On Wednesday night, the Dallas Mavericks defeated the Miami Heat on the road. This is his 16th win in the last 18 games, and everything looks to be on track for his NBA Playoffs in 2024.
Luka Doncic continues to break records, Kyrie Irving is a great leader, and all the role players are doing a great job. Role players will be big in the playoffs, and most of the Mavs' role players appear to be ready to step up to bat.
Dallas' win on Wednesday night confirmed that they will face the LA Clippers in the first round of the playoffs.
This will be the third time in the last five years that Dallas will play LA in the first round, but injuries could mean the Mavs could grab Dallas at the perfect time. With Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Russell Westbrook and James Harden all battling injuries recently, the Mavs are finally starting to get healthy (save for Derek Lively II).
All signs point to the Mavs being in a good position for the playoffs, but there are some struggling players who need to play a little better before the playoffs.
Here, we measure the panic meter of five players on the struggling Dallas Mavericks ahead of the 2024 NBA Playoffs.
Jaden Hardy has seen his minutes go up and down all season, but his play has been sluggish over the past month.
Hardy is averaging 7.0 points, 1.7 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game this season while shooting 40.8 percent from the field and 36.4 percent from downtown. Hardy has shown great growth this season, but he has struggled when the team needs him most.
This time last year, Hardy was emerging as one of the team's best shooters, but this season he's fallen to the back of the bench. Hardy hasn't scored in double figures since March 11 and doesn't appear to be part of Jason Kidd's playoff rotation.
Hardy is a player Kidd has said he would like to play more of, but Kidd has also hinted that Hardy is not in the rotation at all for the rest of the year. You never know which Hardy you're going to get these days. Hardy hasn't been as efficient as usual lately.
It's hard to evaluate a player whose playing time is so sporadic, but Hardy doesn't seem ready to contribute in the playoffs yet. Hardy could quickly prove that he deserves some minutes in the playoffs depending on how he plays in the next two games, but his play recently hasn't been the best.
