Quin Snyder praises Doncic for his high basketball IQ

Before Friday’s game between Dallas and Utah, Jazz coach Quin Snyder couldn’t help but reveal his fascination with Mavericks point guard Luka Doncic.

“He’s got a post-up game, he can play isolation, he can play pick-and-roll, he’s an elite passer, he can rebound,” Snyder said. “Even in isolation from what we saw from James Harden in Houston, they just played through him in that situation, and then a post situation when they played through somebody, and then like a Magic Johnson-type height passing ability.

“It’s like one of these things where you can merge all these great players. Those are the things that he’s capable of doing.”

Doncic showed what he was made of when he averaged 35.4 points, 10.3 rebounds and 9.8 assists in the 10 games before last week’s All-Star break. The sniping by Doncic continued Friday when he scored 23 points, grabbed seven rebounds and distributed 11 assists during Friday’s 114-109 loss to the Jazz.

Snyder definitely took notice.

“I do think what makes (Doncic) even more unique is his ability to both read and also accept what’s available to him at any given time in any given play,” Snyder said. “For a lot of players, they’re playing you one way, OK, you can adjust to that, but how are they playing someone else?”

Coach Jason Kidd agreed with Snyder’s assessment of Doncic, who scored 45 or more points in three of the final four games before the All-Star break, including a career-high 51 against the Los Angeles Clippers on Feb. 10.

“Luka understands the game at 22 years old,” Kidd said. “I think the maturity of understanding he has seen a lot of different defenses from the traps to box-and-one.

“I think when he’s unselfish and absorbs the double-teams or the different defenses and trusts his teammates to be able to have that hockey assist. He’s kind of unstoppable, because he’s proven that he can give you 50 points, or he can give you 14 or 15 assists.”

With averages of 27.5 points, 9.2 rebounds and nine assists, Doncic has vaulted onto the short list of players mentioned who could possibly win this season’s Most Valuable Player award. And no one will get an argument from Snyder if he wins it.

“I think great players that can do all the things that he can do, maybe the gift that they have is one that’s not quantifiable,” Snyder said. “He’s able to read his man, he’s able to read another man, and a third man, and a fourth, and pretty much you’ve got everybody on the court in your brain.

“He’s got great body control. I don’t know how they measure basketball IQ, but to me it’s just his ability to read the game and make a high percentage play, and also know when a contested shot is something that’s a good shot, because he’s capable of making those too.”

DEFENSIVE SURGE: Almost every stop the Mavs make around the NBA this season, someone stops to give credit to coach Jason Kidd for the way he has turned them into a defensive juggernaut.

Friday, it was Snyder who was amazed how the Mavs transformed themselves from an offensive monster to a tower of power on the defensive end.

“I think they’re very connected,” Snyder said. “I think they really defend as a team. They do an excellent job of shifting and protecting the paint.”

At that point Snyder acknowledged that he considers forward Dorian Finney-Smith a game-changing defender.

“I think Finney-Smith has shown the ability of (being) an elite defender to take certain matchups, and I think a few other guys, I think they have versatility defensively,” Snyder said. “They’re able to switch one through five, they’re able to have (Dwight) Powell up on the pick-and-roll, and they’re able to be farther back and protect the rim.

“And then some guys are just really locked in defensively.”

Kidd also pointed out Finney-Smith’s prowess on the defensive end of the court.

“Dorian, I think, should be up for one of the all-defensive teams,” Kidd said. “We rely on communication, trust and effort, and those guys are doing that at a very high level, especially when this is an offensive league where teams are looking just to score.

“You talk about the Utah Jazz, they have the No. 1 offense and I think they’re 11 in defense. So that gives them the opportunity to win a championship, and now hopefully we can get there, too.”

Kidd said his players want to play defense.

“You can clearly see that, it just took some time,” he said. “We’ve always been known as an offensive team. Our offense kind of started slow (this season), but I think with our offense now starting to catch up with our defense, it puts us in a position to win games.

“We’re not just relying on shooting threes or relying on Luka scoring 50 points. There’s going to be nights where our defense can find a way to win games, and that’s what’s happened early and often for us.”

Briefly: The Mavs signed Moses Wright to a two-way contract Friday. The 6-8, 226-pound forward averaged 17.6 points, 8.8 rebounds and 1.9 blocks for the Agua Caliente Clippers of the G League this season after going undrafted last summer following four seasons playing for Georgia Tech. Earlier this season, Wright signed a 10-day contract with the Los Angeles Clippers under the NBA’s COVID-related hardship allowance and had one assist in one minute during a Dec. 22 game against the Sacramento Kings. He also was the ACC Player of the Year last season . . . How much attention has point guard Luka Doncic gotten this season? He leads the NBA in the most possessions double-teamed per game at 18.2, followed by James Harden (17.3), Ja Morant (17.2), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (17) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (16).

Twitter: @DwainPrice