Jason Kidd: 'Luka is too good, we're not going to take the ball out of his hand' / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: AP - Scanpic Credit AP - Scanpic

The new head coach of the Dallas Mavericks, Jason Kidd, gave his thoughts about the upcoming NBA season and his outlook on running the offense through Luka Doncic.

Luka Doncic

Position:SGAge:22Height:201 cmWeight:99 kgBirth place:SloveniaProfileNewsStatistics

Kidd spoke to Dwain Price of mavs.com and said that the Mavericks need to improve on defense primarily. He talked about how the Mavs won the 2011 NBA championship because of their defense. The 10-time All-Star also said that Luka is excellent with the ball in his hands, so there is no reason to make drastic changes.

"I don’t think it’s going to change in a sense that we’re not going to take the ball out of Luka’s hand. He’s too good. We’ve added pieces to compliment him but also complement each other."

In a recent interview with BasketNews, legendary NBA coach and former Coach of the Year, Del Harris, expressed his hopes that Kidd will play Luka differently than Rick Carlise used to. Harris is worried that Doncic might get injured by constantly driving the ball and getting hit.

"I'm hoping that Jason Kidd will use him a little differently than he has been used since he got here. The way he's been playing with the Mavericks is that he has the ball most of the time, he penetrates and tries to get to the basket or passes the ball out. When he gets into the scrum, it's almost like rugby. He ends up hit and knocked down on the floor. I hate to see that because anything can happen."

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Harris said that he would like to see Doncic play off the ball more and hit catch-and-shoot 3-pointers from time to time: "What I would like to see is for Luka to be a point guard, but also be the off-guard and let one of the other players run him off some picks and give him the ball for a shot," the 1995 NBA Coach of the Year said.

"The problem he had last year late in games was that he would bring the ball up the floor, and they would trap him on the other side of the half-line. He'd have to give the ball up, and then they'd try to keep him from getting it back. At the end of the games, he was a bit fatigued, probably from all the banging. They knew that they could double-team or triple-team him and make somebody else shoot the ball."

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