I was thinking about this the other day. Does another team torture its fanbase with such torturous ends to its seasons? It's one thing to lose and for your season to end when you don't have a realistic shot at winning a le, but I think the team itself and its fans have had those expectations for the past three years.
- Losing in the Finals is bad enough. Then it melted away through a combination of referees and their own inepi ude. A team like Cleveland can call their season a success because they made it far enough to get drilled by the Spurs. On the other hand, the Mavericks went further that year than they ever have, they beat their nemesis along the way, and yet somehow that season is regarded as a mark of shame and something for which they have to apologize.
- Then you come back and have one of the greatest regular seasons of all time. I know, I know, "it's the playoffs that matter" and that's a lesson that we learned emphatically. It's just that dominating like that for 6 months raises reasonable expectations of a championship. So not only do you suffer the humiliation of losing to an 8 seed*, but you were arguably the best team in basketball over a two-year period, and you have nothing but a lone Finals appearance to show for it.
* It doesn't matter that the Warriors pulled off a major trade that made them much better, their starting backcourt missed a combined 50 games that year, their success this season has validated what they've done since they acquired Stephen Jackson, nor does it matter that there wasn't a talent gap between the two teams worth 25 games in the standings. It will always be a humiliation, and it will long be remembered as the greatest upset in NBA history.
- They come back after THAT and decide not to play with enough urgency to start the season, and get off to a slow start and lose to a bunch of teams that they normally beat. Only problem is that the West becomes as tough and compe ive as its ever been, and it's possible to be BOTH 2 games out of the top seed and 3 games out of the playoffs. Those early-season losses to the weaker teams loom larger than they should have. They finally start rounding back into the team that we expect them to be, but then their starting PG goes down, they start losing games again, and they decide to pull the trigger on a risky trade in response to moves made by other West rivals. They struggle to adapt to their new floor general, the players appear to tune out their coach, and their franchise player goes down with an injury during the final stretch run to the playoffs. They barely miss out on the postseason as a result.
Those are three very distinct nutpunches. This team makes me sad.
It gets worse. The Hornets, Lakers and Jazz have emerged as young teams on the rise. There's no reason to think they won't continue to contend. The Spurs won't be going anywhere with their Big Three and their well-managed cap. Oden will be strengthening the Blazers next year. Yao returns to the Rockets and the Suns probably have one more year after this one with their nucleus. The Celtics and Pistons should be around for a while, while it wouldn't take much help for LeBron to vault the Cavaliers from being merely a good team to elite status. And given that even with Kidd's contract coming off the books, we'll still be tight against the cap with Dirk/Josh/Jet/Damp/Stack, I don't see what can reasonably be done to retool this thing into an elite le contender again soon.
Last edited by Findog; 03-29-2008 at 01:57 AM.
It's too bad that overreactionary management decides to break up every team before it can develop some playoff experience as a unit. The fetish for marquee names doesn't help either.
The season ain't over yet. They need to nut the up and go to work, but that team can run and play defense well enough to compete with anyone if they make smart decisions and get some confidence.
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/b...ck.html?ref=rss
The Nets are still a half-game behind the Hawks in the race for the final playoff spot in the East. But they've won five of their last eight games and are starting to resemble the kind of team everyone thought they'd be this season, even if it may be too late.
So how over the first 3-1/2 months of the season did the Nets end up in a hole they may not be able to dig themselves out of?
As far as Richard Jefferson is concerned, the team was distracted by the situation surrounding a certain former teammate.
"I'm not going to lie," Jefferson said Thursday, "we were dead men walking with the Jason Kidd situation."
Jefferson was referring to Kidd's desire to be traded from the team, which the future Hall of Fame point guard made public in late January, the day after the Nets had lost a ninth straight game.
However, Jefferson confirmed yesterday what many had already known, that Kidd's unhappiness with the team was a not-so-well-kept secret inside the locker room. Jefferson said that made it difficult for the Nets to concentrate on priority No.1 - advancing to the playoffs for the seventh straight year.
Now the team's postseason streak is in jeopardy, as they have just 10 games left to leap over Atlanta, starting with tonight's game in Indianapolis. Considering the margin between the Nets and Hawks, that may not seem like such a tough task, but Atlanta has a more favorable schedule than the Nets, who play the Suns at home on Saturday and still have five road games left after tonight.
"Everybody knew it was time and that he needed a change and that he wanted a change," Jefferson said of Kidd, who was granted his wish when he was traded to the Mavericks on Feb. 19. "People made it seem like it was only like that when he went public. No, that situation had been going on all season, but it was behind closed doors."
The Nets have gone 8-11 since the Kidd trade, which also sent Antoine Wright and Malik Allen to New Jersey in exchange for Devin Harris, DeSagana Diop, Trenton Hassell, Maurice Ager and Keith Van Horn (who is inactive after coming out of semi-retirement to make the deal work financially). But after a six-game losing streak that threatened to sink the Nets, they've gone 5-3 to stay in the thick of the race.
With Harris playing point guard, they've scored more than 100 points six times in the last eight games - including 117 against Utah, 125 against Cleveland and 124 on Wednesday against Indiana, all home victories. Jefferson's only regret is that he, Harris and Vince Carter couldn't have been hooked up sooner so that the transition period didn't conflict so much with the final playoff push.
Jefferson explained that the early-season struggles also had to do with the fact that the Nets just weren't "clicking" like the team that had made it to a pair of NBA Finals and was consistently in contention for a division le.
"That didn't happen this year just because we didn't have that resolve," Jefferson said. "And now that we're starting to get it I just hope that we have enough time."
Now ask yourself. What did Cuban really buy??
I'm not even going to lie to you but I somehow hope Dirk ends up with Lebron on the cavs or Kobe with the lakers. This guy needs a big time player that can help him and Jason Kidd is not the answer
some highlights-lowlights of the mavs in the last few years:
Going down 0-2 to the rox, then beating the first yr tmac-yao duo with a monster 7th game
Making it to the finals winning the first 2 games by an avg. of 12 pts, only to lose 4 str8 painful games and lose the series.
winning 67 games last yr, only to lose in the 1st round to the 8th seed.
This year--kidd trade was horrible, coaching is in question, injuries to Dirk, tough western conference--may miss the playoffs altogether.
Where do you go from here?
We jump off the bridge.
I hope we miss the playoffs and end up with Kevin Love. He was available at the 14th pick in most mock drafts, but with his play in the tourney, he's gotten himself into the 9-11 range. If we could get him, and package Howard for a legit 2-guard, a Michael Redd or Joe Johnson, get Eduardo Najera with the MLE, and then resign Antoine Wright to take over for Josh at SF, I'd be ecstatic.
Firing Avery and getting another coach is probably an imperative as well.
No way you get Joe Johnson from Atlanta. I think Atlanta keeps Joe Johnson>Josh Howard.
Maybe not for Howard alone, but there are rumors he wants out.
Too bad Howard can only be traded once. I like any trade involving Howard for Brand or Howard for JJohnson
Of course the Hawks have a glut of swingmen assuming they resign their own Joshes, so one of them would have to be out of the picture for them to take Howard.
The front office is in turmoil. Josh Smith is due a big payday. Josh Childress will make some nice money too. Marvin Williams rookie contract will be up after next year. Mike Bibby is on the books now for another year.
And as good as Joe Johnson is, he's way overpaid. I think they'd move him in a heartbeat if the right deal came along. The question is if Dallas has the right pieces to make that deal.
We'll take Howard off your hands. The Big Three are off limits though!
I think there's a good chance JJ will be available this summer. What it takes to get him is another story, as mono stated.
One thing in Dallas' favor is that Joe Johnson is more a natural 2-guard, Childress is better suited at 2-guard, and Josh Smith/Marvin Williams both seem out of place at the 3. They really don't have a true natural small forward. Josh Howard would fit nicely.
How does the CBA work when trying to sign a Restricted FA, since both Josh Smith and Childress are RFA? Dallas can't just sign somebody to an offer sheet, they have to do a s-n-t for any FA.
I'm not sure really, but I'd love to have any one of those 3 guys. Joe Johnson fits the big SG who is a fearless shooter and drives the ball, Josh Childress is a great defender and slashes & moves w/o the ball very well (great fit with Kidd), and Josh Smith is a straight up bad ass but his maturity level is an issue.
That would be nothing new for us, since we've been dealing with Josh Howard.
Bump. Yes it does really suck to be a Mavs fan. RIP the years the Mavs were championship contenders 2002-2007.
Bump. Yes it does really suck to be a Mavs fan. RIP the years the Mavs were championship contenders 2002-2007.
I don't think those early teams were really contenders, no defense at all. But they were going to be a top 5 team in the league, year in year out. I still don't know why we pushed the panick button. We were 1 in the west before Devin went down. We were not bad at all. For all the stalling and mediocrity, we were on a 57 win pace!!! Goooooddd
The Mavs were just as much of contenders this season with Devin Harris as they are right now.
Let's not forget that Dirk mentally checked out halfway into the year, and didn't come back to life until the Kidd trade happened.
The Mavericks should've tanked this year and taken their chances in the lottery.
True, but as silly as this might sound some of it was by design, I actually even remember that he said at some point that he didn't want Dirk in attack mode just yet. Avery wanted to firmly estabilish Josh as a scoring threat in the first half, he was even taking more shots than Dirk. Looking back that was probably the most idiotic thing Avery ever did, it made Josh think he was something he was not and completely f'ed up our offense even more.
However the way the team was playing in January, combined with the way Dirk was playing down the stretch you have a top 2-3 team in the west and a legit contender, which with Bass has no problems against smallball teams like Golden State.
Don't worry Mavs fans when Mark Cuban sells the team you will win your rings, I'm convinced that the Mavs should have won their rings in 06. Stern gave that series to Dwyane Wade imo
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