‘A Good Screening Team’: Dusty May Plans To Condense Dallas Mavericks’ Offense In The Coming Weeks

DALLAS — Nine games into his first NBA season, Mavericks coach Dusty May is still tweaking the Dallas Mavericks’ offense. Before Sunday’s 6:30 p.m. CT tip-off against the Brooklyn Nets at American Airlines Center, he said he hopes to condense the package within the next couple of weeks and then build counters from what Dallas does best.

May credited Morez Johnson Jr. with freeing up Dallas’ shooters. The Mavericks are averaging 25.9 assists per game, and Basketball-Reference ranks their 113.2 offensive rating 17th in the league.

“You have to create advantage, whether it’s from cutting, from screening, from spacing, and Gaff’s done a really good job all year of screening,” May said. “Rez has done a nice job of freeing up his shooters, and then Kyrie and Coop and those guys are very good off ball.”

“Players do just a simple wide pin-down,” May continued. “They usually create an advantage, and if they don’t, then there’s a re-screen. And it’s a two-way street. It’s having guys that are making good decisions off of that, being able to score off of those screens, but also the guys giving their body up and doing whatever the team needs. We’ve got a good screening team, and we’ve got some other guys that are recognizing which guys to screen and when and where, and so we’re continuing to get better, but at some point we’ll simplify our offense.”

Daniel Gafford, Morez Johnson Jr. And The Mavericks’ Bigs

Daniel Gafford has started all nine games and is averaging 8.9 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 1.9 assists in 22.6 minutes while shooting 68.8% from the field. He opened the season with at least two blocks in six straight games, tying the longest such run of his career to start a season, and he made the first 3-pointer of his career from the corner against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Oct. 28.

Johnson has come off the bench in all nine of his games. He had 13 points and 17 rebounds, 10 of them offensive, against the Utah Jazz on Friday, the night Santi Aldama made his Dallas debut after missing the first eight games following right knee surgery in March. Aldama finished with 8 points and 9 rebounds in 13 minutes, 3 seconds, and Dallas was plus-17 with him on the floor.

“This is like the first time we actually played together,” Johnson said. “We have space on the floor like that, and we picking and popping sometimes, just making the defense have to decide whether they want to drop or to switch everything.”

Cooper Flagg leads Dallas at 23.9 points per game. He pointed to the quicker actions the Mavericks can run with Johnson and Aldama on the floor together, with Gafford in the mix as well.

“I think like Rez said, just having Santi back is gonna make the defense have to choose what they want to do,” Flagg said. “Having him and Santi out there picking and popping, quicker, quick actions. Two very athletic guys. I mean, with Gaff too. So I think just throwing more and more looks at them.”

“We got guys that are really, really big and can space the floor,” Flagg added. “I think Santi’s just gonna add some more of that, and it’s gonna be really good for us.”

Dusty May Wants To Condense The Offense, Then Add Counters

Dallas is scoring 112.1 points per game. The Mavericks are making 12.0 3-pointers a night on 33.1% shooting.

“We’re still tweaking and exploring with what we want to do and what we’re good at,” May explained, “and so hopefully, in the next couple weeks, we’ll condense our package a little bit in our plan of attack, and then once we have what we’re really good at, then we’ll start building counters from there. But right now, the screening has been a bright spot.”

Aldama averaged career highs of 14.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 2.9 assists in 43 games for the Memphis Grizzlies last season, and Dallas acquired him in a six-team trade on July 8. After Friday’s game, May said the staff had not seen him with the regular rotation until that morning’s shootaround.

“We had a gut feel. We hadn’t really seen Santi play with our guys yet,” May said. “He’s played with the two-ways and the video room and things like that. And even today in shootaround … I just looked out and thought, wow, everything looks a little bit better with Santi because he’s such a good cutter.”

“He’s such a good decision maker,” May detailed. “He stretches the defense with the spacing, so he’s just one of those guys that he’s an elite connector, but he’s also a good decision maker with the ball in his hands. And I thought he guarded well tonight, in addition to that.”

The Indiana Pacers visit Monday at 7 p.m. CT to close the back-to-back. Dallas then plays at Minnesota on Thursday, at Cleveland on Saturday, and at Boston on Sunday.