1 Thing Kings can replicate from Mavericks NBA Finals run

Everyone always likes to highlight the fact that the NBA is a copycat league, and the Sacramento Kings are not immune to this behavior.

As the title of this article suggests, the Kings need to mime the Dallas Mavericks – the team currently representing the Western Conference in the NBA Finals – in this one area.

In basketball, you need both spacing and physicality to win. However, for the last few years, the way the game has been refereed has made it so that spacing mattered a little bit more than physicality (because referees were a little quick to pull the trigger on their whistle).

But since March 1, the NBA has instructed referees to swallow their whistle more often. As seen from this tweet from @SravanNBA (a great Twitter follow):

This change in the officiating has tipped the scales back in the favor of physicality, making it slightly more important than spacing for the time being.

What does that mean? In the recent past, since the game was slanted toward offense, playing defense-first wings/forwards who couldn't space the floor was pretty damaging. However, now that the game has shifted back to defense to a degree, these types of players are much more playable.

Back to the Mavericks, Derrick Jones Jr. – the team's starting small forward – was in the 92nd percentile in Defensive Estimated Plus-Minus (DEF EPM) but only the 35th percentile in 3-point percentage during the regular season (per Dunks & Threes). Meanwhile, their starting power forward, P.J. Washington, was in the 80th percentile in DEF EPM and only the 23rd percentile in 3-point percentage.

In the past, it would have been hard for the Mavericks to reap the benefits of Jones and Washington's defensive splendor because of their lackluster positional spacing. But this postseason, with physicality and defense being prioritized, the Mavericks can play both of them big minutes.

Turning this over to our Kings, obviously, if you can have a role player who offers great spacing and physicality, you take that. But if you are forced to choose between the two (and the points of emphasis for officiating remain the same), pick the physical, defense-first player over the offense-first spacer.

For instance, if, for some reason, this free agency, the Kings are forced to pick between someone like Gary Trent Jr. (offense-first player) and Jae'Sean Tate (defense-first player), they should choose the latter over the former.

The Mavericks have done a great job of building out their team to take advantage of the changes in officiating. Let's see if the Kings follow their lead.