Most of you probably are disappointed about Jason Terry's performance lately, especially in the last two games. But besides the fact that his shots just aren't falling (which will reverse eventually) he moved away from another area that made him a strong asset to the core no matter how many shots he made: playmaking.
The second unit is stacked with scorers. As Bryan Gutierrez from Mavs.com pointed out, Ian Mahinmi has really grown into his role and is a reliable scorer. And there's Lamar Odom (when in shape), Vince Carter (when healthy) and Rodrigue Beaubois (when calm within himself).
So the necessity for the "JET" to be the premier scorer off the bench has softened by a certain degree, outside crunch time, and he really tried to be more of a facilitator in the very early stages of the season. He has developed a nice little chemistry with Ian on the Pick&Roll, tried to involve Odom where possible and more or less shared duties with Roddy at the point, because the Frenchman still isn't quite there in terms of running the team on his own.
But in the last two games he has gone away from that and only jacked up shot after shot. The Mavericks are missing Carter indefinitely and, as we've learned yesterday, also Dirk for the next three home games, so somebody has to pick up that slack. But I feel like Terry was much more impressive and effective as a "backup point."
| USG | FGA | 3FGA | AST | AST/TOV | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | 24.24% | 22.21 | 10.21 | 6.42 | 1.85 |
| @UTA | 27.40% | 24.10 | 17.20 | 1.70 | 0.48 |
| @NOH | 34.70% | 31.20 | 13.60 | 3.90 | 0.91 |
As you can see in those two games his USG% is up and so are his field goal attempts, but assists and assists/turnover-ratio is down. So he tried to be more of a scorer again and not that all-around type of player. The second unit especially thrived when Terry was at the helm dishing out assists, competing on defense, getting a steal here and there. Even without Dirk & Carter this team can still score so the JET might want to return to his early role in the season, because that's what the second unit needs most.