Its definitely a matter of perspective. Ask the Timberwolves or the Bobcats if going to the Finals and following up with a 67 win season is failure.
I think the expectations were a bit unreasonable here. Time is what was needed, not haste. The world will never know though......
I don't think Devin is being made the scapegoat for the entire team's problems. Truth be told, they wanted Kidd for what he brought. They were alternately willing to part with Jerry Stackhouse and Devean George as opposed to Trenton Hassell and Keith Van Horn's expiring to get him here. Putting aside salaries and what New Jersey wanted/needed in return, I would've parted with Terry and paired Harris with Kidd as a starting backcourt in an ideal world.
I think Scribb is just saying the Mavs needed a new approach, especially since they had two consecutive historic playoff failures.
IMO, for the Mavs, the real loss is Diop, not Harris. Kidd IMO is a big upgrade over Harris OVERALL. (But then again, I've always liked Kidd's game and never got the hype over the Flopper).
Diop is not that big of loss. Malik Allen has been as equally effective as Diop overall. He brings hard fouls, rebounding, and a mid range shot. He is like what Kurt Thomas does for the Spurs. Lue does a lot of things Harris does in case we need that speedy guard out there.
Diop was great defensively. I've never watched Allen so I don't know, but he doesn't he lack Diop's size? If so, that could hurt in certain matchups, esp in the West. And the Mavs are still relying on the play of Erica for the most part...
Erick Dampier has been awesome. He is clearly better than Diop ever was. Diop is a foul machine and can't score on the other end. With Allen out there, we get much better spacing in the halfcourt and he is a solid defender. He is 6'10 btw so not really undersized.
Allen for 10 minutes a game versus Diop for 10 minutes a game is pretty much a wash. It's not going to be the difference between winning and losing a game, much less a series.
Seriously those that think that Allen is a liability is going to be surprised. He is a much better defender and shooter than I thought. He can drive against slow centers as well. He is a positional defender while Diop tries to block everything and gets a bunch of fouls. He is much better than Bass as a defender.
The improvement in Damp makes up for any possible downside from losing Diop. It opens the window pretty wide if he can keep it up through the playoffs.
Well I disagree with the heart transplant, they needed a head transplant from what I saw. They needed someone who would make the right basketball play at the end of games. Devin will make a great drive to the hoop and force it into duncan for example ...OR...finish...or not..
But he didn't necessarily make the right basketball decisions for the team, he had one speed...fast.... And that's good. He also had plenty of stones, in fact I thought he was pretty unflappable and courageous.
But avery was calling way too many plays when devin was running the team, and he needed to it seemed. When he didn't they struggled. Kidd is going to run the team...period. He'll also usually make the right basketball decision and not the same one every time.
The team has had plenty of "heart" but not a lot of smarts from what I saw and really lacked the ability to take advantage of someone throwing something different at them.
Maybe...I like Malik because he's certainly a big who can shoot and that's always pretty good to have. He does seem pretty rejuvenated. I like him and bass on the second unit with jason, lue, (devean/wright). That group will get after it a little bit (except possibly jet) and they can score.
But guarding the bucket..and getting the tough rebound...I'm not so sure about Malik. We'll see. I like him better as a center than Bass, but I liked having Diop in there when needed, we'll miss him I think.
Well I haven't seen him put it on the floor at all, but that's okay. He's really a good spot-up shooter. So if he can play some decent center minutes (if you think small-center) he's a good.
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