Jason Kidd and the Mavericks are exposing Klay Thompson’s worst-kept secret

In desperate need of a win, the Dallas Mavericks lost in heartbreaking fashion to the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday night in large part due to a missed call, as a Spencer Dinwiddie layup that was clearly goaltended by Trey Murphy III would’ve put the Mavericks up one point with roughly 1.5 seconds left. Even though the Pelicans came into this game 9-32, both squads were fairly evenly matched without their top two players, as Brandon Ingram, Zion Williamson, Kyrie Irving, and Luka Doncic all missed the contest due to injury. 

Even though Irving recently returned to Dallas’ lineup for one game, he’s still clearly not at 100 percent yet, and the Mavericks have tried adjusting to a more supplementary shot creation style with him and Doncic both being in and out of the lineup recently. This has led to Dallas’ big men being more aggressive in post-up and face-up scenarios, as well as Dallas delegating heavier ball handler responsibilities to their guard rotation off the bench.

This development has also led to veteran marksman Klay Thompson being allotted more opportunities to act as the primary initiator in Dallas’ offense, and while Thompson has thrived as a secondary playmaker and has improved as a finisher recently, he hasn’t been nearly efficient enough at the first two levels offensively this season to take on that sort of role.

Kidd can't continue to ride Thompson as a primary shot creator

It seemed like Thompson was on his way to being fully unlocked within Dallas’ lineup before Doncic and Irving both missed time due to injury, as Thompson was really starting to nail down the spacing of Dallas’ offense and was getting a ton of open catch-and-shoot 3-pointers every game.

In the month of January though, Thompson hasn’t received nearly as many tailored looks off the catch, and it’s caused his field goal percentage for the month to drop to 40 percent. This is obviously due to Dallas not having as many threats offensively to open up space for Thompson, but head coach Jason Kidd could consider a tactic that may better serve Thompson in this Doncic-less stretch.

This adjustment would be for Kidd to give the full leash to a player like Quentin Grimes when it comes to his offensive creation skills during this stretch where Dallas is still depleted. Grimes has shown promise of being extremely effective as a mid-range shot creator and is an explosive finisher at the rim, which are both areas Thompson has struggled with occasionally this season. 

Taking that into consideration, it may be wise for Kidd and his staff to try and create more movement looks and outsource some of Thompson’s isolation possessions to someone like Grimes or Jaden Hardy until Dallas’ rotation is fully healthy. This was extremely evident on Wednesday night, as Kidd tried to run an isolation play for Thompson at the top of the key in crunch time rather than drawing up a play for him to come off a screen or use him in some sort of action.

This decision from Kidd ended up being costly, as Thompson turned the ball over on that play, and scoring out of isolation is not something that Kidd should have asked him to do. While Thompson was playing great in the fourth quarter, Kidd testing his luck by putting him at the top of the key and expecting him to make a play for himself or someone else off the dribble was not a good recipe for success. If Kidd wanted the ball in Thompson's hands, he could have just drawn up a play in which he is coming off an action and got him involved in that way rather than falling into the infamous trap of overusing isolation plays at the end of the game.

Thompson is better utilized when he's on the floor with a primary initiator at this stage of his career anyway, as he doesn’t have the same shot-creation abilities off the bounce compared to his Golden State days. Thompson is undoubtedly an integral part of this Mavs’ roster, but Dallas still has yet to fully maximize Thompson on the offensive end, and Kidd making this simple adjustment could easily be a stepping stone toward that.