Should Roddy be playing more?

With the Mavericks currently struggling its only natural to think the team needs a spark. One player who can definitely give the team that spark is rookie guard Rodrigue Beaubois. He showed that on Tuesday night against the Clippers when he entered the game with the Mavs trailing late in the third quarter and helped lead the team to pull away for a 10 point win. So why did Beaubois not enter the game against Portland until the final minute?

Only Rick Carlisle truly knows why but I will try to examine what the coach might be thinking and whether those thoughts are sound judgement.

Of course with Beaubois being a rookie he prone to mistakes. Carlisle, like most coaches hates those mistakes, but are those mistakes reason enough to not play him? I think that as long as Roddy learns from those mistakes and minimizes them to the best of his ability then there should be no reason not to play him if he is producing otherwise.

Another factor in Beaubois' playing time is the team's depth. Jason Kidd plays heavy minutes at point guard, and with the playoffs coming up there is no reason to think that is going to change. So what about those minutes when Kidd is out of the game? It seems Carslile prefers J.J Barea to play those backup minutes because he is more comfortable running the offense and is a better pure passer than Roddy right now. I think that those reasons are sound but I would still like Beaubois to get minutes at the point when Barea is either struggling on offense or lacks the size to guard his man effectively.

But what about minutes at shooting guard you ask? That it is where I see Beaubois getting most of his minutes if and when he plays from here on out.

Beaubois seems to excel playing alongside Kidd as the veteran is good at complimenting the rookie's game and knowing how to give him scoring opportunities. It also gives Roddy the chance to guard opposing point guards as Kidd has the size to guard shooting guards.

The one problem Carlisle might have with this plan is it might decrease the playing time of Jason Terry. My answer to that is Terry is a very streaky shooter and when is shot is not falling that might be a good time to see if Roddy can pick up the offensive slack.

In conclusion while he probably will be unable to play big minutes come playoff time I think there is a role for Rodrigue Beaubois to play on this team and that he can be that spark this team needs at times while playing at either guard position.