Dallas Mavericks: 5 unsolicited suggestions for coach Rick Carlisle

Suggestion for Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle: 2. More three ball handler line-ups

An obvious hole for the Mavericks is their lack of perimeter playmaking. It is a massive reason why their offense stalls so often.

Getting Porzingis back should help mitigate some of their struggles, but having the Zinger doesn’t make up for their lack of perimeter shot creation. While the Mavericks have a good amount of creators on the roster, there never seems to be more than two of them on the floor at the same time.

Projected starters for the playoffs Doncic, Richardson, and Hardaway Jr. have shared the court for 128 total minutes so far this season. The next most common combination of three ball-handlers, Doncic, Burke, and Richardson, have only shared the court for 42 total minutes.

Strangely, Carlisle rarely rolls out three creators considering it would solve a lot of the Mavericks offensive struggles. In the 42 minutes that Luka, Burke, and Hardaway Jr. have been on the court together, they have outscored teams by a total of 15 points.

Despite those encouraging numbers, no other combination of three creators has seen the court for more than 35 total minutes. Moving forward, coach Rick Carlisle needs to get more tread out of his ball-handlers to avoid long offensive slumps.

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