D'Angelo Russell's Christmas gut punch leaves his Mavericks future in doubt

Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd decided to bench D'Angelo Russell on Christmas Day, and this is one of the many indicators that his time in Dallas could be coming to an end before the February 5 trade deadline.

Dallas has been gauging Russell's trade market for the past few weeks, and the fact that they already want to move on from him tells you everything you need to know about his Mavericks journey so far. The Mavs signed him to be Kyrie Irving's stopgap replacement until he returns from his ACL tear, but Kidd clearly hasn't trusted him since the beginning of the regular season.

He is playing a career-low 19.3 minutes per game despite Dallas' clear lack of shot creation, and Kidd doesn't even let him play point guard much anymore.

Russell's Christmas role reveals Kidd's true opinion of him

Russell has mostly played shooting guard recently alongside Ryan Nembhard or Brandon Williams, and while this shift has helped maximize his shooting, this isn't what he came to Dallas to do. He seemed confident that he would be a major difference-maker and key contributor in the rotation, but that just hasn't been the case thus far.

Even in Russell's big games, he doesn't seem to be a natural fit into the Mavs' offense. With Dallas' surplus of play finishers, they need a point guard who can set the table and knows their role.

Russell excels when he embraces the role of being a pass-first point guard, but lacks consistency. He seems more focused on racking up assists than making the right play, and that's a recipe for disaster for a guard trying to have a bounce-back year.

He has had his long-standing role of playing point guard stripped away, and has been a DNP-CD (Did Not Play, Coach's Decision) in two of the last three games. Even after draining more than two threes for the second time in the last month on Tuesday night against the Denver Nuggets (nine points and four assists in 15 minutes), Kidd didn't trust him to play a single minute on Christmas against the Golden State Warriors.

This is a major gut punch to the 11th-year guard, and the fact that Kidd is now involved in front office decisions could spell doom for his future as well.

Ever since the Mavericks fired Nico Harrison early last month, they've been taking a GM by committee approach. This group is headlined by Matt Riccardi, Michael Finley, Patrick Dumont, Mark Cuban, and Kidd.

Kidd is now involved with the decision-making process ahead of the trade deadline, and if it were up to him, he'd likely trade him tomorrow. Russell has been in his doghouse for most of the season, and as Mavericks fans know well, it's hard to get out once Kidd decides that he's done for you.

Kidd not playing Russell at all on Christmas was the last thing that Russell wanted this year, and what was supposed to be a year of revival has turned into a disaster.