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I never looked at it that way before. But then again, I've never looked into the Mavs with that much detail.
Amid all the Devean George re-sign news, I keep hearing the same thing over and over "George returns to a very solid (or deep) Dallas bench" and I've gotta wonder just what the everyone is smoking if they think we have a "deep" or "solid" bench in any way, shape, or form.
This bench was so godawful during the majority of the regular season and in the playoffs that I see no way people can say we are a "deep" team. We have 6 good players (Harris, Terry, Howard, Dirk, Diop, Stack) and a gaggle of spares. I'd compare our depth to that of the Suns, meaning we have none.
Stack is a solid 6th man, so I'm not gonna get into his bench contributions. He's a good. The rest of the bench is the problem.
This bench WAS solid back when we had legitimate scoring options like Daniels and Van Horn, along with true defensive stoppers (Griffin) and strong veteran leadership (Armstrong).
Instead we have an overrated defender who bricks everything he throws up there (George), an even more overrated defender who bricks everything he throws up there that we signed to a multi-year deal (Buckner), The Vagina That Wears 25, Austin Combover (probably gone though), and a gaggle of rookies and 2nd year players that Avery isn't gonna play anyways.
Where is this bench strength we keep getting sold to us?
I never looked at it that way before. But then again, I've never looked into the Mavs with that much detail.
and if the Mavs sign a guy like PJ Brown, the bench will be even weaker on the offensive end. Even FA that are out there wont provide much offense off the bench, ie Posey. Maybe a guy like Matt Barnes, Mo Pete would provide offense off the bench. But after resigning Stack and George, I dont see why the Mavs would target a SG/SF now . I dont want anyone to say Zeke, Ager, R. Terry, Barea; those guys are unproven and shouldnt be considered rotation guys
Mavs are fine. That bench is great. Pops Mensah-Bonsu and Juan Jose Barea are young studs with serious potential. Barea is a poor mans Nash/Boykins while Pops was the MVP of the NBDL if I am not mistaken. Backup pg/pf along with inside issues solved. Plus Pops can be the answer to our low post problems if he keeps getting better and better. Add in a tough vet like George and Stack and we are fine on the wings for the bench. Still have Diop along with Ager. Buckner comes in and gives hustle, 3 point shooting, and solid defense. The Mavs can just stand pat. Use more of Ager,Barea, and Pops and the Mavs offseason comes to an end in terms of needs to win a le.
Who are you guys referring to when you say "Zeke"?
Nick Fazekas.
Oh.
Nick Fazekas, this season's "Honorary Big Slow White Guy Who Shoots From The Perimeter To Back Up Dirk". He'll be looking to do at least as good a job as Croshere did for us, which means putting in a solid 4 points a game or so on offense and letting opponents go flying by him uncontested on defense.
I don't know much about Pops or Ager, but I saw a special of Barea a couple days ago. And I kept thinking to myself Dallas got a major steal with this guy. This guy was on fire and can dish out really nicely. I think they said he averaged 27.8 ppg and 7.6 apg in the D-League. No doubt in my mind he can already be a starter for some teams in the NBA.
yea, Barea is a pretty talented player actually. he just needs more time to learn the NBA game. but when he gets more playing time, he has the potential to be a pretty solid NBA PG.
Barea could be a solid back-up, Ager could help, Pops is an athlete, but thats about it. To say anything more than this about these guys if homerism. I like Barea but to say he is a poor mans Nash is far fetched. By the way Im still looking to see Buckners 3pt shooting that everyone has been talking about the past year. Offensively the Mavs bench is weak, if Stack is off which is highly possible, they will struggle to score points.
Zeke is slower than Big Z of the Cavs, if you can believe that. He makes Big Z look like a gazzle
I'm not saying Barea is going to be great, or a starter or anything. But in terms of basketball ability and talent, hes a pretty good talent, especially for someone undrafted.
I was impressed with Barea's court vision in the one game I saw him play in.
I think with how young the bench is, you will see alot more of them during the regular season. Guys like Barea, pops and ager need to get 10-15 minutes a night. We bring in all these young guys who are tremendous athletes, but they never get to play.
I have no idea why we didn't resign Adrian Griffin, he was one of the main reasons we beat SA last year. He was one of the biggest hustlers on the court.
We thought we signed a similar player in Buckner, but he never really worked out for us.
elaborate?
Yeah, that's what I was thinking...he started Game 1, we lost, Devin was inserted into the lineup in Game Two and Griffin got mop-up minutes after that.
Griffin was a key role player during the regular season, one of those guys who does things that don't show up in the box score, but that's as far as it goes.
It especially blows considering he doesn't get off the bench for Chicago.
that's still alot more than what Buckner gave us.
I always liked Buckner his first run as a Mav but damn he sure sucked this past season.
I like some things about Barea, but I'd rather see Harris get big-time PG minutes than see what Barea has (at least for this upcoming season). Although giving Terry zero minutes at PG and giving whatever backup-PG minutes are leftover to Barea might be nice.
I'd really like to see Ager get 15-20 minutes a game. I really think this kid has got something, but he was never allowed to make a mistake by Avery last season. It would be great to see him get all the minutes Buckner usually gets, and just throw Buckner in the D-League where he belongs.
As far as Pops goes, his athleticism amazes me but i've become convinced that he's never going to be a meaningful contributor. I've seen all the Summer League games so far and I don't think I've ever seen a player who is more careless with a basketball than Pops. It's pretty cringeworthy to see him get contantly stripped by guys who are gonna be bag boys at HEB come fall time.
Only problem with this is that Terry is too small to guard big point guards, much less long athletic shooting guards. So if Terry doesn't play point then when we play teams with a big shooting guard we would have to completely bench our 3rd best player.
Not disagreeing...he couldn't guard Wade, but then again, Buckner couldn't guard Davis or Richardson.
I like what i've seen so far out of Rayshawn Terry and Barea...Ager still needs a little work and Zeke just plain sucks...if everyone thinks Dirk's defense is bad you should check this guy out
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