Thoughts on our beloved Mavs today

[Ghazi]

Mediocrity sucks.

I've developed a new theory about the decline of the Mavs. To go from 67 to 51 to what seems like 45 seems drastic, but our Pythagorean record in 06-07 was 58-24... we had a lot of close games that we were quite frankly lucky to win.

So to go from 60 in '05-'06, to "58" in 06-07, to 51 in 07-08, to what seems like 45 in 08-09 is actually a natural decline. We see it happening with the Pistons, Suns, we saw it happen to the Jazz, Kings, Blazers earlier in the decade.

We even see it happening with the Spurs, although less rapidly.

But again, mediocrity sucks :(

[de Soto]

They played pretty good for their abilities. Their performance was fully reflective of the mavs whole organization. Good job, mavs. :toast

[Rogue]

They played pretty good for their abilities. Their performance was fully reflective of the mavs whole organization. Good job, mavs. :toast
thanks soto, I really appreciate your comments on my beloved mavs team and thanks for your unarbitray viewpoints about our flaws. As a mavs fan I am really extreamly grateful to you for your support and encouragement to the mavs team.

I used to think that your screen name is as weird as a sh!t but I have changed my mind gradually my boy, now I actually appreciate your name which is fucking perfect. it's a japanese name isn't it? I am so delighted that I have started a program that is gonna treat you with another AB.http://i40.tinypic.com/n6td0w.gif

[ElNono]

Mediocrity sucks.

I've developed a new theory about the decline of the Mavs. To go from 67 to 51 to what seems like 45 seems drastic, but our Pythagorean record in 06-07 was 58-24... we had a lot of close games that we were quite frankly lucky to win.

So to go from 60 in '05-'06, to "58" in 06-07, to 51 in 07-08, to what seems like 45 in 08-09 is actually a natural decline. We see it happening with the Pistons, Suns, we saw it happen to the Jazz, Kings, Blazers earlier in the decade.

We even see it happening with the Spurs, although less rapidly.

But again, mediocrity sucks :(

It's tough to remain an excellent ballclub for long. Many things have to line up: Great management, great coaching, great players commited to the team, etc.
Unfortunately, the management was not up to par, and key pieces like JHo and vets like Stack really shitted on the team. Now they're just reeling.
That's why Im very grateful of having character guys like Pop and Duncan as the foundation of our organization. And it's going to be real tough once they retire.
I thought Cuban learned his lesson when he hired Avery. 'Defense wins championships' and all that jazz. I REALLY thought he did learn his lesson when Avery took the team to the finals. But no. He think he's smarter than the scouts and people evaluating talent. He wants to rationalize every move he makes (go back to read his blog post about the Kidd trade when it happened). And he sucks at it. There's no doubt Nellie was great scouting talent, but not enough to win a championship. So once the talent was there, he moved on to a defensive coach. He got them to the NBA Finals and fell short. So far so good. Now he brings Carslile who gets basically laughed at by Stackhouse to start the season and obviously has no idea how much you have to push these guys to make them play well.

I'll be surprised if Carslile takes this team to the playoffs, and at this point I would say it depends more on Utah's injuries than anything else. And I'm also starting to suspect that Cuban's inactivity might have more to do with his unwilingness to spend much in the current economic crisis.

[Ghazi]

FWIW whatever buttons Avery was pushing in 05-06 and 06-07 to get the Mavs to play well stopped working. I think Avery had to go.

But an interesting note, again I dont mean to harp on margin of victory stats too much :D... but the mavs margin of victory last year after the Kidd trade was +5.6 in the regular season, and +7.6 in games where Dirk played.

We were only 16-13 and had a poor record against +.500 teams but A LOT of those losses came down to the final possessions, which we can attribute to bad luck. + we blew out the lottery teams quite often. So the mavs quality of basketball after the Kidd trade last year wasn't as bad as the W/L made it appear.

Now?

We rarely blow teams out, 2 wins by 20+ points.... we're not losing close games, we've lost by 19+ 6 times... we have had alot of close calls against lottery teams... all of this is declining basketball and thus the margin is only +.5 or so.

So even though I think Avery had to go, the Mavs of 08-09 have played MUCH worse than the 07-08 Mavs even after the Kidd trade. I guess the NBA has caught up to our beloved Mavs.

[ElNono]

FWIW whatever buttons Avery was pushing in 05-06 and 06-07 to get the Mavs to play well stopped working. I think Avery had to go.

But an interesting note, again I dont mean to harp on margin of victory stats too much :D... but the mavs margin of victory last year after the Kidd trade was +5.6 in the regular season, and +7.6 in games where Dirk played.

We were only 16-13 and had a poor record against +.500 teams but A LOT of those losses came down to the final possessions, which we can attribute to bad luck. + we blew out the lottery teams quite often. So the mavs quality of basketball after the Kidd trade last year wasn't as bad as the W/L made it appear.

Now?

We rarely blow teams out, 2 wins by 20+ points.... we're not losing close games, we've lost by 19+ 6 times... we have had alot of close calls against lottery teams... all of this is declining basketball and thus the margin is only +.5 or so.

So even though I think Avery had to go, the Mavs of 08-09 have played MUCH worse than the 07-08 Mavs even after the Kidd trade. I guess the NBA has caught up to our beloved Mavs.

I think it's the defensive intensity. I would agree that Avery had to go. But another defensive coach taking the helm was in order, IMO. And at some point Cuban/Donnie should have made better decisions as far as giving players like JHo a second, third and fourth chance to redeem themselves, when it's obvious the guy is well beyond the 'I don't give a darn' stage.

[Shank]

Avery isn't the solution. By the time he left, the players had phased him out and Dirk wanted change. So, for all the good things he did in his time in Dallas, bringing him back for another season wasn't the option. My choice for HC was Thibodeaux from the Celtics.

Find out what Dirk wants, ala Kobe and Pierce voicing their needs the past couple years. If he's committed to staying and playing this thing out, put viable pieces around him.
Decent pieces can be had by moving a combination of Kidd, Terry, Howard, Stackhouse and Bass. I read where there's a Mike Conley for Ramon Sessions/Joe Alexander trade on the table. Certainly the Mavs could offer something comparable to Conley to bring back a guy like Sessions. Shop Kidd to the Blazers for their playoff run.
But realize through all of this that it's a scary thought to imagine Mark Cuban and Donnie Nelson as architects of a team trying to rebuild. They could barely put together a squad that was among the NBA's elite.
Remove the dead weight from the roster, guys eating money to do jack-shit. Devean George is just stealing money from this organization. It was a scam from the very beginning and he and his agent took the Mavs for a ride. You know they were giggling the second the ink hit the paper.

Fuck.

[mogrovejo]

Dallas are in a very complex situation. I wouldn't know what to do. I don't like these crazy ideas shared by a majority of fans of giving away talent without having an idea (even if only as a hypothesis) of how am I going to replace it. Kidd needs to be surrounded with clever players than those in Dallas (except Dirk). Dirk... is he young enough to rebuild around him? If not, is he tradeable? How much time do you give Carlisle?

I don't know what I would do.... hmm, except that I know exactly what I would do:
If I am Cuban, I tell Donnie he now has full control over the basketball operations.
If I am Donnie, I tel Cuban that I'm resigning unless I'm granted full control and carte blanche.

That's the first step in the right direction for the Mavericks organization.

[Shank]

Yeah, because Donnie has the proven track record to support him speaking up to management.

[ElNono]

Dallas are in a very complex situation. I wouldn't know what to do. I don't like these crazy ideas shared by a majority of fans of giving away talent without having an idea (even if only as a hypothesis) of how am I going to replace it. Kidd needs to be surrounded with clever players than those in Dallas (except Dirk). Dirk... is he young enough to rebuild around him? If not, is he tradeable? How much time do you give Carlisle?

I don't know what I would do.... hmm, except that I know exactly what I would do:
If I am Cuban, I tell Donnie he now has full control over the basketball operations.
If I am Donnie, I tel Cuban that I'm resigning unless I'm granted full control and carte blanche.

That's the first step in the right direction for the Mavericks organization.

I don't think it's THAT complicated. Donnie Nelson needs to go, and you need to replace him with an experienced guy that has run a successful basketball operation before. I couldn't tell you off the top of my head a suitable guy right now, but I'm sure they're out there to be had. If the Knicks managed to get Walsh, I'm sure Dallas can find a similar guy.
Then you need a defense-first coach not named Avery Johnson. Larry Brown was available, but he's not anymore. JVG is still out there for the right price.
Last, the owner grants full management power to both of those guys, and STOPS meddling with the team. That means no more buddy-buddy with the players, and if they want to bitch about something, they need to go to the Coach/GM.
I think the first two are doable. I don't think the last one is.

[mogrovejo]

Donnie is a brilliant basketball mind. I doubt you'll find a replacement with better competence, vision and intelligence than him. Shank makes a good point though; probably it's Cuban that has to learn how to exercise self-restraint.

[Indazone]

you know what's even worse with the Kidd trade? He's old and you can't trade him out for anything of value. J-Ho needs to play better so you can trade him out to get a good player in return. Other than that, your backcourt needs an upgrade in speed. You need another slashing pg to go with Jet. Oh wait..you had one of those.

lol

[Shank]

you know what's even worse with the Kidd trade? He's old and you can't trade him out for anything of value. J-Ho needs to play better so you can trade him out to get a good player in return. Other than that, your backcourt needs an upgrade in speed. You need another slashing pg to go with Jet. Oh wait..you had one of those.

lol

Portland sure could use a guy like Kidd for a playoff run and have young pieces to trade. Some of the teams pushing toward the top in the East could, as well. You don't think Lebron would clamor for Kidd if he were to be made available?

[Indazone]

No I don't think any teams would be clamoring for an old slow washed up point guard.

[ElNono]

Portland sure could use a guy like Kidd for a playoff run and have young pieces to trade. Some of the teams pushing toward the top in the East could, as well. You don't think Lebron would clamor for Kidd if he were to be made available?

Not really, no. I mean, Mo Williams has been tearing it up in Cleveland, and you don't want to make him a second stringer now... Plus Kidd now has the baggage of destroying another successful team. I think Kidd's best days are behind him.

[Findog]

No I don't think any teams would be clamoring for an old slow washed up point guard.

How fucking stupid are you? Kidd is a better player than Steve Blake.

[Brickhouse]

You think Dirk wants to last through another "rebuild" around him? Waste two more years while the monkeys figure out what the fuck they're doing and put all their eggs in the basket for 2010?

The Dirk-era in Dallas is done. At this point, he is better suited as a second option because it would take more than just a Gasol-like deal to make the team a contender around him. Look at all the pieces the Lakers have, from their bench guys like Ariza who would be logging major minutes as a starter on this team. What do the Mavs have? An old core with a headcase, overpaid hard-to-move role players and a few young players that will still be bench players in the future.

[Allanon]

I was rooting for the Mavs to beat the Celtics or at least make it close. I think this game might have been even worse than the Suns/Celtics.

I watched through the 3rd quarter, just waiting for that come back surge.... Fuck you Mavs.

[Shank]

I was rooting for the Mavs to beat the Celtics or at least make it close. I think this game might have been even worse than the Suns/Celtics.

I watched through the 3rd quarter, just waiting for that come back surge.... Fuck you Mavs.

I'll apologize on their behalf, man. Sorry about that.