Jason Kidd's repeated costly mistake is wrecking the Mavericks' season

The Dallas Mavericks suffered arguably their worst loss of the season in a 101-99 defeat to the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday night, as the Mavericks' offense continued to struggle, with the Mavericks only shooting 41.9 percent from the field in the contest. The Pelicans came into this game having allowed 120 points or more in every single one of their games, barring their win versus the Charlotte Hornets on Tuesday night, so the Mavericks' offense is in dangerously stale territory.

Part of the reason for this has been Anthony Davis ailing from a calf strain and Kyrie Irving obviously still rehabbing from his torn ACL, but the lack of playmaking and shot creation on this roster currently is plaguing the offense, and part of the reason for this is Jason Kidd's mismanagement of the point guard position up to this point in the season.

It's doubtful Irving returns before 2026, so this issue is extremely pressing considering the Mavericks haven't shown the ability to provide playmaking and shot creation at nearly as efficient a rate as Irving does when he's in the lineup. With Dallas sitting at a Western Conference worst 2-6 through eight games, Kidd must be smarter with the way he divvies out Dallas' point guard minutes.

Jason Kidd needs to treat Dallas' point guard position more fluidly

Kidd finally opted to start a real point guard in the starting lineup by replacing Klay Thompson with D'Angelo Russell in Dallas' loss versus the Pelicans, but none of the guards in Dallas' rotation ever got in a decent rhythm offensively in this contest besides Brandon Williams during the middle of the contest.

While part of this can be attributed to Russell's spotty play, Kidd hasn't been playing the guards consistently whatsoever, and it may be hard for any of them to get in rhythm while only playing in small spurts. For instance, Williams was easily the best guard for Dallas in this contest, scoring 10 points and dishing three assists off 4-9 shooting from the field in only 21 minutes.

However, after coming in shortly after the six-minute mark in the fourth quarter, Williams was quickly yanked one minute later by Kidd after getting his shot blocked on a layup attempt, as Kidd inserted Naji Marshall to run Dallas' offense in the last few minutes of the game.

Marshall had a decent game up to that point, but his finishing and in-between game haven't been at the same level compared to last season quite yet, as it was a questionable decision by Kidd to play Marshall over Williams at point guard down the stretch, considering how much better Williams has been at drawing the defense and finishing this season.

Kidd simply needs to treat the point guard rotation more fluidly, as the Mavericks haven't seen any clear starter emerge through eight games at that position, so Kidd should need to rock with whichever guard is playing most efficiently down the stretch, and this was undoubtedly Williams on Wednesday night, especially since Russell had a rough shooting night, going 3-10.

Kidd may have made the right decision by finally getting Flagg off the ball more and starting a real point guard in Russell on Wednesday, but he should've spared Russell and Marshall from running the offense in lieu of Williams for a few more minutes in this contest, which could've easily been the difference against a defensively challenged Pelicans team that was 1-6 heading into this game, especially since it was only a two-point loss.