Findog
10-25-2007, 08:59 AM
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/nba/specials/preview/2007/enemy.lines/mavericks.html
An opposing team's scout sizes up the Mavericks
They could be the team to beat in the West if they get back to how they played during the course of the season last year. During the playoffs, they became too predictable. Avery Johnson did a great job during the year against people who were going in prepared to stop Dirk Nowitzki by not necessarily going to him right away but spreading the ball to guys like Josh Howard and Jerry Stackhouse. But in the playoffs against Golden State, the Mavericks went to too much isolation and that hurt them. They've got to remember that they've got other good players to go with Nowitzki ...
Their weakness is that they need more of a post-up game and they need to get to the free throw line more often. Of course, the two weaknesses are related to each other. ...
But all this year they're going to be pissed about the way it ended a year ago and that's going to help them come playoff time this year. Once they get to the playoffs, they'll remember the priorities they should have during the season, which is that they play very good defense, they move the ball, spread the floor and make themselves hard to guard. When they move the ball, it all works for them. In the playoffs they didn't move the ball; it went to Nowitzki and he was too easy to guard. He didn't play like himself -- he shot 38.3 percent overall and 21.1 percent from the three, and that's just not him ...
The key for Dallas is that when you get into the playoffs and people are stopping your transition game by getting back on defense, you've got to be able to run the half-court offense. The Mavericks struggle in the half-court when they have to play there on a consistent basis. San Antonio and Dallas are the two teams in the West that play at a high level at both ends during the season, and the next step for Dallas is to follow the blueprint the Spurs set during their series with Phoenix last year. Look at how the Spurs defended Steve Nash: They wanted to play him physically and not let him slither through, and if he splits the defense he's going down. You step in looking for that charge, and if you miss the charge then you'd better hit him. Also, whenever Phoenix looked ready to go on a run, the Spurs were calling timeout to stop the momentum and retain control of the tempo. ...
But Dallas did a poor job of getting the pace of the game to what they wanted it and needed it to be. Everyone knows that's Don Nelson's style, that he's wild and that his team struggles against the slower executing style. The only way Golden State could win was to create a pace and have Dallas jump in and try to beat them at that pace. The Mavericks did an awful job of taking a deep breath and making adjustments in the later games: You know, call a timeout and say this is how we're going to create a mismatch, we're going to bring it down and park Nowitzki under the basket -- and we're not going to get caught up playing that tempo. Forget about the matchups for a minute. You've got to get into your style of play. All year long Dallas was such a far better team defensively than Golden State, which doesn't play any defense -- so why wasn't that a factor in this series? If I'd been part of that Dallas staff, I would have felt awful afterward, knowing that we put all this work into defense and Nellie doesn't care about it and in the end it never became a factor. That would have been a hell of a hangover to recover from this summer, I'm telling you ...
Nowitzki took a lot of heat for not carrying the team in the playoffs, but I think the opposite: He didn't rely or trust his teammates enough, to his own fault. I definitely thought he deserved the MVP last year for what he did during the regular season. I wish he played better defense because he could, but I love the way he competes, and in most cases that means trying to include his teammates. The other issue for him this year is playing in the post to help them execute their half-court offense under pressure. Nowitzki is not a good post-up guy with traffic. He's not quick enough getting rid of the ball. He's a very good passer, but once he gets into the post he takes some bad shots. He's forced into a bad shot and yet because he's so crafty, he doesn't get fouled as much as he should because he averts the contact or takes a soft off-balanced hook. Sometimes you've got to simply take it hard to the rim and get fouled. But in a crowd he's too much of a black hole in the post, and he's not physical enough against double teams ...
I bet he's going to come back with a vengeance this year. The question about Dallas is going to be do they have enough stars to go with Nowitzki, but I think they do. Josh Howard is great and getting better, Stackhouse is still tremendous and Devin Harris will be in his fourth year ...
A lot of people have been saying they need to get a new point guard, but I don't think that's the issue as much as they need another half-court finisher up front to play in the low post, even if just for a few minutes a game. I'm talking about a mobile power forward to use as a secondary post-up player, a Juwan Howard type who could play the high-low game with Nowitzki and help steady their half-court offense at times. That's what they might need to put themselves over the top ...
Harris took some heat because he was ineffective defensively against Baron Davis, but he shouldn't have been guarding him. I would have put Howard all over Davis in that series. Let's be fair with this kid: When Harris first came into the league, he wasn't thought of very highly. He came in and surprised a lot of people. Then expectations jumped to the other side like he was on the stock market. For where he is early in his career and what he already brings to the table, I'd love to have him on my team. He plays within himself -- though like a lot of their guys, he didn't do that in the playoffs -- and he's very quick moving both forward and laterally. He may not quite be a true point guard yet -- he doesn't see the floor like he should -- but he's getting there and he's already improved a great deal ...
I know Howard was a replacement All-Star last year, but I see him as a true star in the league who is going to keep improving this year. He plays both ends of the floor, he's hard to guard and he can defend three and sometimes four positions. He's very athletic and he's improved his shooting. He's an excellent free throw shooter and he gets there all the time. He does his share of rebounding at both ends, and he'll come pushing it out of the pack with the rebound because he's improved his handle. Like Stackhouse, he gives them a bit of orneriness; he isn't going to back down. Put him and Harris together as perimeter defenders and they should cause a lot of problems ...
Stackhouse has at least one more really good year in him. He seems charged up to be in that organization. He didn't seem like he wanted to be shopped around as a free agent last summer. He had tremendous numbers, he went to the free throw line quite a bit, he helped on the rebounding and he even shared the ball a little bit, which shows that he's buying into what they're all about ...
Erick Dampier is solid for what they want at center, and DeSagana Diop continues to improve and has a chance to be one of the solid centers in the West ...
They didn't make a lot of moves, which surprised me. I thought they would be more active based on their history and the fact that they were one or two pieces from being the champs. There was a lot of talk that Jason Terry might be moved, and while I don't see him as a great player, he is definitely a good fit for their system. They don't have a specified 1 or 2 man, and he exploits that freedom. He fills the lane and at times he is a terrific shooter, though he's streaky. As a defender, you've got to go at him because he takes the easy way out. He's a good fourth option, and on other teams he wouldn't be as valuable ...
Trading for Trenton Hassell was a good move. He'll help them more than Greg Buckner would have. I expected them to get more from Devean George last year, and if he comes through this time around, that could be another area of improvement. I think Eddie Jones is almost done ...
A key guy here is going to be Avery Johnson, who is still a very young coach. What happened last spring was a big -- and apparently necessary -- learning experience for him. Gregg Popovich has gone through rough times in the playoffs too, so let's see how Johnson responds ...
All in all, they'll be the team to beat during the regular season, and then if they bring in that post-up player and incorporate him into the half-court offense, they'll have a chance to beat anybody. Otherwise, I don't think they can get out of their conference during the postseason.
An opposing team's scout sizes up the Mavericks
They could be the team to beat in the West if they get back to how they played during the course of the season last year. During the playoffs, they became too predictable. Avery Johnson did a great job during the year against people who were going in prepared to stop Dirk Nowitzki by not necessarily going to him right away but spreading the ball to guys like Josh Howard and Jerry Stackhouse. But in the playoffs against Golden State, the Mavericks went to too much isolation and that hurt them. They've got to remember that they've got other good players to go with Nowitzki ...
Their weakness is that they need more of a post-up game and they need to get to the free throw line more often. Of course, the two weaknesses are related to each other. ...
But all this year they're going to be pissed about the way it ended a year ago and that's going to help them come playoff time this year. Once they get to the playoffs, they'll remember the priorities they should have during the season, which is that they play very good defense, they move the ball, spread the floor and make themselves hard to guard. When they move the ball, it all works for them. In the playoffs they didn't move the ball; it went to Nowitzki and he was too easy to guard. He didn't play like himself -- he shot 38.3 percent overall and 21.1 percent from the three, and that's just not him ...
The key for Dallas is that when you get into the playoffs and people are stopping your transition game by getting back on defense, you've got to be able to run the half-court offense. The Mavericks struggle in the half-court when they have to play there on a consistent basis. San Antonio and Dallas are the two teams in the West that play at a high level at both ends during the season, and the next step for Dallas is to follow the blueprint the Spurs set during their series with Phoenix last year. Look at how the Spurs defended Steve Nash: They wanted to play him physically and not let him slither through, and if he splits the defense he's going down. You step in looking for that charge, and if you miss the charge then you'd better hit him. Also, whenever Phoenix looked ready to go on a run, the Spurs were calling timeout to stop the momentum and retain control of the tempo. ...
But Dallas did a poor job of getting the pace of the game to what they wanted it and needed it to be. Everyone knows that's Don Nelson's style, that he's wild and that his team struggles against the slower executing style. The only way Golden State could win was to create a pace and have Dallas jump in and try to beat them at that pace. The Mavericks did an awful job of taking a deep breath and making adjustments in the later games: You know, call a timeout and say this is how we're going to create a mismatch, we're going to bring it down and park Nowitzki under the basket -- and we're not going to get caught up playing that tempo. Forget about the matchups for a minute. You've got to get into your style of play. All year long Dallas was such a far better team defensively than Golden State, which doesn't play any defense -- so why wasn't that a factor in this series? If I'd been part of that Dallas staff, I would have felt awful afterward, knowing that we put all this work into defense and Nellie doesn't care about it and in the end it never became a factor. That would have been a hell of a hangover to recover from this summer, I'm telling you ...
Nowitzki took a lot of heat for not carrying the team in the playoffs, but I think the opposite: He didn't rely or trust his teammates enough, to his own fault. I definitely thought he deserved the MVP last year for what he did during the regular season. I wish he played better defense because he could, but I love the way he competes, and in most cases that means trying to include his teammates. The other issue for him this year is playing in the post to help them execute their half-court offense under pressure. Nowitzki is not a good post-up guy with traffic. He's not quick enough getting rid of the ball. He's a very good passer, but once he gets into the post he takes some bad shots. He's forced into a bad shot and yet because he's so crafty, he doesn't get fouled as much as he should because he averts the contact or takes a soft off-balanced hook. Sometimes you've got to simply take it hard to the rim and get fouled. But in a crowd he's too much of a black hole in the post, and he's not physical enough against double teams ...
I bet he's going to come back with a vengeance this year. The question about Dallas is going to be do they have enough stars to go with Nowitzki, but I think they do. Josh Howard is great and getting better, Stackhouse is still tremendous and Devin Harris will be in his fourth year ...
A lot of people have been saying they need to get a new point guard, but I don't think that's the issue as much as they need another half-court finisher up front to play in the low post, even if just for a few minutes a game. I'm talking about a mobile power forward to use as a secondary post-up player, a Juwan Howard type who could play the high-low game with Nowitzki and help steady their half-court offense at times. That's what they might need to put themselves over the top ...
Harris took some heat because he was ineffective defensively against Baron Davis, but he shouldn't have been guarding him. I would have put Howard all over Davis in that series. Let's be fair with this kid: When Harris first came into the league, he wasn't thought of very highly. He came in and surprised a lot of people. Then expectations jumped to the other side like he was on the stock market. For where he is early in his career and what he already brings to the table, I'd love to have him on my team. He plays within himself -- though like a lot of their guys, he didn't do that in the playoffs -- and he's very quick moving both forward and laterally. He may not quite be a true point guard yet -- he doesn't see the floor like he should -- but he's getting there and he's already improved a great deal ...
I know Howard was a replacement All-Star last year, but I see him as a true star in the league who is going to keep improving this year. He plays both ends of the floor, he's hard to guard and he can defend three and sometimes four positions. He's very athletic and he's improved his shooting. He's an excellent free throw shooter and he gets there all the time. He does his share of rebounding at both ends, and he'll come pushing it out of the pack with the rebound because he's improved his handle. Like Stackhouse, he gives them a bit of orneriness; he isn't going to back down. Put him and Harris together as perimeter defenders and they should cause a lot of problems ...
Stackhouse has at least one more really good year in him. He seems charged up to be in that organization. He didn't seem like he wanted to be shopped around as a free agent last summer. He had tremendous numbers, he went to the free throw line quite a bit, he helped on the rebounding and he even shared the ball a little bit, which shows that he's buying into what they're all about ...
Erick Dampier is solid for what they want at center, and DeSagana Diop continues to improve and has a chance to be one of the solid centers in the West ...
They didn't make a lot of moves, which surprised me. I thought they would be more active based on their history and the fact that they were one or two pieces from being the champs. There was a lot of talk that Jason Terry might be moved, and while I don't see him as a great player, he is definitely a good fit for their system. They don't have a specified 1 or 2 man, and he exploits that freedom. He fills the lane and at times he is a terrific shooter, though he's streaky. As a defender, you've got to go at him because he takes the easy way out. He's a good fourth option, and on other teams he wouldn't be as valuable ...
Trading for Trenton Hassell was a good move. He'll help them more than Greg Buckner would have. I expected them to get more from Devean George last year, and if he comes through this time around, that could be another area of improvement. I think Eddie Jones is almost done ...
A key guy here is going to be Avery Johnson, who is still a very young coach. What happened last spring was a big -- and apparently necessary -- learning experience for him. Gregg Popovich has gone through rough times in the playoffs too, so let's see how Johnson responds ...
All in all, they'll be the team to beat during the regular season, and then if they bring in that post-up player and incorporate him into the half-court offense, they'll have a chance to beat anybody. Otherwise, I don't think they can get out of their conference during the postseason.