Mavs will be ok

[badfish22]

lol This team would be better with Harris. Not saying they would be favorites. Josh Howard has been trying to get traded ever since Harris left. His best buddy leaving was like trading Harris and Howard for Kidd. 9-8 in the last 17 games. What a great point guard we have.

you dumb . Kidd has been playing even better than usual lately

[mavsfan1000]

you dumb . Kidd has been playing even better than usual lately

He played awful tonight. He's ing stagnant on offense. They ing just left him wide open to shoot a 3 and he couldn't do it. He is a big part of our laziness actually. He acts like he doesn't care. I've never seen anyone make so much useless stats. He does get a lot of assists but also a lot of turnovers. He can't slash to the basket. An occasional low post move is about it. I don't know why you have to defend him all the time. Our team is playing like and he is supposed to be the one that makes the difference. He doesn't. Heck I would be interested to see how this lineup would do. We did better with Terry as a starting point guard embarrassingly.
Terry
Ross
Marion
Nowitzki
Dampier

[ulosturedge]

I would "lol" but our team is looking even tier. You know if the Mavs could play the Spurs every round of the playoffs including the finals they would probably win a Championship. But unfortunately that's not possible.

[badfish22]

He played awful tonight. He's ing stagnant on offense. They ing just left him wide open to shoot a 3 and he couldn't do it. He is a big part of our laziness actually. He acts like he doesn't care. I've never seen anyone make so much useless stats. He does get a lot of assists but also a lot of turnovers. He can't slash to the basket. An occasional low post move is about it. I don't know why you have to defend him all the time. Our team is playing like and he is supposed to be the one that makes the difference. He doesn't. Heck I would be interested to see how this lineup would do. We did better with Terry as a starting point guard embarrassingly.
Terry
Ross
Marion
Nowitzki
Dampier

you don't understand basketball

[mavsfan1000]

you don't understand basketball

Yes I do. You can't have a point guard that can't score and expect to do well. Terry has his flaws as well but at least he can shoot. Harris could drive and get a lot of steals. Also the hustle plays from Harris was the biggest intangible to this team. Getting loose balls, rushing someone on a shot, having players respect your offense and don't leave you, and etc. And Howard was still giving his all at that time as well as Harris was his best buddy. Ever since then Howard has checked out mentally as he and Kidd aren't good friends. Another thing that doesn't show up in the stats. Kidd also seems to slow the tempo a lot. Way too slow compared to what the team used to do with Harris. He's just not fit enough I guess to play at the right tempo or always it has to with protecting the ball as he is not as good at dribbling.

[Ghazi]

Mavs have a faster pace today than they did 2-3 years ago... dunno what youre talking about.

Howard/Terry have regressed over the past few years... Kidd is not the problem here.

[Ghazi]

Also, are you trying to excuse J-Ho's tiness because his best buddy left?

J-Ho's regression was happening while Devin was still here.

[mavsfan1000]

Mavs have a faster pace today than they did 2-3 years ago... dunno what youre talking about.

Howard/Terry have regressed over the past few years... Kidd is not the problem here.

There's no way Kidd can bring the ball up as fast as Harris did. Giving the ball up to the player farthest up court is the most Kidd can do. He can't outrun anyone. I think forwards can guard Kidd. That's how slow he is now. It's not like Kidd doesn't have talent around him either. Kidd just needs to make things happen. Passing the ball from the 3 point line and waiting isn't enough. But really Howard thrives in a fast pace game. Without it, he is pretty useless. Not many of those opportunities for easy baskets for him as of late or since Harris left. With Kidd, it's either a super runout or a super slow half court offense that gets stagnant. Similar to the New Jersey Nets but without the defense the Nets had.

[HarlemHeat37]

The Mavs are 19th in pace this year..they were 28th in 2006-2007..they're significantly faster right now..

Kidd shoots 40.5% from 3s on 4.6 attempts, which is very good..what's the problem?..

He's also averaging 9APG despite having 7% less individual possessions than Harris did in his last year in Dallas..

Harris obviously has the advantage defensively since he was a really good 1 on 1 defender in Dallas, while Kidd is obviously too slow nowadays..

You're a Mavs fan, so you obviously know more than I do about your own team, but the stats don't really back up your claims..

[Ghazi]

There's no way Kidd can bring the ball up as fast as Harris did. Giving the ball up to the player farthest up court is the most Kidd can do. He can't outrun anyone. I think forwards can guard Kidd. That's how slow he is now. It's not like Kidd doesn't have talent around him either. Kidd just needs to make things happen. Passing the ball from the 3 point line and waiting isn't enough. But really Howard thrives in a fast pace game. Without it, he is pretty useless. Not many of those opportunities for easy baskets for him as of late or since Harris left. With Kidd, it's either a super runout or a super slow half court offense that gets stagnant. Similar to the New Jersey Nets but without the defense the Nets had.

Youve bashed the Mavs team before but now say Kidd has talent around him?

Kidd lacks offensive talent on this team with the way JET/Ho are playing... Marion is not great offensively anymore... neither is Damp. bench has some nice offensive players like Barea/Gooden but with marginal impact.

This team is lacking talent in some key areas...

[badfish22]

You're a Mavs fan, so you obviously know more than I do about your own team, .

Wrong on both claims. Hes a bulls/Harris fan, and you know more about the Mavs from watching them play a few times a year than he does.

[Xevious]

I would "lol" but our team is looking even tier.

Smart man. The Spurs are embarrassing right now.

[mavsfan1000]

Wrong on both claims. Hes a bulls/Harris fan, and you know more about the Mavs from watching them play a few times a year than he does.

And you're a Kidd fan. Thus you are blinded by his faults and what he is incapable of doing which are crucial parts to running a team.

[badfish22]

Yeah I'm sure Harris would be doing a lot better righ............

Ohh hes injured again

http://www.nj.com/nets/index.ssf/201...to_have_m.html

[Basketballgirl25]

Similar to the New Jersey Nets but without the defense the Nets had.

funny you say this I kind of find the Mavs like Nets a few years ago. Not the years they made the finals. Those teams were just the best I'd put them over Dallas with Kidd, but from 2004-2006, Nets were good just not good enough to win it all. I think same with Mavs unless they make a trade

[mavsfan1000]

funny you say this I kind of find the Mavs like Nets a few years ago. Not the years they made the finals. Those teams were just the best I'd put them over Dallas with Kidd, but from 2004-2006, Nets were good just not good enough to win it all. I think same with Mavs unless they make a trade

Even prime Nets relied a ton on their defense. They were not offensive juggernauts but could run very well off of turnovers or quick shots. In the half court, Kidd just isn't the ideal point guard to have. The main thing is he isn't an offensive threat. Teams can play off him and it's like 4 on 5.

[Basketballgirl25]

Even prime Nets relied a ton on their defense. They were not offensive juggernauts but could run very well off of turnovers or quick shots. In the half court, Kidd just isn't the ideal point guard to have. The main thing is he isn't an offensive threat. Teams can play off him and it's like 4 on 5.

Oh I know Nets relied on a ton of their defense back then. I'm just saying I'd put Kidd and Nets in 2002 and 2003 over Dallas Mavs and Kidd this this Dallas Mavs in more like Nets from 2004-2006 or so. They might be good, but not great

[Indazone]

Rocketsfan starts a Mavsthread. Has frozen over?

[LOL@MavsFan]

LOL Mavs

[stretch]

Even prime Nets relied a ton on their defense. They were not offensive juggernauts but could run very well off of turnovers or quick shots. In the half court, Kidd just isn't the ideal point guard to have. The main thing is he isn't an offensive threat. Teams can play off him and it's like 4 on 5.

and if they play off of him, he busts their ass from three, whereas you could play off of harris just to stop him from driving, and suddenly he was far more useless than Kidd on offense.

[Findog]

Devin Harris sucks. I can't believe the Mavs won the trade:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/bal...urn=nba,215556

The premise, the ideology, was correct. The Nets won the trade that sent Jason Kidd(notes) to Dallas.

They acquired a very good, borderline All-Star, point guard. The enjoyed some payroll relief and pulled in two first-round draft picks. Jason Kidd won't be playing in a few years, Devin Harris(notes) will be. And he'll be playing well. They won the deal.

Without actually winning anything, though. They won the ideology battle but lost the basketball war. Because after turning in a near All-Star campaign last season, Devin Harris decided to take 2009-10 off.

And Jason Kidd? He decided to turn it all around.

Turned the tide, more accurately. Kidd is still averaging a career-low in points. And though he's clearly taking plays off, Devin Harris is still averaging 15 points and about six assists for the 3-40 Nets.

But the deal? The one that appeared so clearly and obviously wrong for Dallas from the outset? We were wrong about it. It didn't matter that Kidd was royally abused by Chris Paul(notes) in the playoffs immediately following the trade, and it didn't matter that Harris clearly trumped Kidd last season by any meaningful measure save for, yeah, playoff success and a statistical formula that the Mavericks use that we're not privy to.
What matters is expectations. And how we need to get better at realizing that these humans take games off. That while the overwhelming majority of them follow the same standard career arc, we can never accurately adjust for players suddenly giving two wits.

Kidd, in his last few go-rounds with the Nets, tanked quite a bit. He didn't play as hard as he could have. He let Vince Carter(notes) dominate the ball (which, back then, was actually a good thing). He took plays off. He feuded and fought and demanded a contract extension and indirectly forced us to be aware of his marital issues and generally acted like a prat.

With the Mavericks? He's St. Jason. The weirdness that was his coincidental bout of "personal reasons" keeping him out from Sunday's Knicks game played in the town he used to live in, aside.

Harris? He took off last year, freed from Avery Johnson's steely grip. This season? He's just taking it off.

He's certainly not as loutish as Kidd, and his non-basketball foibles won't make the back page any time soon, but he's not nearly the player he was last season. Injuries have a lot to do with that, no doubt, but just watch this guy in a screen-and-roll (either working or defending one). There's no attack there. He's just going through the motions, waiting for this miserable season to end.



The problem with that is this doesn't have to be a miserable season for the Nets. It can merely be "pretty awful." Harris doesn't want to take that next step. The result? We're soon to hit February, and the Nets have won three times. Pinning it all on Harris? No way. And you certainly can't blame him for acting uninspired. Money can't buy you love. But he is the only Net who could clearly do something about this embarrassing run.

Kidd's the bigger issue here, though. This guy runs an absolute clinic most nights. The Dallas offense isn't among the league's best, and it certainly isn't nearly as flashy or fast-paced as the Suns or Warriors attacks, but you can tell Kidd is pushing his teammates and this roster to the absolute limit.

He just makes the perfect pass. And in a way that doesn't rack up numbers the way someone like Chris Paul does. I'm not calling him a stat hog, but CP3 does run a show that seems to credit him with every score, whether by awarding him points or dimes. Kidd's ability to locate slashers and shooters at the absolute perfect time is almost without parallel, and that includes the fine work his former teammate, Steve Nash(notes), is doing out of Phoenix.

These are things that can't be ably rewarded with assists, a supreme assist-to-turnover ratio (which he has, while we're at it), pure point rating, assist ratio, or even the myriad vagaries of adjusted plus/minus. Know why? Sometimes those teammates don't hit the shots. But they don't even get a shot off if Kidd doesn't nail them at the absolute perfect time. It's a game of centimeters and milliseconds, and Kidd's eyes just see levels of complexity that we mortals can't understand.

And then his hands and wrists do something about it. And all within a mediocre (13th ranked) offense, mainly led by an superstar who usually does his best work in an isolation situation that doesn't require an immediate helping hand from Kidd. And you don't talk about Kidd getting beat on defense any more. He's still probably slower than just about any point guard in this league, but he's not getting beat. Why is that? Where's the adjustment? How impressive is it that he was able to change so severely?

This guy turns 37 in two months. Steve Nash turns 36 in two weeks, by the way. What a time to be a fan.

My original point to this post, I must confess, was ably usurped by the fantastic Rob Mahoney at The Two Man Game (while quoting Thoreau, no less). Last week he put together a phenomenal presentation highlighting what I'd hoped to write about Kidd, words that were preempted and made useless by this must-watch video.



Everything about this guy just screams perfection. And think about who he's tossing to! How do you think someone like Erick Dampier(notes) feels when Kidd tosses him a lob? This guy hadn't been on the receiving end of an alley-oop since the first Clinton Administration, though he's quite able. So how chuffed do you think this makes him? Why wouldn't this guy, after tossing it down, want to get back and board and bang like a beast? What do you think this does for a team? The effect might be calculable, the evolution never stops and one shan't underestimate the potential of the human race, but I'm certainly not the guy to do it.

Again, the Mavs aren't the best offense. Kidd isn't the best point guard. He's not even the best old point guard we have in this game.

But he's worth lauding. We should really treasure the way this guy is playing, while being mindful of how it could have run along those same lines during his last few years in New Jersey. While pointing out that Devin Harris just doesn't seem capable this season of rising above what must be a profoundly depressing situation.

And above all, it's worth pointing out that this game never stops teaching us new things.

[mavsfan1000]

and if they play off of him, he busts their ass from three, whereas you could play off of harris just to stop him from driving, and suddenly he was far more useless than Kidd on offense.

Only if you leave Kidd wide open. A little pressure and he misses. He does only take good shots but he isn't a good shooter. Any slight pressure and he misses. He has days where he can't hit anything as well. Only shooter worse than him is Howard. Until this team actually does anything great with Kidd, I'm convinced we need to go another direction and get more athletic. The main thing is Harris's driving ability allowed for more open players. Kidd standing at the 3 point line and passing to everyone is not going to make their shot that easy unless that team is really bad or stupid. But hey why not put Kidd at the 2 guard as you are mentioning good traits for that? We need a guard that forces double teams.

[Basketballgirl25]

Devin Harris sucks. I can't believe the Mavs won the trade:

I disagree

Devin Harris might suck, but Mavs haven't won the trade yet, Nets haven't either so. Trade was a tie for both teams so far. Unless Mavs won a le that no one knew about, but don't think they did. That's why they made the trade in the first place to win it all they haven't done that so no trade was won by the Mavs yet, there is still hope Nets will do something good, doesn't have to be with Devin Harris could be something with Mavs draft pick this draft

Nets and Mavs both haven't won anything yet.

[mavsfan1000]

I disagree

Devin Harris might suck, but Mavs haven't won the trade yet, Nets haven't either so. Trade was a tie for both teams so far. Unless Mavs won a le that no one knew about, but don't think they did. That's why they made the trade in the first place to win it all they haven't done that so no trade was won by the Mavs yet, there is still hope Nets will do something good, doesn't have to be with Devin Harris could be something with Mavs draft pick this draft

Nets and Mavs both haven't won anything yet.

Exactly. But I think Harris would be more inspired and come in better shape in camp if he was here. On a sorry Nets team, he is just not interested. And what exactly is keeping us from being a great team if Kidd is as great as the article makes him out to be?

[badfish22]

Exactly. But I think Harris would be more inspired and come in better shape in camp if he was here. On a sorry Nets team, he is just not interested. And what exactly is keeping us from being a great team if Kidd is as great as the article makes him out to be?

I always at the people who use that excuse