Jason Kidd subtly torches the Mavericks' surprising new outcast

It's safe to say that the Dallas Mavericks have more than just one rookie player to look forward to. Cooper Flagg and Ryan Nembhard look unstoppable on the court together, and their chemistry showed on an alley-oop pass from Nembhard to Flagg for an easy transition bucket in their last game. Despite Nembhard's recent surge, veteran point guard D'Angelo Russell has been the exact player some Mavs fans expected him to be. Off and on, inconsistent. You name it.

Mavs head coach Jason Kidd recently commented on Nembhard's game and how the team feels comfortable with him. With Russell stuck in the doghouse, Kidd was doing the best he could to complement Nembhard, while also seemingly throwing a jab at Russell.

"He knows who he is & that's kind of refreshing," Kidd said after Dallas' win over the Denver Nuggets earlier this week. "I think he's one to have 10 assists as an undrafted rookie, that's special, especially for this group...The big thing is his teammates enjoy being out there with him because they know they have a chance of getting the ball."

Kidd praises Nembhard while Russell is left in the dust

A theme for the Mavs' season has been inconsistency, but when Nembhard steps on the court for the Mavs, it looks like a completely different ball game. The rookie has been noticed since balling out at Summer League, and he hasn't missed a beat since playing in the regular season.

The same can't be said about Russell.

He has been a DNP-CD in two of Dallas' last three games, and Kidd clearly doesn't trust him. His role has progressively dwindled, and make no mistake about it, Kidd's quote was quietly a jab at his playstyle.

Russell's time with the Mavericks hasn't been the best because of his failure to consistently play the role of being a pass-first point guard. Dallas desperately needs this out of him, but more often than not, he calls his own number and tries to create a shot for himself rather than looking for the best shot possible for one of his teammates.

He seems to look to pass when he can rack up an assist rather than when it's the right play, and that's extremely concerning. Nembhard is the complete opposite, and Kidd's quote after Denver was just as much of a compliment toward him as it was a dig at Russell.

Against the Nuggets, the 5-foot-11 rookie put up 28 points and 10 assists off 12-14 shooting from the field. Anyone arguing that he was anything but a game-changer is wrong. He's looked a heck of a lot different than Russell on the court, and it's time for people to start realizing that. It's not every day a rookie storms in and steals the thunder, but that's what he's done despite being on a two-way contract.

Nembhard already looks like the best point guard on the roster, better than Russell and Brandon Williams, and his pass-first playstyle is "refreshing," as Kidd noted. Both Williams and Russell hunt their own shot often and look to score for themselves first, which is fine in some instances, but Nembhard has the feel of a floor general that can't be taught.

It's always hard to play a rookie over a veteran, and it seems like more of a thing that a coach can't let go, but Kidd was pretty candid about Nembhard's play. Not that Kidd doesn't show much emotion, but this kind of praise for his young rookie is more than enough to expect him to see more time on the floor.

On a two-way contract, Nembhard has been playing loose and free. There are calls to get Nembhard on a standard contract, but there are some restrictions to sign him on such a deal at this moment. It would've been easy to have Nembhard on the Mavericks roster now, while waiving Dante Exum, but it appears that the roster limitations that Nico Harrison created aren't going away any time soon, even after being fired.

Dallas can't convert Nembhard's two-way to a standard deal until the beginning of January, and this will likely come at the cost of waiving Exum.

Mavericks fans will love to see this new saga unfold. A rookie in Flagg who's bound to be one of the greatest players in the league in the next few seasons, along with a sneaky rookie who came out of nowhere to new heights, is something that's going to be scary against other teams in a couple of seasons from now.

Russell has failed to become the stopgap starting point guard to begin the season, but that's OK. They needed someone to run the show while Kyrie Irving recovers from his torn ACL, and Nembhard is answering that call, and then some.

Russell tried to become the star of the show. Nembhard plays a supporting role with the potential to become a future star.

And that's exactly what Kidd is looking for.