He was minus 7, all other starters greater than plus 15.

Exum getting little time for Dallas as well, he should be starting, Green getting minutes but minus 20.

Exum lacks confidence in his offense in the playoffs. The form he showed during his regular season is gone.

If Giddey, or Green and Exum were to win a championship it'd put them in a very exclusive club with Jack White, Andrew Bogut, Patty Mills, Aron Baynes, Andrew Gaze and Luc Longley as Aussie NBA champions.

Dallas should not not worry about Exums offence, it's his defence that’s missing, they got point scorers but defenders are lacking.

Exum is not receiving playing time because he is not helping the team in the offense at all.


Playoffs

8.8MIN / 2PTS (FG 21.7% , 3P 12.5%)


Regular Season

19.8MIN / 7.8 PTS (FG 53.3% , 3P 49.1%)

[Josh Giddey]

Playoffs - 5G / 24.5MIN / 10.4PTS (FG 45.2% , 3P 45%)

Regular Season - 80G / 25.1MIN / 12.3PTS (FG 47.5% , 3P 33.7%)

[Josh Green]

Playoffs - 7G / 18MIN / 5.1PTS (FG 40.7% , 3P 30%)

Regular Season - 57G / 26.4MIN / 8.2PTS (FG 47.9% , 3P 38.5%)

[Dyson Daniels]

Playoffs - 3G / 5.7MIN / 1.3PTS (FG 33.3% , 3P 0%)

Regular Season - 61G / 22.3MIN / 5.8PTS (FG 44.7% , 3P 31.1%)

[Patty Mills]

Playoffs - 3G / 17.2MIN / 6PTS (FG 35.3% , 3P 27.3%)

Regular Season - 32G / 13MIN / 4PTS (FG 35.1% , 3P 27.6%)

[Joe Ingles]

Playoffs - 7G / 9.6MIN / 1.6PTS (FG 33.3% , 3P 28.6%)

Regular Season - 68G / 17.2MIN / 4.4PTS (FG 43.6% , 3P 43.5%)

Your shot going cold is one thing, but there just looked to be no urgency in Giddey's game, like he barely cared. There are several players on that Thunder bench more than prepared to take his opportunities.

The optimistic view (which I hold) is that Giddey is a high level NBA player who's unfortunately on a team that doesn't need him.
I think he needs the ball in his hands to be effective, but with SGA and J-Dub on the team who are elite at creating their own offense they don't really need someone like Giddey to be the setup guy.

The pessimistic view would be that he's something approaching the next Ben Simmons.

I get that this is an Australian forum but as a Mavs fan and Australian, Exum should not be starting...

I do think Kidd needs to give him a bit more of a run because they do need his defence with Kleber out and I believe his offence will come back around at some point.

I don't think I have seen the 3 guard line up of Exum, Doncic and Kyrie yet which looked fantastic during the regular season. I would love to see that for five minutes next game to see if it unlocks some things for the Mavs.

The optimistic view (which I hold) is that Giddey is a high level NBA player who's unfortunately on a team that doesn't need him.

Giddy had a shocker
And he knew it, he could not be seen in the team interview huddle post game.

His first quarter I thought was good
But that horrible air ball in the second
The corner knuckle ball in the third
The blood issue in the forth
He really dropped off after that first quarter in every aspect.

That Mavs defence... so lazy at times
Even the commentators at times could not even tell if it was man to man, or boxes and elbows, or zone …
OKC really only needed shooters on the floor
It did not suit Josh at all
And teams now often pick there poison by having a centre sagging off of Josh
and dropping right off at least another OKC player.

Similar happened in the previous series again the Pels,
Josh managed to bounce back big time
Hoping he can do the same again.

Not a great game again today. Benched early and then had a couple of moves in a later stint but the Thunder fell behind while he was on. -20 in 11 minutes, no assists. Had one really obvious turnover within seconds of subbing in one time as well.

Green with 3/5 threes and the win. Exum only 6 minutes.

As said above, Giddey needs the ball in his hands to be effective. I dont think he knows what to do when he doesnt have the ball. This is a similar problem with Simmons. I dont think any other comparison holds up though.

During a stretch late in the season Giddey was the lead guard and was balling out, albeit the team weren't performing as well. I think Josh is a good starting lead guard, but potentially not yet on a team thats ready to win, and not even close to that when compared to SGA. He's not a good off ball player when you have two great guys like SGA and Williams.

I've said it before but I'd love to see Giddey be moved to Spurs in the off season. He can be the primary creator and have an excellent finisher next to him who is also a spacer. He'd be the best setup man Wemby has played with. Spurs have a lot of options that could go back the other way that would look good on the Thunder and suit their team balance better.

Exum's season was unfortunately hurt by that mid season injury. Was playing the best ball of his life and then sat out for months. By the time he came back he just couldn't get readjusted. He'll keep getting chances as Dallas don't have a ton of depth, but both Green and Hardaway having good games today will eat most of the available backup minutes.

Giddey off the bench today for the first time in his NBA career. Hopefully this suits him better against the Mavs.

Mavs advance after a one-point win. Giddey with 2/4/1 in 11 minutes off the bench. I think I was most keen to see OKC go through for Giddey to get a fresh series to work with.

Exum riding the pine again.