Hollinger may be right about starting Beaubois over Butler and bringing some quickness to the lineup and bringing Butler, JJ, Terry off the bench. Mavs are still too good to count out, but they need to fix whatever problems they have before the playoffs start.
They're 5-6 since their 13-game streak ended and they've been roasted on defense in those losses. New Orleans, New York, Zombie Sonics, Orlando, Portland and Boston all had good offensive nights.
He got plenty of ammunition this weekend for his view that the trade is of the "too little, too late" variety. They're still a top ten team.
Hollinger's calculator has always been broken... no surprises there...
Their 13 winning streak was more of an coincidence than a reflection of their real power. After other teams all realized that Mavs hadn't be improved by the buzzer beating trade, which was once thought as a big upgrade but indeed wasn't anything other than another lateral move. The Mavs didn't get any actual upgrade from that trade, at most they got the coincident 13 win streak as a boost of the trade but it wouldn't help them evade the fated 1st-round exit in playoffs this season. That is the clear truth which is well known to 29 NBA teams and the Mavs are the only team oblivious of their situation.
Lakers
Utah
Dallas, Denver, Phoenix
San Antonio, Portland
Oklahoma City
Them's the tiers. teams within a specific tier have no real ranking, but I ranked them where I consider them to belong in their current state. Suns have played better of late, but mostly at home against good teams and on the road vs. poor teams, and with Lopez out, I think they are the fifth-best team in the conference.
It's wide open. Anyone can come out of the West.
Utah is not a cut above Dallas IMO. I would pick Utah in a playoff series over Dallas if Utah had home court, but I don't think they're a tier above.
LA is not a cut above anyone in the West either based on the way they've played over the last 25 games... but eh, they're still the best, just not by as wide a margin as last year.
San Antonio is on the same wavelength as Dallas when Ginobili is playing like this.
Quite frankly everyone except the Lakers are on the same wavelength as Dallas. I wouldn't be surprised if the Mavs lost in the 1st round, 'nor would I be surprised if they made the WCF.
Utah is a dominant home team and a slightly bad road team. Against +.500 teams, they are 6 points better at home and 3 points worse on the road, that's a 9 pt swing! Dallas is percentage points better at home against winning teams and - 2.6 on the road, a 3-pt swing.
I'm guessing Utah's home edge is that they've always been a physical, dirty team under Sloan and the refs let them get away with more in SLC; the al ude is probably hard to adjust to if it's not a playoff series; and the crowds can be pretty raucous.
As poorly as Butler is shooting the ball, he still needs to be starting. He's doing alot of other things to help the team. He's playing decent defense, and as he realizes his shot isn't falling, he's amping up the effort in the rebounding and steals department. I wish he'd start attacking the basket more, but hopefully he's still just overcoming some ailments which is keeping him from being more aggressive.
The only guy who needs his minutes cut in order to fit in Beaubois is Jet. He's just terrible now. He'll have a hot shooting night every so often, but that doesn't make up for his complete lack of ability to do anything else on the court. Jet's minutes need to be drastically reduced for this team to have a shot.
Unfortunately Carlisle is such a goddamn moron he'll just play Barea more instead of Beaubois.
If he's not hitting shots, he's not helping his team. Butler played great D on Durant the other night and accepted the challenge when Marion went down.
Carlisle is an excellent micromanager of the game and very good preparing his team to take advantage of any possible mismatch. No other coach in the history of the NBA has won such a large percentage of close games as Carlisle. There's so much balance amongst playoff teams this season that the Mavs can very well make a deep run and go all the way, providing they've some luck with the seedings.
Still, it's funny to see Mavs fans eating some humble pie about Hollinger.
Butler attacking the basket more might not necessarily be a good thing. He seems incapable of drawing many fouls in the paint area and has looked to be a subpar finisher.
I swear i could remember a time he had a quick first step... was I wrong? Maybe he did and the injuries took a toll or maybe my memory's off. :P
A few years ago Butler was one of the best finishers at the rim in the league. Now he's a subpar one.
To put numbers in this, 2 seasons ago he made 69% of his shot atempts at the rim. In Dallas he's making 42% of them.
I've never been a fan of Butler. He's always an extremely inconsistent player: with his shooting, the defense, the rebounding. The kind of player you never know what he's going to bring in any given game, quarter or even possession. Lacks concentration skills.
I believe Butler was also part of the cameo Lakers that missed the playoffs in '05.
His playoff experience is basically with a over achieving Miami team in '04 and quick exits with the Wizards. Haywood only have Wizards stints.
What they will bring to the playoffs is another big unknown.
he is pretty much Lamar Odom v2.0 in inconsistency.
Another thing, Haywood is almost as inconsistent as Butler.
nevertheless, Mavs are still as good as Lakers/Spurs/jazz. As long as Kidd plays for them, they are dangerous.
mogro link to stats?
Ive been looking for stats like thsoe and cant find them.
http://www.hoopdata.com/player.aspx?name=Caron%20Butlermogro link to stats?
Ive been looking for stats like thsoe and cant find them.
not sure if that's his source but you can get them there.
This and NBA hot spots.
IMHO it's more like
Lakers
Spurs, Mavs, Suns, Nuggets, Thunder, Jazz, Blazers.
There's no difference between 2 and 8 and if the Lakers keep playing like this for a little longer the West will be wide open.
IMHO, the Lakers aren't in their own tier anymore.
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