Jason Kidd was playing coy Tuesday afternoon, saying that several Mavericks would stay behind in Dallas and sit out the preseason opener against Oklahoma City in Tulsa.
A few hours later, what he had hinted at was official.
Davis Bertans will be held out because of a right knee effusion that has kept him out of the last two days of practices. And JaVale McGee will sit out to rest a sprained left ankle that Kidd said was suffered early in practice on Monday.
It is expected that several other Mavericks, probably including Luka Dončić will not make the trip to Tulsa, although that had not been confirmed by the team Tuesday evening.
The Mavericks don’t have a lot of time to evaluate young players who are hoping to latch on to the available two-way contract that the team has available. Nor do they have an abundance of opportunity to see how vets fit together with some incoming rotation players like Christian Wood and McGee.
The Mavericks have only three preseason games.
“I wasn’t mad about playing three,” Kidd said. “You can say you want to play four or five. I don’t think it makes or breaks a season. It’s just doing something different so we can see if it was good or is it something we should revisit.”
They originally thought they had four preseason games, but a planned international exhibition never materialized.
“That fell through,” Kidd said. “That’s why we ended up with three. There were going to be four, an exhibition against an Australian team, and so, it didn’t quite work out.”
Three exhibitions is the fewest the Mavericks have played in a season that wasn’t disrupted by COVID-19 or a lockout or strike.
It’s a far cry from when Kidd was playing, when playing at least six and sometimes more preseason games was the norm.
“They are important,” he said. “Young guys, seeing how guys handle starting, being the first sub, so there’s a lot of things as a coach you’re looking at. And then players, too, trying to get a rhythm. So it’s very important.
“As much as when I was a player, we might’ve looked at them a little differently. We might have played 10 so you were tired by the beginning of the season and you had two-a-days. So it’s important for players to get a rhythm and also for coaches when you start (determining) roles.”
The Mavericks will fly to Tulsa Wednesday afternoon and return immediately after the game. That’s the same routine they used a few years back when they played the Thunder in Tulsa.
Game time is 7 p.m. at the BOK Center and the game will be streamed live on mavs.com.
Luka is MVP choice, again: While he won’t be suiting up Wednesday, Luka still made headlines on the eve of the preseason opener.
In the NBA’s annual survey of general managers, Dončić was picked as the preseason favorite to win the KIA most valuable player award for 2022-23. The 6-7 point guard received 47 percent of the votes, while Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo got 34 percent of the vote and Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid was third with 14 percent. Golden State’s Steph Curry got one vote.
And, by the way, Luka and the Greek Freak were the only two players mentioned by GMs for the player they would pick to build a franchise around. Luka got 55 percent, Antetokounmpo got 45 percent.
Interestingly, Dončić got mentioned as being one of the best players in the league at three different positions. He was deemed to be the second-best point guard, behind Curry, the second-best shooting guard, behind Phoenix’s Devin Booker, and the third best small forward, behind Brooklyn’s Kevin Durant and Boston’s Jayson Tatum.
For the full results, click this link:
Youngsters’ time to shine: So if heavy lifters sit out the first game, that gives the five players that the Mavericks signed to training-camp contracts a chance to show management (and other teams) what they can do.
Tyler Hall, McKinley Wright IV, Marcus Bingham Jr., D.J. Stewart Jr. and Mouhamadou Gueye all have had moments during camp. Now they’ll try to transfer that to a game against another team.
“With the two-way, it’s an opportunity to see these young guys play and there’s some candidates we have here to be able to sign to a two-way,” said Kidd, who added that the open roster spot for a full contract might not be used at this point, although nothing is set in stone.
Knocking rust off: While three preseason games is plenty for most folks, Tim Hardaway Jr. said he’d be OK with a lot more than that.
“I haven’t played in eight months,” he said. “I’m not the player to ask that question right now. If it were up to me, I’d play every day right now just to get the kinks out.
“I know we have three games. There’s not many games to get your rhythm back. A lot of (teams) are playing four or five. Just trust the staff.”
Hardaway said so far he has had no setbacks after his recuperation from surgery to repair a broken bone in his left foot suffered in late January.
“I feel fine,” he said. “The body is sore – just like every other training camp.”
Hardaway said he feels a kinship with some of the other players, particularly in the Western Conference, who are coming off of significant injuries.
He keeps up with, for sure.
“It’s human nature,” he said. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t paying attention to that stuff. It’s great to see everybody 100 percent healthy, all around. From Jamal Murray to John Wall to Kawhi (Leonard) to AD (Anthony Davis). I’m just happy all the guys are healthy and hope everybody has a great season.”
Twitter: @Esefko
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