J-Kidd back emphasizing defense, communicati having fun

When he held his first training camp as the coach of the Dallas Mavericks last year, Jason Kidd expressed the need for his players to develop a defensive mindset, have some fun, and communicate with each other on both ends of the court.

That’s the same message Kidd conveyed to his players on Tuesday when the Mavs opened training camp.

Last year that message by Kidd netted the Mavs an impressive 52-30 record – fifth-best in the NBA — and got them within three wins of reaching the NBA Finals. Thus, the way Kidd sees it, if it’s not broke, don’t break it.

“I think the biggest thing is picking up where we left off,” Kidd said. “And that’s just communicating, talking to one another both on and off the floor, and then having fun with that, and I thought today was a good start.

“Guys got a little tired. Sometimes your voice kind of disappears when you get tired. We talked about that – picking each other up. If you see someone tired, try to help them through it. I thought the guys did a great job today.”

On Sunday, Kidd discussed what the Mavs were perhaps going to do entering training camp with superstar point guard Luka Doncic, who worked extensively this past summer for the Slovenian National Team. Doncic played his last EuroBasket game on Sept. 15, and the Mavs were expected to limit his activity.

“He did his work and we’ll see how he feels tomorrow and (see if he’ll) do a little bit more tomorrow, but he was great,” Kidd said. “He was a great teammate. He led on all the defensive drills today.”

In recent years, critics have complained about Doncic’s conditioning entering training camp. Kidd views that as being unfair to one of the game’s great players.

“I think Luka is in Luka shape,” Kidd said. “I think we sometimes can nit-pick on greatness. You’ve got to find something. But I think Luka is in great spirits. He’s laughing and smiling and having a good time.

“I think he’s happy to be back. Last year was the first time for a new staff that he had to go through, and I think understanding he got to know who we are, so I think he’s excited to be back.”

Elsewhere, Kidd was interested in seeing what kind of shape all of his players were in on the first day of training camp.

“The first day of school, everybody’s excited, but I just wanted to see where everybody was conditioning-wise, and then being able to execute,” he said. “A lot of times things are moving really fast.

“You can’t get organized when things are moving fast, and I thought the guys did a really good job of that.”

And that’s not all.

“There was a lot of good energy,” Kidd said. “Guys had fun, they worked extremely hard, they did everything we asked them to do.

“Now we’ll go back and look at the film and see where we can get better at and then prepare for practice tomorrow.”

DINWIDDIE’S NEW ROLE: So much has been said about the Mavs losing Jalen Brunson this past summer to the New Knicks via free agency. But the Mavs don’t believe enough has been said about Spencer Dinwiddie, who is more than capable of sliding into the starting shooting guard role vacated by Brunson.

“Obviously, we can’t replace JB,” point guard Luka Doncic said. “He was an amazing player, an amazing guy.

“But I think Spencer is going to have a really bigger role this year and I think he can do it. He has the abilities to do it.”

Acquired last season during a mid-season trade with the Washington Wizards, Dinwiddie averaged 15.8 points and 3.9 assists, and shot 49.8 percent from the field and 40.4 percent from three-point range in 23 games with the Mavs last season. He also averaged 20.6 points and 6.8 assists for the Brooklyn Nets during the 2019-’20 season.

By contrast, Brunson’s best season was last year when he averaged 16.3 points and 4.8 assists, and converted 50.2 percent of his field goals and 37.3 percent of his three-point shots.

“We’re excited to have (Dinwiddie) for the full season,” coach Jason Kidd said. “I think we were really excited to get him through the trade.

“He looks great, and I think he’s excited.”

Dinwiddie started seven games for the Mavs last season, but was primarily the first guard off the bench. Now, he’ll open this season as the Mavs’ starting shooting guard.

“He has a new role,” Kidd said. “Nobody’s talking about his new role, because he’s going to play alongside Luka.

“We had JB there last year, so this is going to be interesting to see how he will digest this new role that he has to play.”

MORE FROM GREEN AND NTILIKINA: Coach Jason Kidd is anticipating more this season from guards Josh Green and Frank Ntilikina.

At various times last season, both Green and Ntilikina were in the thick of the Mavs’ rotation. Green wound up averaging 4.8 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 15.5 minutes while playing 67 games, and Ntilikina averaged 4.1 points, 1.4 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 11.8 minutes while playing 58 games.

“I thought Frank and Josh played well for us last year,” Kidd said. “(Josh is) a guy that we truly believe has improved. He had a great year for us last year and has worked on his game this year, so we’re going to ask him to do a little bit more playmaking and handling the ball.

“Frank’s been in this league (for five years) and he’s run a team before (with the New York Knicks). So we’re going to lean on those two to do that.”

VOGEL ATTENDS PRACTICE: An old friend of coach Jason Kidd’s attended the Mavs’ first practice on Tuesday. It was former Los Angeles Lakers coach Frank Vogel.

Kidd was an assistant coach on Vogel’s Laker staff from 2019-‘21. That includes helping Vogel and the Lakers capture the 2020 NBA title inside the bubble in suburban Orlando.

“I told Frank he can come any time he wanted, and he took me up on the invite,” Kidd said. “He’s here for a couple of days.

“It’s always good to see Frank. I’m happy he came.”

BRIEFLY: Former Mavs 13-time All-Star forward Dirk Nowitzki was at Tuesday’s practice. The Mavs are hopeful to one day add Nowitzki to their staff in some capacity. Coach Jason Kidd had some fun at Nowitzki’s expense, saying: “I think he was over there drawing. He’s into art, so he was trying to do his coloring. You start with a pencil first. A big eraser.” Kidd then got serious and said of Nowitzki, “He was just here to watch training camp. He was here early, too, which was kind of cool. It’s great to see him here the last couple of days. So hopefully he’s back tomorrow.”. .After Tuesday’s practice, Davis Bertans said his game basically is what it is. “My game is my game and I’m really not going to invent anything new,” the seventh-year forward said. “Improve the three-point percentage, I guess. For me, as long as we win games I’m going to be happy in whatever way I can help.” After joining the Mavs last season in a mid-season trade with Washington, Bertans averaged 5.3 points in13.9 minutes, and made 36 percent of his three-pointers in 22 games. Born in Latvia, he also revealed that he once won the Slovenian League slam dunk contest. “I was 18 and weighed 190 pounds, probably,” Bertans said. “That’s the number one reason. And that was the Slovenian League dunk contest, so it wasn’t really many athletic players there. And the other guy that was kind of good, he missed some dunks, so I was in a better position making them.”. .The Mavs got in a circle following Tuesday’s practice and sang Happy Birthday to center Christian Wood, who turned 27 years old on the first day of training camp.

Twitter: @DwainPrice