And and the reason was I wanted
these guys that we have now to
experience that and have to have
that pressure and figure it out.
Otherwise, we'd be still going
to those other guys.
And these guys would not be
growing and it's not like we're
going to win a championship,
so why not grow these guys and
at the same time we did a good
good thing for the guys that.
We basically released because
they were able to join teams
that probably had a more of a
chance to do something and they
were all great guys and so I
enjoyed that part of it too.
To be able to do that for them.
So it's kind of a win win for everybody
and with the situation we're in.
I think it worked out really well.
Would
Murray puts up numbers, obviously,
to you know, throughout the box,
score is becoming a go to guy.
Is that a goal that you have for him?
If you see him,
you know on that type of path.
Yeah, you know, he's you know most
of the go two guys in the league.
Aren't point guards you know?
Luke is a little bit different, obviously,
because he can score like crazy, but.
You know you look at teams. Overall.
It's usually you know the two or
the three men you know who's the guy
that you're running plays for now.
You know, there's odd.
You know you've got Embiid and Philly
and that sort of thing here and there,
but mostly the the point guards
you making sure that everything is
copacetic and everything goes well.
They're still going to score.
I mean, Morant scores like crazy, right?
But in general, the the majority,
that kind of thing, but for us.
Dejounte is the guy that you know.
Has to score for us.
And that's a learning process.
This is the first year he's
been in a kind of a position.
But it it takes the whole group to
make that happen execution wise,
and setting picks and all that,
it's hard to do it by yourself.
Necessitates a go to guy late
in games because I feel like
I've heard so many times like we
just want to play our offense,
our normal offense,
but it it does seem like most teams.
Maybe the best teams can do that,
but most teams do.
Need to go into some sort of
different version of a go
to guy in isolation scorer.
Well to be simplistic,
the ball ends up in the best player's hands.
That's where you want it.
You know if if you're.
On Kevin Durant's team,
you want Kevin to have the ball.
You know, that's you want
Dirk to have the ball here.
In his heyday, you want it.
Tell me to have the ball.
Now they're secondary and tertiary
guys that could end up doing it
for you because the team goes and
double team somebody or whatever
takes it out of their hands.
But in general all of us try to get the
ball in our best players hands and.
That's your best percentage to score.
Thanks Bob, have a good night.
Thank you, OK?