The Dallas Mavericks will add the recently released Michael Kidd-Gilchrist to fill some minutes on the wing. Can he cash in on this golden opportunity?
Take a look back at the top 10 picks of the 2012 NBA Draft, and the biggest disappointment in that group is pretty easy to identify. It’s obviously not Anthony Davis, the No. 1 overall pick. It’s not Bradley Beal, the No. 3 pick, nor is it Damian Lillard, the No. 6 pick. Andre Drummond, the No. 9 pick, has seen his career take a bad turn, but it’s not him either. Even Dion Waiters, Harrison Barnes, Terrence Ross and Austin Rivers have all been functional pieces on playoff teams in their careers so far.
No, the biggest disappointment among those first 10 selections back in 2012 boils down to Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (No. 2) and Thomas Robinson (No. 5). And while MKG can claim he’s had a longer and more productive career than Robinson, T-Rob also wasn’t the second overall pick in a draft that produced multiple franchise players.
Robinson wasn’t the failed follow-up to Anthony-Freaking-Davis. Robinson wasn’t taken one pick before Beal and four picks before Dame. Robinson didn’t watch his development waste away with one single team, but rather, could at least blame his career trajectory on the lack of stability he experienced as he was jettisoned from team to team. Fair or not, he won’t be remembered as the biggest draft bust among his class.
At 26 years old, the once promising, defensively dominant Kidd-Gilchrist has been relegated to DNP duty with a 17-36 Charlotte Hornets squad this season. He’s appeared in just 12 games, averaging an inconsequential 4.0 points and 2.9 rebounds in 13.3 minutes per game.
As a career 28 percent 3-point shooter, Kidd-Gilchrist has shot better than 34 percent from distance in just one of his eight NBA seasons … and that was in 2015-16, when he played in a mere seven games, making three of his seven triples.
In fact, over the course of 433 games in the association, MKG has attempted a grand total of 100 3-pointers. He’s averaged double figures in the scoring column just twice in his career, peaking at 12.7 points per game … in that seven-game season that doesn’t really count, when he missed Charlotte’s most recent postseason appearance in a feel-good season headlined by Al Jefferson.
Now free of the shackles of Charlotte, this might be Kidd-Gilchrist’s last chance to prove to the world that he’s more than a poor man’s Tony Allen. Rick Carlisle, meet your latest reclamation project — and arguably your most challenging one yet.
As The New York Times‘ Marc Stein reported Monday night, the Dallas Mavericks will be signing the recently bought-out MKG to a contract, waiving Ryan Broekhoff to make room for the 6’6″ swingman. The question is, will he be able to make an impact for a Mavs squad that’s lost five of its last eight games?
This is the closest to relevance Kidd-Gilchrist may get in his career. He’s still in his prime, but that complete lack of a jump shot has hindered his game and ultimately glued him to the bench in Charlotte while a new, less disappointing youth movement gained traction. Though the Mavs have slipped to seventh in the West during their recent slide, they’re still only 1.5 games back of the 5-seed and are about to get a healthy Luka Doncic back. This is a competitive, good team.
The defensive end is where Kidd-Gilchrist will have the most impact if he can carve out minutes. Dallas doesn’t need help on the offensive end, still comfortably leading the league in offensive rating at 116.2 points per 100 possessions (the next-closest team is the Milwaukee Bucks at 113.4). That’s great news for MKG, who can just focus on the defensive end, where the Mavs only rank 20th with a defensive rating of 110.7.
On the wing behind Dorian Finney-Smith, the Mavericks have been sorely lacking in the production department. Justin Jackson has been in a rut since the start of December, shooting 35.4 percent from the floor and 24.2 percent from 3 in that span. Broekhoff did very little to impress when he got the chance to fill those minutes, going 6-for-22 from long range in his five February appearances.
Unable to rely on either one to back up Finney-Smith at the 3, Carlisle has had to play some unconventional bench lineups, including ones with Seth Curry trying to guard small forwards. Even Carlisle’s wizardry only extends so far, and adding a proven defender like MKG should help on that front.
There’s also hope in names like Dorian Finney-Smith and Al-Farouq Aminu — former reclamation projects on the wing who couldn’t shoot before and effectively saved their careers in Dallas. Until this season, Finney-Smith had shot 29.3, 29.9 and 31.1 percent from 3 in the first three years of his career, respectively. This year, he’s made 38.1 percent of his 4.3 3-point attempts per game — both career highs.
As for Aminu, he was a minimal role player for the first four seasons of his career with the LA Clippers and New Orleans Pelicans. It took him awhile to find his groove in Dallas, but he came alive in the playoffs, which ultimately segued into a lucrative contract and productive tenure with the Portland Trail Blazers. His 3-point stroke has been mostly hit-or-miss, topping 36 percent in just two of his next five seasons, but there’s no denying he’s become an effective two-way player in this league.
That will be the goal for Kidd-Gilchrist, and it’s a much higher bar to reach because of the considerable work his jump shot needs and the fact that he’s mostly only known one culture — a losing one — for eight years in Charlotte. Bad habits are hard to break, and even more so when they’ve become the norm for so long.
However, behind Finney-Smith and perhaps Maxi Kleber as a small-ball 4, Kidd-Gilchrist will add some energy and hustle to the end of the floor where the Mavs really need it. If he can knock down an occasional 3, even better, but Dallas just needs someone to capably fill backup minutes on the wing.
A change of scenery can go a long way in this league, as can having a head coach like Rick Carlisle. For the first time in his career, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist is in position to make good on his draft status and actually become relevant. If he can’t figure it out with this high-powered Mavs team, there’s a good chance it’ll never happen.