Offseason Grades: Southwest Division

[Culburn369]

"Once the playoffs start, however, all bets are off."

tee, hee.

[Findog]

Dude. I always thought you were just ACTING dumb. Here's the 411. Marion has 3 NBA skills. He can rebound, although that was inflated like his scoring in Phoenix's system. More shots = more available rebounds. He can run a lane on the break. He can (or at least used to be able to) shoot the three pointer. THAT'S IT. He's nowhere NEAR the calibur of talent of a Lamar Odom. Shawn Marion couldn't create anything for himself or anyone else, not even a bowel movement if you spotted him a box of prunes.E]

Shawn Marion can't defend multiple positions????

[Findog]

A spurs fan talking about injuries?? Weird...

Marion imo, is going to be a perfect addition to the mavs. They've added a guy who doesn't need the ball at all to make an impact to a team that has a lot of guys who can get their own shots off. (Dirk, josh, jet). If they had brought in a guy who needed the ball that would have meant less shots/touches for those guys.

They swapped out Antoine Wright's minutes for Shawn Marion's. I fail to see how that is not an improvement.

One issue I'm having is who is the ending 5 on the team? Jet, Josh, Jkiddo, Shawn and Dirk?? Or does Gooden finish and either jet/josh sit.

The other one is whether Josh can play the two effectively. I think he can and if he can sit jet down at the end of games...watch out imo, but I think that will be interesting to see what happens.

I'm guessing the starters are as follows:

C - Damp
PF - Dirk
SF - Marion
SG - Josh
PG - Kidd

Depending on matchups, I guess they go small at the end of games with this lineup:

C - Dirk
PF - Marion
SF - Josh
SG - Jet
PG - Kidd

If Dampier has to be on the floor in crunch time to guard another team's big, like Howard, Duncan, Gasol, whomever, then I would imagine it's musical chairs between Jet, Josh and Marion as to who sits and who is on the floor at the end of the game. Will most likely depend on the matchups, who's hot, etc...

[monosylab1k]

I don't like the small lineup at the end, and I don't like Josh in at the end of games.

I'd go

Gooden
Dirk
Marion
JET
Kidd

Defensively we're going to be exposed no matter what, but this at least gives us great rebounding.

[Culburn369]

Mavs are a much more credible threat to the Lakers than New Orleans

yes, look how the Mavs got their credible all over the Spurs just a few months ago!

Like you know, WOW!

[Muser]

If Gooden is the C then Dallas are going to get murdered in the paint.

[Shastafarian]

Stop being a sucker for just a second. Jefferson's best is no where near what Marion has to offer. The rest of your post is not worthy of me replying. Marion will do for the Mavs what Odom does for the Lakers.

You sure do have a fascination with male genitalia. I'm gonna stop replying to you though because you're either baiting (congrats on being one of those people) or you're just a complete idiot. Marion will do for the Mavs what Odom does for the Lakers? Bwahahahahahaha.

[eisfeld]

Mavs Grade being lower than the hornets one is ridiculous. Nobody knows how well the major changes in Dallas turn out, but besides the Spurs they are the team which should have improved the most.

[Culburn369]

I'm gonna stop replying to you though

Luva just hung Shasta's scalp upon his teepee lodgepole.

Good capitulation, Shasta. Ya puny thing, you.

[exstatic]

Shawn Marion can't defend multiple positions????

Well, he's not 25 anymore. Phoenix saw that, and went after Raja Bell a few years back. Marion couldn't check Ginobili or Parker anymore. He's a serviceable to good defender, but he's not elite anymore. Hasn't been for some time.

If you want to add "serviceable defender" as a skill, I'm down with that. Just subtract "three point shooter", a skill that seems to have totally evaporated since he left the Valley of the Sun.

[Shastafarian]

Luva just hung Shasta's scalp upon his teepee lodgepole.

Good capitulation, Shasta. Ya puny thing, you.

It gets me nowhere to reply to people who bait like you two do. If you guys actually wanna talk about basketball lemme know. If you just wanna see how many people you can piss off then I don't really need to reply do I?

[Culburn369]

It gets me nowhere to reply to people who bait like you two do. If you guys actually wanna talk about basketball lemme know. If you just wanna see how many people you can piss off then I don't really need to reply do I?

LOL! It's natural progression, Shasta:

1. Mavs kicked your ass.

2. Lakers lodged #15.

3. Your ass got booty hurt.

[DUNCANownsKOBE2]

There was a time that Marion's value in this league was worth more than Odom's, which is why he got that inflated contract.

No, Bryan Colangelo is why he got that inflated contract.....same person responsible for Stephon Marbury's contract. BC wrote the book on over paying player.

[DUNCANownsKOBE2]

With that said, Marion can do what Odom does as a role player, but he'll never be able to lead a 2nd unit like Odom does.

[Muser]

What's the special treat Laka?

[DUNCANownsKOBE2]

Answer this. Has Odom ever reached the level of play that Marion has?

No, but IMO it's not that simple.

Number one, Odom has always dominated Marion in H2H matchups. When they are both giving a 100% effort against one another, Odom clearly has the advantage.

If Odom hustled as much as Marion did during the regular season, he'd be able to put up 20 10 numbers like Marion used to. The difference is Odom coasts through the regular season.

[DUNCANownsKOBE2]

Jefferson does not have the all around game that Marion does.

Agreed.

[sribb43]

None of ingrams articles have credibility. This is the same guy who said matt carroll should get a chance to start at the sg spot bc jho can't play that position. There is no reason why jho can't be as affective at sg especially on the offensive end. Not mentioned Gooden in a offseason grade article is another fail by ingram
Spurs A+
Mavs B+
Hornets C+
Rockets D
Memphis. Irrelevant

[dude1394]

None of ingrams articles have credibility. This is the same guy who said matt carroll should get a chance to start at the sg spot bc jho can't play that position. There is no reason why jho can't be as affective at sg especially on the offensive end. Not mentioned Gooden in a offseason grade article is another fail by ingram
Spurs A+
Mavs B+
Hornets C+
Rockets D
Memphis. Irrelevant

Are you serious?? Matt Carroll??? Every night at the AAC I was just waiting for the dude to make any sort of impact. Nada, nothing, never. He made all of 1!!! 3pointer. Singleton was a better 2 guard than Carroll was.

Wow...

[Shastafarian]

You seem to like me under your skin...

You don't get under my skin. You're more like a mosquito. Sit right on top of the skin and make fun of gay people.

[Basketballgirl25]

I don't know why people think Dallas got better this offseason and will be 2 or 3 in the west. Yeah Marion is a good add for them, but besides him. I don't think they got any good players to help them get better. If they added a player like Vince Carter I'd say they got way better, but with Marion I don't think they got all that much better, since all the players are getting older in age, I don't think they will do good like people say. If they could have kept Brandon Bass I think they would be much better so I think what they got as a grade is good as of now

[Culburn369]

You don't get under my skin. You're more like a mosquito. Sit right on top of the skin and make fun of gay people.

Shast, sweetheart, I see you over there, push button Zebco in hand, bait in the water!

[Rodriguez]

I don't know why people think Dallas got better this offseason and will be 2 or 3 in the west. Yeah Marion is a good add for them, but besides him. I don't think they got any good players to help them get better. If they added a player like Vince Carter I'd say they got way better, but with Marion I don't think they got all that much better, since all the players are getting older in age, I don't think they will do good like people say. If they could have kept Brandon Bass I think they would be much better so I think what they got as a grade is good as of now

repe iously you have been chanting the Mavs haven't got any significant improvement in this off-season but no valid proof has been heard from your beak to support your viewpoint. It was definitely a remarkable move for Donnie to trade several craps for a proven star in Marion, even though Marion has shrunk a lot through recent years but there's still no doubt Marion is still a star level player, or at least should be an awesome attachment to a team which is already built pretty well. Surely the Mavs still have some flaws to fix, but it's bound to be a cushy job for Donnie to bring in some other decent players to replace the craps as Donnie still has got some preferable exprings at hand, like Buck and Damp. Your words just rambled through a circle chain orbiting a clear fact --- You are an idiot.

[Findog]

I don't know why people think Dallas got better this offseason and will be 2 or 3 in the west. Yeah Marion is a good add for them, but besides him. I don't think they got any good players to help them get better. If they added a player like Vince Carter I'd say they got way better, but with Marion I don't think they got all that much better, since all the players are getting older in age, I don't think they will do good like people say. If they could have kept Brandon Bass I think they would be much better so I think what they got as a grade is good as of now

This troll sucks. Whoever is behind this should be ashamed at the lameness.

[Rodriguez]

This troll sucks. Whoever is behind this should be ashamed at the lameness.

That tart isn't someone's troll IMHO, she is just exactly as stupid as she appears to be with her foolish writings. Anyway it's uneasy for a smart person to pretend re ed, if someone manages to do that then he'll probably win an Oscar for the best performance in a leading role, like Tom Hanks first Oscar for Forrest Gump.