Jason Kidd may not think the boat is burning after the Dallas Mavericks (2-6) suffered the team’s latest loss, at home on Wednesday, 101-99, to the New Orleans Pelicans, who were down three of their top
players and on the second end of a back-to-back set.
But it’s certainly is starting to smell like smoke in Dallas.
When asked what Kidd’s message to the team was after a loss that can only be characterized as catastrophic, putting the Mavericks in a tie for the worst record in the Western Conference, albeit through eight games, here’s how Max Christie put it.
“The main message was ‘stick together,’” Christie said. “The boat isn’t burning, so we’re — we’re fine. I mean, we’re eight games in, so, it feels pretty crappy because we’re losing, and our home court — we haven’t really done a good job of protecting that. So, we’ve got to do better with that, but I think for us, offensively we seem a little stagnant. We’re not getting a lot of flow — a lot of motion. Coach Kidd’s message is just to stay together. There’s no point in breaking up right now.”
Christie started the game for the Mavericks and scored 12 points on 5-of-12 shooting in 27 minutes in the loss.
Stick together, sure. That’s fine — that’s what the coach has to say to a team that must be questioning everything amid the worst start to a season since 2018. It indeed would make no sense to pack it in and regroup for next year after just eight games.
But going full-on “This is fine” meme after the horrendous start to the 2025-26 season is absolutely maddening. “We’re fine?”
I assure you, Jason Kidd, the Mavs are NOT “fine.”
This is not fine.
The wheels have come off. The train is derailed. The plane has crashed into the mountain. The iceberg has breached the hull of the giant freighter that management sold as an indestructible behemoth. This engine room is taking on water. I canna do it, cap’n. I just don’t have the power.
Yet, in Kidd’s mind, the music is still playing. Or, more likely, he’s just flailing, after assuming the position in the corner his bosses assigned him to, while selling their sad lies to the bitter end. After all, that’s what’s expected of the fall guy.
And, make no mistake, if things don’t get a lot better quickly, Kidd will be the fall guy in this disastrous equation. The incompetent charlatan in charge of basketball operations at Victory Plaza is shielded by even thicker layers of incompetence and shiftlessness above him. There are plenty of people Nico Harrison and Patrick Dumont can publicly lay blame on before taking any responsibility for the sad state of affairs themselves.
The last song the orchestra played as the Titanic sank was, as the story is told, “Nearer, My God, To Thee.” Maybe that’s the tune Kidd is hearing in his mind as the flames envelop the Mavericks’ season.
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