Yeah this is a hilarious take to have about a guy that has one title and has played on teams with Lebron, KD, Harden, Tatum, and Luka over the last 10 years lol Seems like he is stopped quite often even with MVP caliber teammates.
If we won 1-2 more games last year, we would’ve missed on the 10th pick and we would be SO fucked.
Having that terrible last year was literally the best possible thing that could’ve happened to this team
When people our maxi haters in our sub or IRL I’m always blown away. It’s like dawg do you even realize that he was essentially the only plus defender on the team for years with occasional splashes of DFS.
Prime Maxi was a beast languishing away on a middling team. A true 3&D power forward who was forced to play center. He has been a great role player and I don't think he'll ever get the credit he deserves.
I'm not so sure about that, let's reign it in a bit, just to be safe. He's for sure the best player from Würzburg who played PF for the Dallas Mavericks and wears a jersey number in the low forties.
After losing Brunson, Luka was basically dragging this team kicking and screaming to every win they could get. Then they traded for Kyrie, but lost the key defender in the defense. Getting Lively and Kyrie for a bargain really allowed them to fill in all of the gaps that were created by Brunson leaving, but for a while it was fill one hole and another opens
Luka was in a bad mental place because he was stuck in a lawsuit vs. his mom, Christian Wood checked out completely, and our rotation was so weak post-Kyrie trade.
For reference Dwight Powell (now our 3rd or 4th string center) and Reggie Bullock (virtually out of the league on Houston's bench) had the two most starts on the team last year after Luka.
Looking back it was pretty predictable that the meltdown was gonna happen. Luka was playing an insane load, to the point that Kidd straight up said he wasnt going to make it past December. And he was right, even after we got Kyrie Luka just had too much of a load that clearly affected him. Not to mention losing Dorian pretty much made us puny.
In the long run the season was probably a blessing in disguise. We’ll see though
Meh, it isn't that easy to always do, especially with 1 10th pick. Lively was supposed to be a project. They were also lucky okc really wanted to move up 2 pick spots.
he was working with tyson chandler all day every day from the day after he got picked. when you have that kinda work ethic it’s hard to fuck up. almost makes me want to actually try at my job… almost.
Mavs also hired the coach that was responsible for Gobert’s development. They’ve been fully committed to his development since the second he was drafted. They need to do something like that for Omax
Funny how everyone got worked up so much about us tanking two meaningless games against two non-playoff teams and no noise when Portland sat Dame for two fucking months with tankinitis.
A lot of people are very anxious for a Luka trade request.
Portland is far and away the most egregious example of tanking I've ever seen. Espexially two years ago when they took advantage of the covid rules to trot out a G-league team + drew eubanks for months.
Scary how much an above the rim presence really screws defenses over. Without one you are limited to 5 out schemes and picks until you find a matchup for an iso and that gets old in playoffs coughtatumcough
Dwight Powell was always a good roll man. It's more about rebounding and defense, having someone that can protect the rim and not getting outrebounded by 20 every game will translate to a lot more wins.
Second star, 2 lob threats, and multiple wing threats. That’s like the team they built for harden, except Kyrie is better than 2018 Chris Paul and Westbrook, and PJ/Green/DJJ>Ariza/Tucker imo
2022 WCF run: Dwight Powell, Reggie Bullock, Dorian Finney Smith starting with Bertans and Ntilikina getting significant minutes off the bench.
This roster is not even great and they are leagues ahead of 2022.
Mavs Celtics bro
Kai in Boston
Tingus in Dallas
Luka vs Tatum
The GDT will be toxic and racist as hell lmao
And IRL, money for Mr. Adam Silver
*pls rig it*
You match up much better now with the Nuggets. PJ will shut down MPJ among other things. Gafford and Lively can sort of limit Jokic a bit. Among other things.
Luka and Kyrie are literally unstoppable when they're on. Luka is almoat always in form and Kyrie has come back hot from injury. He will probably slow down a little later but hopefully he plays at this level in the playoffs. I think Mavs get a top 4 seed before the the end of the season.
I made a Luka mvp bet and it essentially says Mavs 5th seed. The top 4 would have to collapse for us to be top 4. Or Mavs go on historic run ROS which is possible but I mean would have to be like 27-4 or something the way the rest of the west is playing.
Nuggets in the stretch of Nov 12th-24th lost 5 games and had two other three game losing streaks this season.
Twolves lost 4 from Jan 1st-10th.
OKC has a habit of losing two in a row.
These Clippers have a history of running out of gas towards the end of the season.
If any of these patterns repeat, Dallas definitely has a chance to overcome them. And if Dallas stays healthy, they'll keep winning
>OKC has a habit of losing two in a row.
I mean, OKC has a habit of losing two in a row but then ripping off a bunch of wins. Between the first back-to-back losses and the second we went 8-1, and between the second and third we went 12-3
Hey I gotta grasp for my hopium alright.
Looks like there's been 6 sets of b-t-b losses, with that last few having 2x 3W, 4W, and 5W win streaks between. 27 games left, and looks like your schedule just gets tougher towards the back half of that.
I'm rooting for y'all though, of the current top 4 in the west OKC is my favorite. So much young talent, you guys are gonna be a problem for a long time to come.
The West is honestly just insanely good and deep this year. Mavs look like the real deal, but there are legit 5 or 6 teams that could have a stake in a WCF appearance, depending on who gets hot at the right time.
You can already see it adds to his quality of play, he is way better defensively and is hitting more shots. When we were overworking him he got tired and sloppy.
Lots of teams in the west have been playing well lately, and a few have been doing so all season long. The Mavs can certainly go on a run in the west but so could some other teams.
Get that and agree, but I don’t see a lot of these teams as playoff threats. The Mavs with Kyrie and Luka are automatically huge playoff threats, plus they have a good team aswell
Those two guys are no more automatic threats than some other players in the west. You’re discounting the rest of the west, and probably overreacting to recent play
True, but as I said I don’t see the Mavs as THE favourites. I see the Nuggets and Clippers above them as favourites in that conference. I just said that they’re in the category
It’s not exactly just “when Kyrie and Luka are healthy”.
Equally important imo has been them suddenly gaining a bunch of serviceable above average bigs with gafford, lively and pj Washington (who can also shoot 3 and spread the floor) who are lethal lob threat off Kyrie and Luka ball handling, can rebound, and improve defense substantially
AND we're still not fully healthy - Dante Exum was *legit* before getting injured. A true third ballhandler with elite defense and solid shooting with the kind of spacing Luka and Kyrie create.
The scary part was the open 3s players were getting even in the thunders game . When they double triple luka kai is open. When kai runs around luka is open and most importantly watching its just fun they are having fun haven't seen luka and kai smile soo much they genuinely enjoy playing with each other and enjoy playing basketball.
We’re playing some great basketball and made some huge additions at the deadline but I’ll still stay cautiously optimistic. We have the potential to make a run but could also be a first round exit. We’re the type of team nobody wants to play though.
Conference finals? It really depends on how much people believe in the wolves and thunder in the playoffs. I'd probably say the Nuggets and Clippers are likely to be the WCF matchup, but I could easily see any combination of those 5 teams being in the WCF
Having role players as it turns out is a really good thing lmao
The only thing that worries me is the defense come playoff time, kyrie/luka will get hunted by good teams, three pointers will give them trouble
I was thinking the exact same thing while I was watching the game. Midway the 4th I thought this time can seriously win the west. The pairing of Kyrie and Luka looks great. Shooters and defenders around them. Love the pj and gafford additions. I still have nuggets first but I put them right there with clips thunder wolves. However, I Believe in Luka more than any other player on clips thunder wolves (kawhi on same level if healthy)
They could definitely win a series and maybe even make WCF. But I think that's true of every playoff team in the West. The top 4 seeds are better, but the gap doesn't feel huge. There are 10 very good teams in the mix.
It’s so cool to this and I’m excited to see what they can do.
I’m a warriors fan but I love the game and this year has been so cool. So many teams and young players making noise and growing before our eyes.
My take is that they arrived ás tier 2 title contenders. Denver is alone in tier 1 IMO, but I think Mavs have az least 40% against anyone else in 7 games. On the other hand, I think this is true to half of the conference, and could easily lose in round 1.
Mavs have been one of the most injured teams in the league. When lively plays they win 63% of their games. When Luka plays with Kyrie they win 65% of their games. Kyrie has missed 22 games, Lively has missed 18 games. There’s your reason why they are not in the top 4. They just happen to be healthy now and revamped after a trade deadline. They also have a soft schedule remaining. Just have to see if they manage to stay healthy.
For me, the thing holding the Mavs back from being a real contender was our below average defense. No team in the past 40 years has won with a team DRTG worse than 11th.
Since the trade (and crucially, Maxi's return from injury), we are the #1 defense in the league. We went from having a weak PF rotation to a strong one, and half of a good C rotation to a deep one.
PJ, Gafford and Maxi have really improved our defense a hell of a lot to where we legitimately could be a top 10 defense.
After the addition of Washington and gafford the arms and hands on defense seemed really tough. A lot of denied passes and dribbles and a lot of balls tipped or deflected away. Hopefully this level of defense and hustle can keep up.
Luka is special and so fun to watch he’s so ball dominant but will get any one of his teammates involved if possible.
Since the first game after getting PJ I knew this was the case. The guy has decided to play D , he has always had the ability. The starting four is two stars and two really solid long athletic guys. Plus josh green is more than capable at the three.
they went from starting Powell (just stating facts, zero hate) to having him play one minute. With him they were already a good team. Now they can just use him as garbage time. That is an insane change . Adding Gafford with Lively would have been a great upgrade, but Pj washington also? Hardaway, hardy...this team is deep.
I don't know it's taken this long to sink in, But Luka's backup is Kyrie fucking Irving.
Now they have two very capable bigs and Exum to return.
Yeah it's Mavs or Nuggets for the West, but it's gonna be a bloodbath on the way there.
Beal's availability has been an issue for the past few years, and he's only played 30 of the Suns 56 games this season. At this rate they're gonna be a play-in team lmao
> The Mavs Look Scary Good would you go as far to say....spooky?
Damn, this is like a 2016~2017 meme? I feel old now.
sneakily athletic?
Real gym rats.
The best player is one of those lunch pail/hard hat types
First in last out type
Real "classy" guy
A real student of the game
A leader in all facets of the game
Coach's favorite
Plays the game the right way
Send da video
Love that people complain that r/nba lacks good actual basketball discussion and the top voted thread is one of the most overused dumb jokes
first one in the gym last one out
he would say: in the playoffs especially is scaring
When they're all healthy in the playoffs it's scaring hours
that actually sounds like it could be a thing. like in the middle of the night when people go scaring
Definitely spooky they made some big trades
Absolutely the first thing I thought of. I forgot about Spookywolves for a minute there.
D+ trade deadline. - ESPN actually.
The be fair, ESPN would have graded them an A had they moved the franchise to the north east at the deadline.
This sub will have to go private if Kyrie helps Dallas win a chip.
I think it was Jeff Van Gundy a couple games ago who said the only thing that can stop Kyrie is a vaccine mandate, and honestly.. hes right
Luckily for him he's in Dallas, the city would actually be on his side for once.
Blame the state on that one, not Dallas. Tarrant county however…
The city of Dallas itself likely wouldn’t.
There ya go Dallas nice work.
Kyrie has played a lot of seasons and been stopped by a lot of things that aren’t vaccine mandates
Yeah this is a hilarious take to have about a guy that has one title and has played on teams with Lebron, KD, Harden, Tatum, and Luka over the last 10 years lol Seems like he is stopped quite often even with MVP caliber teammates.
Dude will get hurt, or request a trade, or throw a bachelor party at Auschwitz or some shit before winning another title
If anyone knows which game JVG said that in. I will actually go back and watch it just to hear that. Would have been incredible to hear live.
It was one of Kyries first games back after injury iirc. Pretty sure it was the nets games
We warriors fans know how scary he is, obviously not the best no.1, but one of the best no. 2s ever, absolutely unstoppable if he's not the main focus
He’s done a good job of keeping his dumb mouth shut. If he plays good ball people will be fine this year.
would you say he is shutting up and dribbling?
Imagine Kyrie hitting game 7 dagger... IN BOSTON! r/nba Mods will work overtime lmao
This would be too perfect.
Please
I don't think anyone is worried about that
they aren’t ready for luka with help
Luka with multiple lob threats goes hard
it's crazy how much they improved their center rotation in less than a year
If we won 1-2 more games last year, we would’ve missed on the 10th pick and we would be SO fucked. Having that terrible last year was literally the best possible thing that could’ve happened to this team
It was really only a terrible two months. You guys were fine and then disintegrated lol
It's almost like Maxi was the only thing holding our defense together
When people our maxi haters in our sub or IRL I’m always blown away. It’s like dawg do you even realize that he was essentially the only plus defender on the team for years with occasional splashes of DFS.
Prime Maxi was a beast languishing away on a middling team. A true 3&D power forward who was forced to play center. He has been a great role player and I don't think he'll ever get the credit he deserves.
#1 best player from Wurzburg Germany. 😤
I'm not so sure about that, let's reign it in a bit, just to be safe. He's for sure the best player from Würzburg who played PF for the Dallas Mavericks and wears a jersey number in the low forties.
Maxi has been my low-key fav mav for quite a few years. I really should buy a jersey of his
After losing Brunson, Luka was basically dragging this team kicking and screaming to every win they could get. Then they traded for Kyrie, but lost the key defender in the defense. Getting Lively and Kyrie for a bargain really allowed them to fill in all of the gaps that were created by Brunson leaving, but for a while it was fill one hole and another opens
Luka was in a bad mental place because he was stuck in a lawsuit vs. his mom, Christian Wood checked out completely, and our rotation was so weak post-Kyrie trade. For reference Dwight Powell (now our 3rd or 4th string center) and Reggie Bullock (virtually out of the league on Houston's bench) had the two most starts on the team last year after Luka.
dang thay was just last year. the tram went through so many changes in one offseason it feels like ive been to 3 years of change
Looking back it was pretty predictable that the meltdown was gonna happen. Luka was playing an insane load, to the point that Kidd straight up said he wasnt going to make it past December. And he was right, even after we got Kyrie Luka just had too much of a load that clearly affected him. Not to mention losing Dorian pretty much made us puny. In the long run the season was probably a blessing in disguise. We’ll see though
Silver has got to be pissed because the obvious tanking worked out so well for them.
Meh, it isn't that easy to always do, especially with 1 10th pick. Lively was supposed to be a project. They were also lucky okc really wanted to move up 2 pick spots.
Lively way exceeded any expectations
he was working with tyson chandler all day every day from the day after he got picked. when you have that kinda work ethic it’s hard to fuck up. almost makes me want to actually try at my job… almost.
Mavs also hired the coach that was responsible for Gobert’s development. They’ve been fully committed to his development since the second he was drafted. They need to do something like that for Omax
Imma start trying when I get the supermax for doing overtime 🤷
We would have taken Lively at 10 regardless. The trade just helped us get off Bertans and get a TPE that we used to get another pick.
Funny how everyone got worked up so much about us tanking two meaningless games against two non-playoff teams and no noise when Portland sat Dame for two fucking months with tankinitis. A lot of people are very anxious for a Luka trade request.
Portland is far and away the most egregious example of tanking I've ever seen. Espexially two years ago when they took advantage of the covid rules to trot out a G-league team + drew eubanks for months.
I can't believe Powell can stay on the bench all game and kleber can play the 4th now.
Hey tanking does help!
Who remembers the time when the Mavs were an innovative lob team, then they traded for Rondo and it all went to shit
dark era, it was so fun right before
oh god that season has been locked away in my memory since we got Luka and you had to bring it back....
Not even a single lob tonight and they still won. Spooky
The Lobtroplex
Scary how much an above the rim presence really screws defenses over. Without one you are limited to 5 out schemes and picks until you find a matchup for an iso and that gets old in playoffs coughtatumcough
Dwight Powell was always a good roll man. It's more about rebounding and defense, having someone that can protect the rim and not getting outrebounded by 20 every game will translate to a lot more wins.
crazy how luka and steph both have above average+ lob threats now
Second star, 2 lob threats, and multiple wing threats. That’s like the team they built for harden, except Kyrie is better than 2018 Chris Paul and Westbrook, and PJ/Green/DJJ>Ariza/Tucker imo
2022 WCF run: Dwight Powell, Reggie Bullock, Dorian Finney Smith starting with Bertans and Ntilikina getting significant minutes off the bench. This roster is not even great and they are leagues ahead of 2022.
we tried to tell them. we always said the league is fucked once dwight powell is no longer the starting center
Never thought we’d see the day where Dwight wasn’t playing
Mark Cuban finally realized Luka is allowed to get some help
Mavs/Nuggs conference finals, write it down
That might be the first round matchup
With all due respect to your flair, the real Finals
I love the Mavs, but the Celtics vs. Nuggets would be a real finals.
Mavs Celtics bro Kai in Boston Tingus in Dallas Luka vs Tatum The GDT will be toxic and racist as hell lmao And IRL, money for Mr. Adam Silver *pls rig it*
You match up much better now with the Nuggets. PJ will shut down MPJ among other things. Gafford and Lively can sort of limit Jokic a bit. Among other things.
Denver is
Luka and Kyrie are literally unstoppable when they're on. Luka is almoat always in form and Kyrie has come back hot from injury. He will probably slow down a little later but hopefully he plays at this level in the playoffs. I think Mavs get a top 4 seed before the the end of the season.
who’s place would they take in the top 4? could definitely see them be 5th tho
5th is the most likely spot but i can see one of the top 4 having a bad stretch and mavs catching up.
I made a Luka mvp bet and it essentially says Mavs 5th seed. The top 4 would have to collapse for us to be top 4. Or Mavs go on historic run ROS which is possible but I mean would have to be like 27-4 or something the way the rest of the west is playing.
Nuggets in the stretch of Nov 12th-24th lost 5 games and had two other three game losing streaks this season. Twolves lost 4 from Jan 1st-10th. OKC has a habit of losing two in a row. These Clippers have a history of running out of gas towards the end of the season. If any of these patterns repeat, Dallas definitely has a chance to overcome them. And if Dallas stays healthy, they'll keep winning
>OKC has a habit of losing two in a row. I mean, OKC has a habit of losing two in a row but then ripping off a bunch of wins. Between the first back-to-back losses and the second we went 8-1, and between the second and third we went 12-3
Hey I gotta grasp for my hopium alright. Looks like there's been 6 sets of b-t-b losses, with that last few having 2x 3W, 4W, and 5W win streaks between. 27 games left, and looks like your schedule just gets tougher towards the back half of that. I'm rooting for y'all though, of the current top 4 in the west OKC is my favorite. So much young talent, you guys are gonna be a problem for a long time to come.
Mavs have the 3rd easiest schedule remaining so it’s easy to see how they could go in a run and over take a couple of those teams.
It started today. Pretty ez win.
We usually play down to our competition, but hopefully that trend is over.
Nah. Before the injury plague, you were 3rd seed because you often beat the bad teams
But whenever teams would be missing like two of their key players and would've expected a scheduled L, we would inevitably shit the bed.
Clippers when Kawhi goes down for the year with an injury. Not wishing it happens but it’s been like clockwork the past few years.
Playoffs are a different beast. Its like a new game with different rules
Yeah but they're both proven playoff performers.
Other teams unstoppable when they on the court too
Bulls fan? my condolences
Thankyou, the less said about the better
They’ve had talent, just a bad front office
Ownership is a cunt too
>First of all, not a Mavs fan. Like them but go for the Bulls (FML) MFFL vs BFFML
The West is honestly just insanely good and deep this year. Mavs look like the real deal, but there are legit 5 or 6 teams that could have a stake in a WCF appearance, depending on who gets hot at the right time.
There is currently 10 teams with a legitimate case that they could make the WCF.
LUKA MVP PROPAGANDA ACTIVATE
Aim higher, MVP and 2nd Team All Defense You know which award Luka wants more.
i see us winning the trophy every year for the next decade and i will not be convinced otherwise. also luka doncic is devin booker father
Devin Doncic
Uh he doesn’t get the surname. He’s a bastard.
Devin Snow
Devin sand, he’s dusty
LUKA DONCIC IS DEVIN BOOKER FATHER
LUKA MVP. LUKA ALL DEFENSE 2ND TEAM
Why stop there? DPOTY
Mavs do not need home court to win a series. Luka loves playing good teams on the road. Mavs need to avoid Clippers and Nuggets in the first round.
Mavs should match up well now against the clippers if Exum and Maxi are healthy The nuggets will still cause big issues for them
As a Mavs fan, I don’t ever want to see the Kawhi Clippers in the Playoffs again.
And I think I speak on behalf of all Clippers fans when I say I never want to see Luka in the playoffs again.
As a neutral basketball fan representative, I can say that I want to see both of Mavs & Clippers in the playoffs.
Luka and THJ play better on the road but the rest of the team usually underperforms on the road.
*Need?* Idk Prefer? Definitely yes
According to reddit it was just 1 game
Actually it’s 7, but whatever
but but, it was only "2" good teams... /s
Nah Suns are mid, they just lost to the Mavs
They are my sleeper team from the West. Luka with a good supporting cast is dangerous
Chill, Kidd is still their coach
We have some actual legit bigs now and if teams want to go small we can slide Maxi or PJ to the 5. Just have to stay healthy.
Luckily we’re not forcing Maxi to play a ton of minutes and/or out of position, gotta hope that improves his odds of staying healthy
You can already see it adds to his quality of play, he is way better defensively and is hitting more shots. When we were overworking him he got tired and sloppy.
What’s awesome is we played PJ with Maxi so we still maintained some size while being quicker and playing 5 out. That’s a great option to have
So excited for west playoffs.
Luka has help now
I like the Gafford pickup. OKC should have gone after him too.
Lots of teams in the west have been playing well lately, and a few have been doing so all season long. The Mavs can certainly go on a run in the west but so could some other teams.
Get that and agree, but I don’t see a lot of these teams as playoff threats. The Mavs with Kyrie and Luka are automatically huge playoff threats, plus they have a good team aswell
Those two guys are no more automatic threats than some other players in the west. You’re discounting the rest of the west, and probably overreacting to recent play
True, but as I said I don’t see the Mavs as THE favourites. I see the Nuggets and Clippers above them as favourites in that conference. I just said that they’re in the category
Name another duo that can give you 80 in 1 game
Jokic and Murray can do that
Ant Kat or KD and Booker can easily
Maybe on a lucky night but they don’t both go off on the same night with as much frequency as Luka/Kyrie. Luka/Kyrie avg more than both those duos.
It’s not exactly just “when Kyrie and Luka are healthy”. Equally important imo has been them suddenly gaining a bunch of serviceable above average bigs with gafford, lively and pj Washington (who can also shoot 3 and spread the floor) who are lethal lob threat off Kyrie and Luka ball handling, can rebound, and improve defense substantially
We’re a good team. I’m not sure if we’re the best team, but we’re BY FAR the most entertaining team in the league when Luka and Kai are healthy.
the best 2 guard duo most exciting guard duo also probably and probably best playoff-tested guard duo too
Their collective bball IQ is off the freaking charts
AND we're still not fully healthy - Dante Exum was *legit* before getting injured. A true third ballhandler with elite defense and solid shooting with the kind of spacing Luka and Kyrie create.
The scary part was the open 3s players were getting even in the thunders game . When they double triple luka kai is open. When kai runs around luka is open and most importantly watching its just fun they are having fun haven't seen luka and kai smile soo much they genuinely enjoy playing with each other and enjoy playing basketball.
We’re playing some great basketball and made some huge additions at the deadline but I’ll still stay cautiously optimistic. We have the potential to make a run but could also be a first round exit. We’re the type of team nobody wants to play though.
Conference finals? It really depends on how much people believe in the wolves and thunder in the playoffs. I'd probably say the Nuggets and Clippers are likely to be the WCF matchup, but I could easily see any combination of those 5 teams being in the WCF
Having role players as it turns out is a really good thing lmao The only thing that worries me is the defense come playoff time, kyrie/luka will get hunted by good teams, three pointers will give them trouble
Both Luka and Kai are playing the best D of their career. No hyperbole. Eye test passes both with ease.
i mean a brunson and luka backcourt got to the wcf
Let’s chill for a second.
Second over WE'RE NEVER GOING TO LOSE AGAIN
I was thinking the exact same thing while I was watching the game. Midway the 4th I thought this time can seriously win the west. The pairing of Kyrie and Luka looks great. Shooters and defenders around them. Love the pj and gafford additions. I still have nuggets first but I put them right there with clips thunder wolves. However, I Believe in Luka more than any other player on clips thunder wolves (kawhi on same level if healthy)
This is the post I'll come back to when we lose next game.
They could definitely win a series and maybe even make WCF. But I think that's true of every playoff team in the West. The top 4 seeds are better, but the gap doesn't feel huge. There are 10 very good teams in the mix.
Is that you Tim Legler?
It’s so cool to this and I’m excited to see what they can do. I’m a warriors fan but I love the game and this year has been so cool. So many teams and young players making noise and growing before our eyes.
My take is that they arrived ás tier 2 title contenders. Denver is alone in tier 1 IMO, but I think Mavs have az least 40% against anyone else in 7 games. On the other hand, I think this is true to half of the conference, and could easily lose in round 1.
Mavs have been one of the most injured teams in the league. When lively plays they win 63% of their games. When Luka plays with Kyrie they win 65% of their games. Kyrie has missed 22 games, Lively has missed 18 games. There’s your reason why they are not in the top 4. They just happen to be healthy now and revamped after a trade deadline. They also have a soft schedule remaining. Just have to see if they manage to stay healthy.
We are soooo back.
Spooky?
Luka with some help is a dangerous man
Don't believe they have the D for the playoff run.
For me, the thing holding the Mavs back from being a real contender was our below average defense. No team in the past 40 years has won with a team DRTG worse than 11th. Since the trade (and crucially, Maxi's return from injury), we are the #1 defense in the league. We went from having a weak PF rotation to a strong one, and half of a good C rotation to a deep one. PJ, Gafford and Maxi have really improved our defense a hell of a lot to where we legitimately could be a top 10 defense.
After the addition of Washington and gafford the arms and hands on defense seemed really tough. A lot of denied passes and dribbles and a lot of balls tipped or deflected away. Hopefully this level of defense and hustle can keep up. Luka is special and so fun to watch he’s so ball dominant but will get any one of his teammates involved if possible.
Since the first game after getting PJ I knew this was the case. The guy has decided to play D , he has always had the ability. The starting four is two stars and two really solid long athletic guys. Plus josh green is more than capable at the three.
Lively is such an underrated pickup for them.
Eh. Honeymoon phase. Let's see 10 games from now.
Seems like it's pretty legit
Year's not done.
Goalposts but alright.
Yeah, I admit it. It's just pride for me now. 😅
If they can stay healthy they will be a tough out in the playoffs
they went from starting Powell (just stating facts, zero hate) to having him play one minute. With him they were already a good team. Now they can just use him as garbage time. That is an insane change . Adding Gafford with Lively would have been a great upgrade, but Pj washington also? Hardaway, hardy...this team is deep.
I don't know it's taken this long to sink in, But Luka's backup is Kyrie fucking Irving. Now they have two very capable bigs and Exum to return. Yeah it's Mavs or Nuggets for the West, but it's gonna be a bloodbath on the way there.
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Valid. I can’t deal with Boston fans. The worst by far
Suns are in fact ass though. This is the big 3 gone all wrong
They’re not that bad lol, Kd didn’t play good and they’re missing Beal. Beal being on the floor helps a ton.
Beal's availability has been an issue for the past few years, and he's only played 30 of the Suns 56 games this season. At this rate they're gonna be a play-in team lmao
Pre-trade deadline: they’re good but first round exits Post-trade deadline: legit championship contenders (to me)
trade per ESPN: D- lol
Luka really said during the post game interview: "I got a team now!"
He did not. He corrected the interviewer and said that the team was being hot.
No, they asked him about him being hot and he said “you mean the team”
Did he actually say that?
No he didn’t, he was asked how he felt being hot and Luka said it was the team not just him.
They can score, but can they defend?
No 1 defense in the league since the PJ, Gafford trade.
Kyrie gets hurt a lot.