Frisco, Texas — With as much as the Dallas Mavericks have overcome this season, Jason Kidd may as well have coached a season and a half on Dallas' sideline.

First, it was the disappointing, but not surprising, slow start. Second, it was untimely injuries to Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis which delayed their on-court synergy. Then the COVID chronicles hit, decimating Dallas' roster. Yet, miraculously, the Mavericks sit sixth in the West with a 29-22 record and own a top defense in the league.

Just getting to this point was a process of accountability for Dallas. Kidd preached that it would be. It may have taken a few months and bumps along the way, but his message to the team is making a real difference for the Mavericks this season — it's changing the culture.

"It's communicating," Kidd said of what accountability looks like for Dallas before playing Portland on Wednesday, Jan. 26. "It's being able to make mistakes and being able to move forward…For the last month or two, guys are being able to talk to each other. We are not going to play a perfect game. It's about mistakes and how you correct mistakes on the go. Those guys on the floor are doing a great job of talking about it, solving the problem, and not letting it happen twice or three times in a row. That's how it looks."

Though the Mavericks are taking Kidd's message to heart, one question remains.

What changed? 

The answer is complicated. But it mainly has to do with communication.

Kidd spoke about accountability and chemistry since training camp, but it wasn't until late in December that Kidd's messaging appeared to sink in. Dallas' defensive excellence coincided with it.

Since Dec. 30, 2021, the Mavericks own the top defense in the league, in terms of defensive rating, at 103.2. In that 17-game sample size, Dallas is 13-4. Even more staggering, Dallas, during this 17-game stretch, is holding opponents to 29 percent from 3-point range and 44 percent from the field. The only other team remotely close to those numbers is the Golden State Warriors, who own a top-two defense in the league for the entire season.

So, it was no surprise when, on Jan. 7, after a win over the Houston Rockets, the now-injured Tim Hardaway said what changed Dallas defensively was an embrace of accountability. He explained that players aren't taking criticism personally. From the top-down, everybody is coachable. It must be the Kidd effect.

"The word J Kidd uses is accountability," Hardaway said then. "There were some rough patches to start the year until December or so. Then, guys started to figure things out and really understand what the staff wanted us to do… No one is taking things personally."

The" don't take things personally" approach changed the way everyone on the roster communicates. And the good news is, it's working. That's why, when examining what changed, it would be asinine to believe that the change in communication hasn't had a positive — lasting — effect.

Communication-based trust 

In the case of Jalen Brunson, a player who is enjoying a breakout season, Kidd's influence infused not only accountability but trust.

"He just helped us buy in a little more," Brunson said after Dallas beat Portland. "For the most part, it's just being able to see how a play happened and move on to the next one. We are not pointing fingers at anyone. We are just trying to get to the next play."

For Brunson, a soft-spoken point guard, Kidd bestowed in him a want to talk to his teammates. As a result, at least in Brunson's eyes, everyone on the roster is always trying to help each other get better.

Starting center Dwight Powell found that Kidd's emphasis on chemistry has influenced communication and accountability. And in turn, the improvements in both sectors have changed the dynamic nature in which Dallas plays defense.

"Chemistry and accountability are most evident on defense," Powell said. "It all starts on the defensive end. That is an area we have done a great job at developing, and we will continue to do so."

Porzingis, who is also enjoying a resurgent season under Kidd, echoed a similar sentiment to both Brunson and Powell. He believes Kidd's presence on the sideline brought the team together in a way that it wasn't before. Kidd is an original. He's a glue guy turned coach, and he carries that work ethic with him everywhere he goes.

"He’s been incredible for us as a group to bring us together and have little conversations here and there that are necessary," Porzingis said.

"What I really appreciate about him is that when things don’t go your way or things get tight, he’s always the same. He always comes in and does his work, he always transmits confidence and that’s who he was as a player and now as a coach; and that’s how a leader needs to be, always the same. When you pull into the parking lot, he’s always there first, he’s always there working and that sends a message to all the players."

The difficult task of building cohesion 

It hasn't always been seamless for Kidd. Things ended ugly in Brooklyn. And then they ended up worse in Milwaukee, but at every step of the way, he's remained a student of the game. In Los Angeles, he took an assistant coach role when head coach opportunities were out there.

He knew he could get better. He happened to win a championship in the process.

"In Brooklyn, I didn't know what the hell I was doing," Kidd said. "I've learned a lot from Brooklyn and Milwaukee. I also learned a lot being under Frank Vogel in LA. I just take those experiences and try to put these guys in the same positions for success defensively, offensively, and in life."

It's Kidd's final phrase "and in life" that resonates with everything a coach is supposed to be. At the NBA level, it's easy to see everything as business. Kidd sees things as a brotherhood.

He hasn't gotten a chance to have the team dinners that were made famous by Gregg Popovich, the San Antonio Spurs Hall of Fame coach. Kidd also doesn't have the same mysticism and spirituality that made Phil Jackson the Zen Master. What he does have is the humility to learn from his mistakes, the honesty to admit where he could be better, and the desire to bring the best out of his team.

What that looks like for now, in Dallas, is owning what it means to be accountable.

"You always want unity," Kidd said. "It's hard to do. This is a different time to be Phil Jackson or Larry Brown or Pop [Popovich]… This is about being able to adapt."

And as things stand currently, nearing the All-Star Game (Feb. 20), Dallas appears to have adapted in play — and in culture — just fine.

Related Dallas Mavericks reading

"Bounce-back Mavericks: How the Dallas found its stride against Portland." 

"The Dallas Mavericks are solution searching after Tim Hardaway Jr's foot injury." 

"The Dallas Mavericks dispatch the Memphis Ja Morant." 

Feature image via Alonzo Adams-USA TODAY Sports.