WTF..since when can Terry guard quick PG's...Hollinger is a moron![]()
Has this been posted? Forgive me if I missed it.
PER Diem: Feb. 25, 2009
Parker's big night just another example of how much the Mavericks miss Terry
By John Hollinger
Tony Parker 66, Dallas 54.
It's amazing but true -- while he was on the floor, one player accounted for more points than the entire opposing team.
Parker did it last night in San Antonio's 93-76 win over Dallas. He had 37 points and 12 assists, plus five of his dimes accounted for 3-pointers -- a total of 66 points. Meanwhile, in the 37 minutes that Parker played, the Mavericks scored only 54 of their 76 total points.
So Parker not only generated more points than the Mavs … he did so by double digits. It was one of the most amazing performances of the season, made even more incredible by the absence of teammates Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili -- Parker was a one-man band and the Mavs still couldn't stop it. He scored or assisted on all but 13 of San Antonio's points when he was on the court to lead the Spurs to a shockingly easy win.
Of course, every coin has two sides. As incredible as Parker was, his performance was also illustrative of some problems on the other end, and in particular Dallas' struggles in the absence of Jason Terry.
Here's the thing about measuring player performance in basketball: results are always partly dependent on the other players on the floor. This is true for any statistical measure, but it's especially true when we start measuring on-court vs. off-court performance.
Tuesday night's game offered a great example. Dallas's point guard, Jason Kidd, has one of the best on-court vs. off-court plus-minus differentials in the league. (OK, that was a mouthful. What it means is that Dallas scores more points than it surrenders with Kidd on the court than when he's off it.)
However, part of the reason for his unusually strong numbers in this respect is that the Mavs have had other players to cover his weaknesses. In particular, Terry does two things Kidd can't: reliably make open jumpers to keep defenses from cheating on Dirk Nowitzki, and defend opposing point guards who are too quick for Kidd.
Alas, Terry is out with a broken hand. And last night, we saw a good example of what happens with his subtraction. Kidd had the worst plus-minus mark of any Mav, at minus-19, while the absence of Terry allowed the Spurs to suffocate Nowitzki with multiple defenders and permit the likes of James Singleton and Antoine Wright to fire away from distance.
But where Terry's absence was felt most was at the defensive end. Like I said, Kidd struggles against quick point guards -- and Parker is about the quickest point guard in the league.
That continues a trend that's been apparent since Terry went out. Since losing him early in the Chicago game, Dallas has played five games against quick point guards and two games against a team with no point guard (Sacramento); in the two Sacramento games he had the same huge plus-minus he's had all season, but in the others it wasn't pretty: Kidd was a minus-nine in an OT win over Chicago (facing off against Derrick Rose), minus-nine in a home loss to Boston (Rajon Rondo), plus-21 in a 15-point win over New Jersey (Devin Harris), minus-11 in a loss to Houston (Aaron Brooks), and minus-19 against Parker last night. That's minus-27 in five games in which the Mavs as a whole were minus-15.
While this hardly cons utes damning evidence -- game-to-game plus-minus data is extremely variable and thus requires large samples to reach scientifically valid conclusions -- I believe in this case the numbers on Kidd underscore a larger point.
He's been able to register such gaudy plus-minus numbers precisely because the Mavs had the personnel in place to offset his two greatest weaknesses. (This was symbiotic, by the way; Kidd also offsets Terry's greatest weaknesses with his court vision and ability to defend bigger players). Minus his key enabler, however things have quickly gone to pot.
That said, I don't expect opposing point guards to outscore the entire Dallas team on a nightly basis. What Parker did last night was singular and incredible, and worthy of praise regardless of the opponent. But Terry's absence does lay bare a major vulnerability for Dallas, and if he doesn't return soon I suspect it will cost the Mavs a playoff spot.
WTF..since when can Terry guard quick PG's...Hollinger is a moron![]()
Terry did a good job on CP3 in games 3 and 4 last year.
Terry gives a better shot against quick PG's than Kidd, but our perimeter defense is atrocious regardless.
I've always thought that Terry was the most dangerous offensive player on the Mavs. When JT and Dirk plays that two-man game.....they are a tough cover and without him last night it made Dirk easier to defend by the Spurs.
Its not that much about terry being good, its the mavs playing like crap lately and TP being a beast as usual.
Should the Mavs have traded Devin for Kidd? Has anyone ever chimed in on this?
Could it be that the Mavs are playing poorly due to Terry's absence?![]()
Parker's big night just another example of how much the Mavericks miss Harris
fixed.
Devin Harris once played for the Mavericks?
When do we start piling on the Suns for giving up Rajon Rondo?
I never said giving up Rondo wasn't re ed.....plenty of Mavs fans on this site claim the Kidd trade was smart.
Can you find some quotes from any Mavs fan besides Ghazi where they said that was straight up smart?
When did I say it was straight up smart? I just said it was lateral on the basketball court.
Alright well this makes my argument look better then?
Can Duncan's ownsmyMouth find any quotes?
They don't straight up say it was smart, but there are some Mav fans who try to use "doublespeak" and try to somehow sort of justify it in a twisted way.
Aaaaaaaaand we have another one of "those" threads. Awesome.
I didn't realize that !
nope, becuase they were a 7th seed then, and an 8 seed now. They suck more at this point but it isn't relevent. Dirk is in a slump atm , when he gets out of it they will play a lot better.
Maybe you didn't say it was smart, but I remember you saying something about the fact the Kidd trade is the only reason Terry and Dirk were having the year they were having, you said this around December and January I believe.
What I'm saying is there shouldn't be a question in anyone's mind that the Kidd trade hurt Dallas overall, just like the Rondo trade for the Suns.
...and part of that also has to do with Josh Howard just basically out there ing around for 30+ minutes a game. Even Skip Prosser couldn't bare to stick around to watch what he's become.
exactly.
I loved the trade when it happened, and while I don't still love it now, I'm okay with it. Losing the draft picks is what bothers me more than losing Devin for Kidd. Kidd is far from the problem, and while we lost speed & athleticism, we gained a ton in terms of smarts and toughness. Maybe not an even trade, but our play at PG has at least been more consistent with Kidd.
You have to have some seriously low basketball IQ to think that Devin Harris could do what he's doing in New Jersey right now in Dallas. That would mean severely limiting the amount of touches for Dirk, JET, and the rest in order to have The Devin Harris Show, which has proven to still not be a playoff contender in a still weak Eastern Conference.
This post made me realize why there's so much hostility towards someone saying they were dumb to trade Harris.
As far as THIS season goes, Kidd helps them more than Harris, sorry if I was unclear about that. By no means do I think Dallas would be a contender if they had Harris instead of Kidd. The Kidd trade did have a positive immediate effect that we're still seeing this season.
Of course Harris wouldn't be putting up these numbers on Dallas, that's a given, sorry if I ever said otherwise.
The reason why I view the Harris trade as dumb is because it didn't address their most pressing need and although it improved them, it gave them new problems and it didn't do enough to make them a contender, similar to what the Shaq trade did with the Suns.
So basically, what I'm saying is, Dallas was not a good enough team at the time to be sacrificing the future for the present.
I remember someone mentioning if George didn't do that veto KVH's contract could've been used on Mike Miller. Is there any truth to that? Or just speculation.
If so, Devean George.
The Kidd trade was a mistake, in fact a substantial one. It is held up on this board as an all-time blunder, however, and it is most certainly not.
It's not even the worst move the Mavs FO has made in the last year IMO. I'll take the Kidd trade over blowing the MLE on Diop.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)