Jason Kidd's brutal benching just exposed Mavericks' free agency nightmare

The Dallas Mavericks lost to the Washington Wizards in depressing fashion on Friday night at home, as Dallas' perimeter defense suffered tremendously once again, and the lack of offensive firepower on this Mavericks team seems to be more apparent through each quarter.

Dallas obviously has some talented offensive players, but their lack of steady guard play without Kyrie Irving in the lineup is compromising their shot creation a ton, especially since newly signed guard D'Angelo Russell has practically been a no-show through two games.

Furthermore, it's clear that head coach Jason Kidd is already skeptical over Russell's lack of production, as he benched him through the entire second half after he posted zero points on 0-3 shooting from the field through nine minutes of action in the first half. Ryan Nembhard and Brandon Williams struggled to fill Dallas' shot creation/playmaking void in limited minutes, with Kidd opting to go to lineups that didn't feature a true point guard more often than not.

Russell's benching is a huge indictment on Mavericks' offseason process

It should be noted that Russell was on the elliptical bike during the second half, but Kidd said that he wasn't injured and just opted not to play him. Regardless, Russell has been extremely inefficient through two games with the Mavericks, as he's scored seven points on 1-9 shooting from the field through 24 minutes of game action.

Russell's perimeter defense is already a huge weak-point in his game, so Dallas can't afford for him to continue to be a blank slate offensively, especially since they opted to sign him with the Taxpayer's MLE instead of trading for a higher caliber guard. Russell has been decent from a playmaking perspective, but if he's going to continue to be inefficient from all three levels, it will be extremely tough for Dallas to pose a formidable offense toward any team.

The Mavericks can't take for granted the fact that Irving took slightly less money on his deal so Nico Harrison and company could snag Russell on the TPMLE, and while it's only been two games, it's looking like Irving's faithful gesture may not pay dividends for the Mavericks this season. Russell has everything to prove, being in a contract year and coming off the worst season of his career, but it'll be severely detrimental to Dallas' offense if he can't be a semblance of what he looked like before last season.

Klay Thompson is already off to a rough start shooting the rock with the lack of playmaking in Dallas' lineup, and for Kidd to not be able to trust Russell in Dallas' starting lineup would be a huge loss, as the Mavericks already knew a tandem of Russell and Thompson in the backcourt could suffer from a perimeter defense perspective, but it's hard to imagine how Dallas can start to stack wins if they are both negligible from an offensive perspective as well.

Russell was Dallas' marquee free agency signing, and he only played nine minutes versus the Wizards on Friday, so the clock is ticking for him to prove some sort of value to this rotation. Kidd will have to hope the likes of Naji Marshall, Max Christie, Williams, and Nembhard can up the ante from a shot creation perspective going forward, because early signs are pointing toward Russell continuing his dry spell and inefficiency from last season.