RS 23/24 - Mavs @ Magic (Tonight)

[Mavrelous]

They just crowded the paint with bodies against Orlando, because they couldn't hit anything from outside in second half. Orlando is making only 10 3s per game anyway. SAS is a young inexperienced team and were clueless how to close the game. Problem is, how you defend good teams, who can score in the paint and from the 3 points range?

You lose...
DEN showed very clearly, DAL isn't a top tier team, they lack size, length and athleticism, anytime DEN tightened their defense and focused on offense, they got the stops and scored, but how many teams like that are there really? DEN, BOS, Bucks theoretically, but Dame isn't hitting anything.
Mavs couldn't defend anyone last year, any time, they couldn't get any stops in the clutch, and gave up leads like crazy.
The goal isn't to win all right now, but develop Lively as a drop coverage big paired with good POA defender (now DJJ, hopefully Green learns not to bite on pump fakes and navigate screens), so that you can defend the P&R well, develop respectable switch defense, something close to what the Mavs had in the WCF run, in the non Lively minutes, and develop offensive cohesion where Luka doesn't pound the ball for 18 seconds in 90% of the possessions, and other players get into rhythm and be more involved,and Luke will be fresh at the end of games and can focus on the ISO when Mavs need buckets desperately.

Giving up ~70 points halves to SAS and ORL is bad, giving up 36 1st qtr to offensively inept Grizzlies was also bad, but in all 3 games, they recovered later, Brooklyn had insane shooting night, and against the Bulls, they won despite bad game by Luka.

Are they the 1st quarter team or the 4th? We'll see, Raptors (good rim pressure team, streaky shooters), Clippers (supposedly good team, but inconsistent) and Pelicans (score both inside and out) are coming up, we'll know more then.

[daoneandonly]

They just crowded the paint with bodies against Orlando, because they couldn't hit anything from outside in second half. Orlando is making only 10 3s per game anyway. SAS is a young inexperienced team and were clueless how to close the game. Problem is, how you defend good teams, who can score in the paint and from the 3 points range?

You lose...
DEN showed very clearly, DAL isn't a top tier team, they lack size, length and athleticism, anytime DEN tightened their defense and focused on offense, they got the stops and scored, but how many teams like that are there really? DEN, BOS, Bucks theoretically, but Dame isn't hitting anything.
Mavs couldn't defend anyone last year, any time, they couldn't get any stops in the clutch, and gave up leads like crazy.
The goal isn't to win all right now, but develop Lively as a drop coverage big paired with good POA defender (now DJJ, hopefully Green learns not to bite on pump fakes and navigate screens), so that you can defend the P&R well, develop respectable switch defense, something close to what the Mavs had in the WCF run, in the non Lively minutes, and develop offensive cohesion where Luka doesn't pound the ball for 18 seconds in 90% of the possessions, and other players get into rhythm and be more involved,and Luke will be fresh at the end of games and can focus on the ISO when Mavs need buckets desperately.

Giving up ~70 points halves to SAS and ORL is bad, giving up 36 1st qtr to offensively inept Grizzlies was also bad, but in all 3 games, they recovered later, Brooklyn had insane shooting night, and against the Bulls, they won despite bad game by Luka.

Are they the 1st quarter team or the 4th? We'll see, Raptors (good rim pressure team, streaky shooters), Clippers (supposedly good team, but inconsistent) and Pelicans (score both inside and out) are coming up, we'll know more then.

Yea 3 tougher matchups for sure. DJJ has played hard and well, but the starting SF spot is still the weak link on this team. DJJ is too limited offensively to fill that role, and Green so far has proven he's nothing but a 10th man on a playoff team.

[dirkforpres]

But personally really want to see Holmes and Omax to have some playing time on court. Basically we traded Bertans for them, but for now, they are buried on the bench, just like Bertans. So what exactly we want to achieve for the trade.

That trade also gave us use of the full MLE.

OMax wont help us this year, as hes not even close to being ready to take any minutes from Grant, DJJ, or Green.

I agree with you on Holmes though. I think he should be getting at least a couple minutes per game. Problem is that the Mavs havent had the luxury to be able to test out the end of bench guys yet because all of the games have been close. Maybe that changes tomorrow, but regardless you probably shouldnt expect much from Exum, OMax, or Holmes

Sadly enough we didnt use the full MLE. OMax, IMO is the best combination of length/strength/energy/athleticism that we can have in our whole roster.

Well to their credit, they tried to use it on Thybulle. Omax is way too raw to play this year. He needs G league minutes

[BeiBeau]

Mavs being 6/1, while having soft schedule, are still very bad in all team defensive stats.

- 19th in DEF RTG.
- 24th in DREB%.
- 23th in BLK.
- 27th in STL.
- 26th in OPP POINTS PAINT.

DEF RTG will probably go down with more difficult schedule. But the most worrying part is, Mavs are worse this year in DREB% and OPP points PAINT. 2 areas that were the most problematic last year.

Through 168 first half minutes, Dallas is the 29th rated defense. And in the 2nd half they’re 6th. Whether its locking in to start, getting the young guys going, rotations minutes, energy, or buy in, if Dallas can fix that 29th in defensive rating in the first half and bring it to around 15th then they could actually be a legitimate threat in the west. And clearly they’re capable of defending or they wouldn’t have a great defensive rating in the 2nd half.

Fixing the 1st half defense alone is the difference between a 2 seed and a 6 seed.

[Michaellam1987]

That trade also gave us use of the full MLE.

OMax wont help us this year, as hes not even close to being ready to take any minutes from Grant, DJJ, or Green.

I agree with you on Holmes though. I think he should be getting at least a couple minutes per game. Problem is that the Mavs havent had the luxury to be able to test out the end of bench guys yet because all of the games have been close. Maybe that changes tomorrow, but regardless you probably shouldnt expect much from Exum, OMax, or Holmes

Sadly enough we didnt use the full MLE. OMax, IMO is the best combination of length/strength/energy/athleticism that we can have in our whole roster.

Well to their credit, they tried to use it on Thybulle. Omax is way too raw to play this year. He needs G league minutes

Then we need to continue to withstand the poor rebounding and paint defense, especially when Lively is out of the game due to foul trouble.

[dirkforpres]

Sadly enough we didnt use the full MLE. OMax, IMO is the best combination of length/strength/energy/athleticism that we can have in our whole roster.

Well to their credit, they tried to use it on Thybulle. Omax is way too raw to play this year. He needs G league minutes

Then we need to continue to withstand the poor rebounding and paint defense, especially when Lively is out of the game due to foul trouble.

Backup 5 needs to be an area that gets addressed with the next trade. Someone like Zubac would be ideal, but even if we target a player like Marvin Bagley or Isaiah Hartenstein, this team could reach new heights

[Bob8]

Mavs being 6/1, while having soft schedule, are still very bad in all team defensive stats.

- 19th in DEF RTG.
- 24th in DREB%.
- 23th in BLK.
- 27th in STL.
- 26th in OPP POINTS PAINT.

DEF RTG will probably go down with more difficult schedule. But the most worrying part is, Mavs are worse this year in DREB% and OPP points PAINT. 2 areas that were the most problematic last year.

Through 168 first half minutes, Dallas is the 29th rated defense. And in the 2nd half they’re 6th. Whether its locking in to start, getting the young guys going, rotations minutes, energy, or buy in, if Dallas can fix that 29th in defensive rating in the first half and bring it to around 15th then they could actually be a legitimate threat in the west. And clearly they’re capable of defending or they wouldn’t have a great defensive rating in the 2nd half.

Fixing the 1st half defense alone is the difference between a 2 seed and a 6 seed.

You have to take soft schedule into consideration. We have this rtg against pretty average teams. I kinda doubt that Mavs' second half D will stand against elite teams.

[BeiBeau]

Mavs being 6/1, while having soft schedule, are still very bad in all team defensive stats.

- 19th in DEF RTG.
- 24th in DREB%.
- 23th in BLK.
- 27th in STL.
- 26th in OPP POINTS PAINT.

DEF RTG will probably go down with more difficult schedule. But the most worrying part is, Mavs are worse this year in DREB% and OPP points PAINT. 2 areas that were the most problematic last year.

Through 168 first half minutes, Dallas is the 29th rated defense. And in the 2nd half they’re 6th. Whether its locking in to start, getting the young guys going, rotations minutes, energy, or buy in, if Dallas can fix that 29th in defensive rating in the first half and bring it to around 15th then they could actually be a legitimate threat in the west. And clearly they’re capable of defending or they wouldn’t have a great defensive rating in the 2nd half.

Fixing the 1st half defense alone is the difference between a 2 seed and a 6 seed.

You have to take soft schedule into consideration. We have this rtg against pretty average teams. I kinda doubt that Mavs' second half D will stand against elite teams.

I understand and agree with your premise on some level. Dallas has really only played 1 top tier team. And not really trying to find a silver lining but, Denver beat Dallas 24-40 in the 1st quarter, Dallas then beat or tied Denver for the next 3 for a total score or 90-85. So on some level this trend of 1st half Dallas being terrible, and 2nd half Dallas being good enough to play with the best team in the league held true for that 1 game.

The other place where I disagree is that with the exception of Boston, Denver, and maybe Minnesota. I don’t see major differences between LAL and the Spurs right now in terms of on court ability. Same thing out East I don’t see much of a difference between Orlando and Atlanta. Those teams have a difference in pedigree and experience but that doesn’t always matter that much. For example, the grizzlies have great pedigree with 2DPOYs, another all star, 2 straight season with 50+ wins, a playoff series win, and a history of playing great without Ja. And yet there the worst team in the league. There just isn’t as much that separates the bottom from the top anymore.

Those of us who grew up watching this game where remember the days where the league didn’t have enough talent to support 30 teams so it was possible to have 9+ 50 win teams. But now every team has good players who can play winning basketball.

[41Dirk41]

He makes in on the court because he is consistently one of the better options at the 5. Mathematically last season when Dwight was at the 5 Dallas was at their best. Better than if Wood, Maxi, or McGee were at the 5.

Again that is not a good thing, he was the worst starting center in the league. This season Lively has fortunately firmly taken the starting job. But Dwight was still outplaying Maxi at the 5 before Maxi’s injury.

Dwight is the best of a very bad situation. But the bad situation is not his fault.

Come on, nobody here think that Powell has some faults.
He is just a professional basketball player and does what his coach tells him to do.
Honestly i feel embarrassed to specify it.

He reminds me some players in the first stint LeBron-Cavs like Booby Gibson or other scrubs
Mario Chalmers too

They played winning basket, yes of course...because a generational talent played in their team

If you actually didn’t blame Powell you would be more than capable of complementing Powell when he has a good game or makes a good play. But you have never done that so don’t pretend now that you have no problem with him.

Don’t back pedal. You don’t like Powell, that’s fine but own it. Don’t pretend now that it’s always been about the coaching staff and FO.

Neither his mom will let him play in NBA games, seriuosly.

You like Powell so it's a your problem because he sucks at basketball.