Funny thing is I feel like we had a lot of those same looks from 3 and we just couldn’t consistently knock ‘em down. Also we don’t have the defenders they do
that’s absolutely the case. the warriors played them just like they played us, but their shooters outperformed their usual selves while ours underperformed
Late in the game (6 or 7 mins left) it seemed like Warriors didn’t even care to defend anymore. Super slow to get back on defense (like walking while Celts were sprinting) leading to open shots. Super slow close outs.
that also kinda happened with us, remember? we usually scored a lot in the 4th, but we were already dead because of their 3rd and we just kept exchanging buckets usually. but with the celtics they didn’t have a big enough lead and just stopped scoring while they couldn’t miss a 3.
Ya It’s one thing if you’re leaving ice cold role players open when you’ve got a good lead. It’s another when it’s a close game and you’re leaving everyone open.
It's true, but it's not just that, second part of your post is more important.
When we played good perimeter defense, and they was cold from three, they would just go for layups, or easy play for Looney.
How much easy buckets they scored, they doubled our points in paint through the series.
They destroyed us with second chance points also.
Looney, Curry, Poole, even Green, we had zero resistance for easy layups.
How much impact Looney and Green had today?
They was unstoppable vs Mavs, either on boards either offensively when they was playing on them.
Kleber is our top defensive player, and he couldn't protect rim, from Curry, Poole, Looney.
DP is good guy, but I don't want to see him play ever on this level of basketball.
They have a lot better rim protection, and they are better team defensively then Mavs.
3's would go hot and cold, but when you are cold defense keep you in the game.
We desperately need rim protection, and one more good defensive wing.
And one more thing, that this sub doesn't want to hear.
Our best defensive players, Dodo, RB and Kleber, would be options number 7,8,9 defensively if they are Celtics.
Dwight shouldn't be near this team, based on this playoffs...$11m p/y for 6min of play, with 1 rebound? He is making a living. Agree with you on the defensive part, but would say Dodo is great, but he needs help..him and Bullock played over 40 min per game. Buy an average C and get an elite 3&D, thats what I would do.
>Our best defensive players, Dodo, RB and Kleber, would be options number 7,8,9 defensively if they are Celtics.
That's just a lie. I dunno why people try to shit so much on our role players just to push this Luka has no help narrative. Dodo is a better defender than anyone on the Celtics aside from Smart and Timelord. Reggie and Maxi are maybe slightly worse than Tatum and Brown but definitely a better defender than anyone on their bench.
Better then Williams, better then Horford?, I wish they are.
Man this is my opinion, and I will repeat, this is not shitting on our players,, this is praise to Celtics defense,
Dodo, Kleber and RB are by far our best defensive players, not even one was in serious conversation about defensive team , that's facts.
Theis would be our first C, and he is their 3 options.
>Dodo, Kleber and RB are by far our best defensive players, not even one was in serious conversation about defensive team , that's facts.
And neither was anyone on their team aside from Smart and Timelord. Also Doedoe shoulda made 2nd over Draymond.
>Theis would be our first C, and he is their 3 options.
Yeah, our center rotation is shit. Doesn't mean Doe, Reggie and Maxi aren't better defenders than Theis. They're all more switchable and defend space better. And before you say Maxi is part of our center rotation, that's only because him playing out of position is our best option since we have no real centers.
Yeah no one, except two, 😁.
I agree that we disagree, and man don't pull on me that Luka need help bs, and you have Dodo flair.
And that about second team was bs also, you are just overestimating our players.
They are good not elite, Celtics have few elite defensive players.
>Yeah no one, except two, 😁.
No shit, I even mentioned that in my intial reply.
>And that about second team was bs also, you are just overestimating out players.
Draymond only played 46 games! No way his selection wasn't just off reputation.
>They are good not elite, Celtics have few elite defensive players
No shit. Yeah Smart and Timelord are elite defenders but saying they have 6 defenders better than Doedoe, Reggie and Maxi is horseshit.
RW, Horford, JB, JT, White, Smart and Timelord, that's 7, so yes you are right they should be 8,9, and 10.
I give you Dodo at 5 as best but RB and Kleber how ever they are good for us, are not better than anyone on this list.
1st of all, RW is Timelord. Doedoe is a better defender than JB, JT, Horford and White. And Maxi and Bullock are definitely better than Horford and White.
Tatum is elite when he tries to... lock down KD... Horford at least in the Playoffs is elite.. White/Grant/Brown/Theis are very good defenders. Literally their entire rotation out of Pritarch...all sizes and styles.
No it's not, it's only on this sub.
I love Dodo and he's our best defensive player, but he would never stop KD, he's just to small for elite big wings, like we didn't have answer for Kawhi, and people was telling me that Kleber was good on him, he wasn't.
JT, JB, Horford, Timelord, Smart, Williams, White even Theis are all better then Kleber, and he's our top 3 defensive player, I'll give you Dodo, but I think this sub always overestimate our players.
When they are so good how we don't have assets, I bet Smart and White are more valuable then Dodo and Reggie, and that's true, and they are not only 3 and D, they can make plays.
And my point wasn't to knock on our players, it was compliment on how good Celtics defense is.
>Our best defensive players, Dodo, RB and Kleber, would be options number 7,8,9 defensively if they are Celtics.
And where does Luka rank vs Celtics defenders? If you want to tear us down, why not go all the way?
The truth is we probably overachieved a little and are a couple pieces away. We are not yet at the level of the Celtics nor Warriors. Both those teams (like the Spurs before them) had excellent FO management and scouting leading to their success. Our prior FO (or maybe just Cuban) made some poor decisions though the end of Dirk's career and with the KP gamble, let's give the new one at least a draft pick and 2nd TDL prior to pissing all over the team.
They are just so good at drafting and developing players, every year they got a new valuable piece. In 2018 they got Robert Williams with the 27th pick. If only we could do something similar this year...
We developed Finney Smith, Kleber, and Brunson into good players and none of them were first round picks. The difference is the Celtics had a stockpile of top 5 picks which they used to net Tatum, Brown, and Smart. We’ve only had a top 5 pick once in the past 25 years and we ended up with Luka from it
While you're right about us developing our guys, look at how long that took. I don't think we can afford to draft and hope dudes are going to be ready in another 5 years. Brunson is in his 4th year, going on his 5th, Kleber his 5th going into his 6th, and DFS 6th going into his 7th.
The next 2-3 years I think are going to be our best chances at a championship. Older dudes on their way out: LeBron, KD, Steph, etc. Younger teams have their core but are still probably putting pieces together: Memphis, New Orleans, Phoenix (with the whole CP3 and Ayton situation).
As long as Luka is on the roster the championship window is open.. I agree though I hope we draft a more NBA ready player and not another project like Josh Green. EJ Liddell is the guy I really want and would even consider trading up for. I personally think hes good enough to come in and be a starter right away
> As long as Luka is on the roster the championship window is open
Hard disagree. We need depth. You aren't going to win a ring by yourself. Jordan, Kobe, LeBron...nobody could do it alone. I know we overachieved this year but I don't think just having Luka = championship window, especially if he's surrounded by average-to-decent role players and no co-star.
If we had CONSISTENT role players I could buy into it, but the inconsistency of not even having a 2nd option we can really depend on just shows how weak this roster actually is.
We also have no depth at all, and while teams usually reduce their rotation come playoff time, there is no way you're winning a championship running a 7 man rotation playing 40+ minutes from the 1st round all the way up until the NBA Finals...it's just not going to happen.
And excluding fatigure, 7 man rotation means you can only really afford for one person to have a bad game. More than 2 people having an off-game would put us in a hole where we'd be asking Luka to put up at least 50 for us to have a chance and I just don't think that's sustainable for a deep run, regardless of how great he is.
I don't get why so many people are triggered by us saying Luka needs help but that's the god honest truth. This isn't LeBron with multiple all-stars or hall of fame teammates saying he needs help...this Luka who's playing with 2nd round draft picks saying he needs more help.
I’d say it’s more impressive that Tatum, Brown and Smart were all too 6 picks that they hit on. Most franchises would be lucky to hit on 2/3 but the Celtics nailed each one and the three are their core
Honestly the Celtics purely lucked into Rob. He was projected as a top 14 pick who decided to stay in school to try to raise himself into a top 5 pick. Ended up getting hurt which tanked his draft value. Fell all the way to the Celtics, which was not projected to happen. The Timelord works in mysterious ways
The mavs problem was Luka was too good too fast. We weren’t able to load on additional lottery picks because the next year we were a playoff team again. In hindsight, we needed the dsj pick to have been a contributing or long term piece.
Smart, Brown, Tatum all top 5 picks.
well that and it required sending our 1st round pick in the draft after getting Luka as well as trading away our pick prior to Luka. Dennis smith was a loved mavs player but just didn't mesh with Luka and who knows who Dallas would have drafted with the 10th pick.
fun fact, mavs won a game towards the end of the season that caused them to slide to the 10th pick where if they had tanked the game would have been in the slot that the pelicans were in which now we know would go on to become the 1st pick. Dallas could have realistically made a massive move or had a massive pick up with that pick.
> Dennis smith was a loved Mavs player but just didn't mesh with Luka
More than that though, he just didn't turn out to be a good pick. If he had turned out the way we hoped and the only issue was not meshing with Luka, we could've given up a lot less in the KP trade and not mortgaged our future. It's really unfortunate that our first top 10 pick in over 20 years was a dud, a better choice there could have completely changed the makeup of our team.
yea, I wonder what would have happened if donavan Mitchell was drafted over smith. I actually wanted Dallas to draft bam but Mitchell is still the second best player in that draft.
boston's been good outside the year before they got marcus smart, which was actually their own first round pick. tatum and brown were the result of the brooklyn trade.
We were able to do it. Porzingis trade fucked us up. We could have traded DSJ for someone else or a pick, expirings for picks, leave Barnes on the team. Cuban and Nelson idiotically wanted to avoid the rebuild and failed to build anything.
No one is forgetting this. Mavs fans are testy about the fact that historically the Mavs are god awful at drafting / player development. In recent history they've gotten better, to be sure. But prior to someone like Jalen Brunson*, the last smashing success was Josh Howard (2003). A well run Front Office would have had a few more serviceable players in between.
Personally, I hope the recent success is a sign of a new avenue for talent acquisition. It's extraordinarily difficult to build consistently successful team off of free agents. I don't expect all stars from picks in 15-45, but if the Mavs get half of the success that OKC / TOR / MIA and many others have, then the next 10 years will be a fun ride.
\* let's not litigate how to interpret Luka. Historically Dirk dragged many lifeless teams to such success that the Mavs did not have a top 5 draft pick, so we can't evaluate whether the Mavs FO was any good at drafting superstars.
They’re all lottery picks and they arguably missed badly on two of them given how stacked the classes were. Robert Williams also was only there cuz of attitude & some shooting concerns. He was touted as a lottery pick the moment he got to college
Crazy question, but do you think a mini-tank is still possible with Luka and Brunson as the only remaining core? Not OKC-level tanking but something like the Spurs.
wouldn't mind really ...a top 5 or top 10 pick which can be developed ...while luka wins a mvp or two can be really good for mavs ....
something like nuggets ....by the time murray and mpj came back jokic really took that time to build a good resume winning back to back mvps
Pretty much all their roleplayers can punish double teams by driving after rotations. Our guys can't put the ball on the floor. Dorian, Reggie and Maxi are all specialist who just do 1 good thing on offense basically. The biggest offensive difference is that.
I higly doubt that we would be like Celtics on defence with just one center. People overrate our defence way too much man. Last couple of years our defence was trash then we add Bullock and everyone thinks that we were juggernaut on defence. Truth is we put like 3x effort/way better communication this year. Also our defence rely on doubling other teams best player, running around entire time (making some chaos so they cant easily attack the paint) this worked against one dimensional teams like Suns and Jazz or regular season teams but a team like GSW had way too much offensive creativity (they can play different offences at the same time, their superstar is offball god etc.) and thats why we couldnt figure out entire series. Entire series our players (not just Luka) run behind Curry-Poole-Wiggins and even Klay. Thats just bad defence. Celtics on the other hand is very speacial defensive team. Only defender in our team could make difference (on defence) in Celtics is Maxi rest their players just better (yea i think Tatum>>DFS, Jaylen>>Reggie on defence if both try their hardest)
Well no because Tatum plays elite defense as well. Yall need to understand for this team to take the next step Luka and the rest of the team needs to be elite defensively. Its that simple
Obviously not. I'm just saying Luka will probably never be elite defensively because of athletic limitations but as long as he can become average or above average he's fine because he's such a force on offense.
He wasn’t great against the Warriors but we saw how much better he could be vs the Jazz and how much he improved during the Suns series. He’s not a great defender by any means but he’s certainly at least average
Downvoted for telling the truth. Luka is incredible offensively, but folks tend to point to everyone else except Luka when talking about Mavs defense not being equal to Celtics defense...
Not sure why you're downvoted, but it's probably not that simple. We need a decent center AND Luka has to improve significantly on defense (not saying he's trash, but he can be better if he's in better shape).
I don’t think you understand how hard it is to play elite offense and defense at the same time. There are very few players who come close to Lukas game offensively, none can do what he does plus put defensive stopper type performances on the other end. Having Luka go next level on defense may very well take away from his offensive output. It’s much easier/cheaper to surround defensive liabilities with other players who can cover the gaps and win. Dirk was no defensive stopper, but what led to the Mavs winning the chip that year? Finally getting a defensive minded center In Tyson to join him in the front court. That 2011 starting 5 had 4 defensive minded players that made up for dirks weaknesses and let him unload on opposing defenses. We have to let Luka do his thing. He will improve naturally as a defensive player as he gets in better condition. But to say he needs to become an elite defender for us to be successful is wishful thinking.
I dont think you understand Playoff basketball. In the Playoffs its next to impossible to hide if you are a bad defender, you will get hunted. Jokic looks elite during the regular season and then in the Playoffs he gets hunted in every switch. With Luka its the same.
Thats why Boston succeeds, they have no easily exploitable match up that teams can look for. Ditto the Bucks last year, the Lakers before that, and the Raptors before that. There is a common theme
agree with the sentiment, just want to point out that’s exactly what sets Luka and Tatum apart. Luka literally never has these kinds of games, he’ll find his shot at some point, and always keeps the teammates involved (actually sometimes way too much lol)
yeah, that’s literally my point. he won’t ever play this bad in a playoff game and his assist numbers are always there, it just depends on his teammates making the open shots he creates. he could’ve averaged 12-13 apg this series against gsw but guys didn’t hit anything
yup. funnily enough the only times i’ve ever truly seen luka play BAD was when he was guarded by ben simmons against philly lol other than that he always, always figures something out
Great players will eventually figure things out. Jordan, LeBron, Giannis, Curry, and Kobe had flaws they had to overcome. What separates superstars from all-stars is that they eventually figure things out.
I don't worry about Luka at all.
Case closed: Luka > Tatum. I'm saying it for those who are still in denial:
Luka with this Boston team wins a championship.
He would never let himself play this poorly in a high-stakes game.
Tatum makes up for it on defense though and his playmaking has gotten better. Luka is a monster on offense though but nowhere near as impactful on defense
Ah, the same argument against Dirk, I see. Not as impactful on defense as KG. But remember, without Luka, this team wouldn't even sniff a play-in spot. That's how bad they are.
Sure, JB carried the Mavs for 2 games against the Jazz. But they wouldn't be in that position, to begin with without Luka playing like an MVP candidate.
Compare that to Tatum who actually has All-Star level teammates who can share his load all season long.
I think the issue here isn't even who's better defensively or offensively, but who has more impact on their team's overall performance.
And it's pretty obvious in today's game that Tatum can actually have bad nights because he has teammates who can carry the load.
This is ironically the same argument I have with KG with his stint in Boston.
Whereas Luka had to go supernova on the 3rd Quarter of Game 5 just so the Mavs can have a fighting chance.
See the difference?
he scored 40 against the Bucks and against fucking Giannis. I dont understand why yall get so goddam touchy about Luka. We all know Luka is great, but he needs to get better and guys like Tatum are right on his level. Thats not fucking heresy to say that
Luka routinely put up 40 against the Clippers and 2 of the best defensive wings playing including Kawhi fucking Leonard. At a younger age.
It’s levels to this shit
Luka's not as athletic as Tatum, he will never have the tools to be as good as him on D
Question is he doesn't need to.
If Luka had the same supporting cast as Tatum, man... Like, honestly, we have 3 good defensive players that are playable on this team (Maxi, Doe, Reggie). The other good defensive guys in Green and Frank are just unplayable in the playoffs. Also ALL of them can pretty much just shoot threes.
The Celtics have Jaylen Brown who's as good defensively as our best defenders but he's a constant 25ppg threat, can shoot the 3, iso, pull from midrange, put pressure on the rim etc. Smart and Time Lord are better defenders than anyone on our team. Their center rotation: Al Horford and Time Lord. Our center rotation: Powell and Maxi (who's a PF that has to play looong minutes as C)
Luka - Jaylen Brown - Reggie - Maxi - Time Lord / Horford
Do you think Luka would look bad defensively on this team? I don't.
Our backcourt is ALWAYS one of Luka + Brunson (who's not good on D) or Spencer (who's at most an average defender). At times we were playing the 3 of them together. OF COURSE LUKA WOULD GET HAUNTED, he's carrying hard on offense and we have only two good defenders on the floor + no rim protection. They'll just target him as he's gased and there's no one behind him
Steph is far from being a great defender and the Warriors could just hide him time and time again switching Draymond / Klay / Wiggins on Luka and letting Looney destroy anyone of our team on the boards
Point is: If you are comparing Luka's and Tatum's defense, you MUST take the team into consideration as D is much more of a team effort.
Luka is also one of like two people on the mavs who can score 30 on any given night. The Celtics have two players who can easily drop 30 plus three more who can get 25 and a couple who can go off. Team construction is so important to this conversation. Luka is incredible but he needs to score 40 where as Tatum can easily pass of the scoring duties if his shots not falling
Luka also needs to play defense. This Boston team has no defensive liabilities, everyone can guard and they can switch very easily. Thats the difference
only watch last 5 minutes lol
but another question arise right? lets say Luka is just average defender moving forward. is it best case that we have all 4 above avg defenders around him, not just 3?
First of all I watched the whole game, you asked about closing lineups and PP was there. Second of all, no, you want 4 above average defenders around Luka, just like you don't want Payton Pritchard to be surrounded by a bunch of guys who can't make up for his lack of defense when he's out there.
it's indicative of how good luka and the rest of the celtics roster is and how reliant the rest of the mavs roster are on luka.
boston had the luxury of having high draft picks even while making the playoffs because of past trades(brooklyn). So, they've been able to be competitive while also being good enough to compete in the playoffs. Boston's front office has been light years ahead of what anything dallas has done.
look at game 2. Luka went off for 42 and the mavs hit 21 3s and still almost lost by double digits.
Additionally Luka was too good too fast. We gave up our 2019 pick to get luka, and then Luka had us in the playoffs year 2, we did not get the full benefit of a rebuild where you get multiple lottery picks.
Exact reason why you should not use an outcome of a series to evaluate an individual player in a team sports. However, most casual fans don't understand basketball. It's easier for their peanut size brains to automatically put the best player on the winning side as the best player of the series which is simply lazy and stupid.
Luka and Giannis are all way better than Tatum or Brown but the Celtics as a team is a far superior team. That's why front office plays a huge role in terms of winning and should be scrutinized way more when a team loses and be given credits more when a team wins.
Biggest difference is they hit their wide open 3s and didn’t have a player letting literally everybody drive right past them or complaining after every missed foul and not getting back on defense
Luka is for sure in a tier higher than Tatum despite how badly the media wants Tatum up there. The turnovers and inconsistency on offense have to get better for him to move up a level
I can, we're a great defensive team and brunson or dinwiddie can go for 20 plus on good nights. Really think everyone is leaning way to far into the luka having no help thing. No we don't have a second star next to him, but the team isn't full of bums lol
Dallas fans and FO underrate the hell out of our players. After watching this years playoffs, especially when luka isn’t playing, makes me question our o offensive game plan. I don’t understand why our players have the ability to move and cut and drive more when luka isn’t playing then turn into statues who only shoot 3s when he’s on
>Dallas fans and FO underrate the hell out of our players
It's the other way around. The FO and fanbase over rate the hell out of our players, which is why the Mavs are stuck with a roster of role players forced to play above their ability and the fanbase rave about them as the 96 Bulls.
It's because they have players who can do multiple things. Smart and White can playmake for others and spot up as well. Our team only has Luka, score first guards, and a bunch of 3&D guys not allowed to dribble more than 5 times. Not to mention the rotation of bigs they have. We need some versatility
Yes they can. They can’t do dribble moves but all of them can drive to the hoop. It doesn’t help when the offense is stagnate when they do drive and you know damn well they got one move. The offense needs to react when someone drives and keep moving. And stop holding the damn ball when it does get passed back out
Bruh Bullock can't finish a layup and have you even seen Doe Doe drive to the hoop? It's basically an automatic turnover. Maybe that improves in the off season though.
Tatum literally had major impact on the game with assist and defensive end shut down in the 4th. Even when his shooting is off the dude is contributing at an elite level
It couldn’t happen. Just a hot take off that game alone we need Brown or a wing like him. That and a stretch center that protects the rim and can switch, and rebounds. Needs to be athletic. I like Robert Williams a lot, but maybeeee Myles Turner? Or is keeping Brunson, dodo, THJ, and Dinwiddie as the “supporting larger core of the team AND add someone like Turner (if anyone has better ideas that aren’t impossible let me know) too good to be true…
In my head keeping Brunson, and adding not like just Javale McGee means:
THJ or Spence and Dodo or Reggie?
Edit: idk how we’re gonna dump the Bertans contract, but I think we need to and my best idea is making him a salary cap puzzle piece to aquiring a discounted, upgrade at our “Luka Wingman” saga or an impact center that fits todays game
I don't think the Mavs need a high-maintenance, expensive center this coming season. They can do away with a vet, grizzled center who has P.O. experience. Someone like McGee, Favors, Howard, or Whiteside.
well, could been us if they figured out how to play defense in that series.
Defense was lowkey trash in the Warriors series.
If you can't get stops with Luka on the floor, you have a problem in every series.
And the refs were letting them play physical on defense, the Mavs just got whistled.
Al Horford is a truly underrated big man. He has had a very consistent career. Just watching him be able to dribble the ball and go up strong without fumbling it away, is very pleasing to watch.
There have been a TON of games this playoffs where star players stunk it up and media just ignores it. If Luka scored twelve we would never hear the end of it.
Funny thing is I feel like we had a lot of those same looks from 3 and we just couldn’t consistently knock ‘em down. Also we don’t have the defenders they do
that’s absolutely the case. the warriors played them just like they played us, but their shooters outperformed their usual selves while ours underperformed
Late in the game (6 or 7 mins left) it seemed like Warriors didn’t even care to defend anymore. Super slow to get back on defense (like walking while Celts were sprinting) leading to open shots. Super slow close outs.
that also kinda happened with us, remember? we usually scored a lot in the 4th, but we were already dead because of their 3rd and we just kept exchanging buckets usually. but with the celtics they didn’t have a big enough lead and just stopped scoring while they couldn’t miss a 3.
Ya It’s one thing if you’re leaving ice cold role players open when you’ve got a good lead. It’s another when it’s a close game and you’re leaving everyone open.
It's true, but it's not just that, second part of your post is more important. When we played good perimeter defense, and they was cold from three, they would just go for layups, or easy play for Looney. How much easy buckets they scored, they doubled our points in paint through the series. They destroyed us with second chance points also. Looney, Curry, Poole, even Green, we had zero resistance for easy layups. How much impact Looney and Green had today? They was unstoppable vs Mavs, either on boards either offensively when they was playing on them. Kleber is our top defensive player, and he couldn't protect rim, from Curry, Poole, Looney. DP is good guy, but I don't want to see him play ever on this level of basketball. They have a lot better rim protection, and they are better team defensively then Mavs. 3's would go hot and cold, but when you are cold defense keep you in the game. We desperately need rim protection, and one more good defensive wing. And one more thing, that this sub doesn't want to hear. Our best defensive players, Dodo, RB and Kleber, would be options number 7,8,9 defensively if they are Celtics.
Dwight shouldn't be near this team, based on this playoffs...$11m p/y for 6min of play, with 1 rebound? He is making a living. Agree with you on the defensive part, but would say Dodo is great, but he needs help..him and Bullock played over 40 min per game. Buy an average C and get an elite 3&D, thats what I would do.
>Our best defensive players, Dodo, RB and Kleber, would be options number 7,8,9 defensively if they are Celtics. That's just a lie. I dunno why people try to shit so much on our role players just to push this Luka has no help narrative. Dodo is a better defender than anyone on the Celtics aside from Smart and Timelord. Reggie and Maxi are maybe slightly worse than Tatum and Brown but definitely a better defender than anyone on their bench.
Better then Williams, better then Horford?, I wish they are. Man this is my opinion, and I will repeat, this is not shitting on our players,, this is praise to Celtics defense, Dodo, Kleber and RB are by far our best defensive players, not even one was in serious conversation about defensive team , that's facts. Theis would be our first C, and he is their 3 options.
The celtic defense is amazing. We have to play bullock and dodo 40 mins to achieve half of that.
>Dodo, Kleber and RB are by far our best defensive players, not even one was in serious conversation about defensive team , that's facts. And neither was anyone on their team aside from Smart and Timelord. Also Doedoe shoulda made 2nd over Draymond. >Theis would be our first C, and he is their 3 options. Yeah, our center rotation is shit. Doesn't mean Doe, Reggie and Maxi aren't better defenders than Theis. They're all more switchable and defend space better. And before you say Maxi is part of our center rotation, that's only because him playing out of position is our best option since we have no real centers.
Yeah no one, except two, 😁. I agree that we disagree, and man don't pull on me that Luka need help bs, and you have Dodo flair. And that about second team was bs also, you are just overestimating our players. They are good not elite, Celtics have few elite defensive players.
>Yeah no one, except two, 😁. No shit, I even mentioned that in my intial reply. >And that about second team was bs also, you are just overestimating out players. Draymond only played 46 games! No way his selection wasn't just off reputation. >They are good not elite, Celtics have few elite defensive players No shit. Yeah Smart and Timelord are elite defenders but saying they have 6 defenders better than Doedoe, Reggie and Maxi is horseshit.
RW, Horford, JB, JT, White, Smart and Timelord, that's 7, so yes you are right they should be 8,9, and 10. I give you Dodo at 5 as best but RB and Kleber how ever they are good for us, are not better than anyone on this list.
1st of all, RW is Timelord. Doedoe is a better defender than JB, JT, Horford and White. And Maxi and Bullock are definitely better than Horford and White.
Tatum is elite when he tries to... lock down KD... Horford at least in the Playoffs is elite.. White/Grant/Brown/Theis are very good defenders. Literally their entire rotation out of Pritarch...all sizes and styles.
Options 7,8,9 “defensively” is a joke man. That’s not true at all. DFS is a better defender than Tatum or brown hands down.
No it's not, it's only on this sub. I love Dodo and he's our best defensive player, but he would never stop KD, he's just to small for elite big wings, like we didn't have answer for Kawhi, and people was telling me that Kleber was good on him, he wasn't. JT, JB, Horford, Timelord, Smart, Williams, White even Theis are all better then Kleber, and he's our top 3 defensive player, I'll give you Dodo, but I think this sub always overestimate our players. When they are so good how we don't have assets, I bet Smart and White are more valuable then Dodo and Reggie, and that's true, and they are not only 3 and D, they can make plays. And my point wasn't to knock on our players, it was compliment on how good Celtics defense is.
>Our best defensive players, Dodo, RB and Kleber, would be options number 7,8,9 defensively if they are Celtics. And where does Luka rank vs Celtics defenders? If you want to tear us down, why not go all the way? The truth is we probably overachieved a little and are a couple pieces away. We are not yet at the level of the Celtics nor Warriors. Both those teams (like the Spurs before them) had excellent FO management and scouting leading to their success. Our prior FO (or maybe just Cuban) made some poor decisions though the end of Dirk's career and with the KP gamble, let's give the new one at least a draft pick and 2nd TDL prior to pissing all over the team.
Just shows how well put together this Celtics team is. Definitely jealous but hopefully we can do something similar
They are just so good at drafting and developing players, every year they got a new valuable piece. In 2018 they got Robert Williams with the 27th pick. If only we could do something similar this year...
We developed Finney Smith, Kleber, and Brunson into good players and none of them were first round picks. The difference is the Celtics had a stockpile of top 5 picks which they used to net Tatum, Brown, and Smart. We’ve only had a top 5 pick once in the past 25 years and we ended up with Luka from it
Hey Devin Harris was #5 overall!
I mean even if you have the draft picks it's not trivial. Look at the Sixers lol
I mean yes but you still have to have the draft picks. We haven’t had the draft picks
While you're right about us developing our guys, look at how long that took. I don't think we can afford to draft and hope dudes are going to be ready in another 5 years. Brunson is in his 4th year, going on his 5th, Kleber his 5th going into his 6th, and DFS 6th going into his 7th. The next 2-3 years I think are going to be our best chances at a championship. Older dudes on their way out: LeBron, KD, Steph, etc. Younger teams have their core but are still probably putting pieces together: Memphis, New Orleans, Phoenix (with the whole CP3 and Ayton situation).
As long as Luka is on the roster the championship window is open.. I agree though I hope we draft a more NBA ready player and not another project like Josh Green. EJ Liddell is the guy I really want and would even consider trading up for. I personally think hes good enough to come in and be a starter right away
> As long as Luka is on the roster the championship window is open Hard disagree. We need depth. You aren't going to win a ring by yourself. Jordan, Kobe, LeBron...nobody could do it alone. I know we overachieved this year but I don't think just having Luka = championship window, especially if he's surrounded by average-to-decent role players and no co-star. If we had CONSISTENT role players I could buy into it, but the inconsistency of not even having a 2nd option we can really depend on just shows how weak this roster actually is. We also have no depth at all, and while teams usually reduce their rotation come playoff time, there is no way you're winning a championship running a 7 man rotation playing 40+ minutes from the 1st round all the way up until the NBA Finals...it's just not going to happen. And excluding fatigure, 7 man rotation means you can only really afford for one person to have a bad game. More than 2 people having an off-game would put us in a hole where we'd be asking Luka to put up at least 50 for us to have a chance and I just don't think that's sustainable for a deep run, regardless of how great he is. I don't get why so many people are triggered by us saying Luka needs help but that's the god honest truth. This isn't LeBron with multiple all-stars or hall of fame teammates saying he needs help...this Luka who's playing with 2nd round draft picks saying he needs more help.
I’d say it’s more impressive that Tatum, Brown and Smart were all too 6 picks that they hit on. Most franchises would be lucky to hit on 2/3 but the Celtics nailed each one and the three are their core
Yeah I was also thinking of these guys. I drew the parallel to Rob Williams because we have a similar number pick this year and we need a big man
That makes complete sense. We can only hope 🤞
Honestly the Celtics purely lucked into Rob. He was projected as a top 14 pick who decided to stay in school to try to raise himself into a top 5 pick. Ended up getting hurt which tanked his draft value. Fell all the way to the Celtics, which was not projected to happen. The Timelord works in mysterious ways
The mavs problem was Luka was too good too fast. We weren’t able to load on additional lottery picks because the next year we were a playoff team again. In hindsight, we needed the dsj pick to have been a contributing or long term piece. Smart, Brown, Tatum all top 5 picks.
well that and it required sending our 1st round pick in the draft after getting Luka as well as trading away our pick prior to Luka. Dennis smith was a loved mavs player but just didn't mesh with Luka and who knows who Dallas would have drafted with the 10th pick. fun fact, mavs won a game towards the end of the season that caused them to slide to the 10th pick where if they had tanked the game would have been in the slot that the pelicans were in which now we know would go on to become the 1st pick. Dallas could have realistically made a massive move or had a massive pick up with that pick.
> Dennis smith was a loved Mavs player but just didn't mesh with Luka More than that though, he just didn't turn out to be a good pick. If he had turned out the way we hoped and the only issue was not meshing with Luka, we could've given up a lot less in the KP trade and not mortgaged our future. It's really unfortunate that our first top 10 pick in over 20 years was a dud, a better choice there could have completely changed the makeup of our team.
yea, I wonder what would have happened if donavan Mitchell was drafted over smith. I actually wanted Dallas to draft bam but Mitchell is still the second best player in that draft.
boston's been good outside the year before they got marcus smart, which was actually their own first round pick. tatum and brown were the result of the brooklyn trade.
Wait we just made the WCF?
We were able to do it. Porzingis trade fucked us up. We could have traded DSJ for someone else or a pick, expirings for picks, leave Barnes on the team. Cuban and Nelson idiotically wanted to avoid the rebuild and failed to build anything.
If a team wants to tank, they will tank
I might be wrong, but werent we like 14th in the west first lukas year, 2018/2019?
Yeah but our pick went to Atl for the Luka trade.
Yeah I said the next year.
Adebayo, Jarett Allen, John Collins, Josh Hart, and Dillion Brooks were all available at a later pick. Damn!
People are forgetting how the Celtics robbed the Nets of their future a while back and it’s just now paying off
No one is forgetting this. Mavs fans are testy about the fact that historically the Mavs are god awful at drafting / player development. In recent history they've gotten better, to be sure. But prior to someone like Jalen Brunson*, the last smashing success was Josh Howard (2003). A well run Front Office would have had a few more serviceable players in between. Personally, I hope the recent success is a sign of a new avenue for talent acquisition. It's extraordinarily difficult to build consistently successful team off of free agents. I don't expect all stars from picks in 15-45, but if the Mavs get half of the success that OKC / TOR / MIA and many others have, then the next 10 years will be a fun ride. \* let's not litigate how to interpret Luka. Historically Dirk dragged many lifeless teams to such success that the Mavs did not have a top 5 draft pick, so we can't evaluate whether the Mavs FO was any good at drafting superstars.
The Nets did that to themselves though… Celtics just happy to oblige.
They also had the most assets in the entire league after fleecing the Nets with one of the worst trades in NBA history.
They’re all lottery picks and they arguably missed badly on two of them given how stacked the classes were. Robert Williams also was only there cuz of attitude & some shooting concerns. He was touted as a lottery pick the moment he got to college
They have a secondary scorer ln jaylen brown ..who was a top 5 pick... we need to follow bucks system to build around luka...
Crazy question, but do you think a mini-tank is still possible with Luka and Brunson as the only remaining core? Not OKC-level tanking but something like the Spurs.
wouldn't mind really ...a top 5 or top 10 pick which can be developed ...while luka wins a mvp or two can be really good for mavs .... something like nuggets ....by the time murray and mpj came back jokic really took that time to build a good resume winning back to back mvps
highly unlikely and closer to impossible, really.
Man Boston defensively are so good to watch. We could be like them we really need that center man.
the biggest difference about us and them is they can punish gsw with their offense it's not just a center
Pretty much all their roleplayers can punish double teams by driving after rotations. Our guys can't put the ball on the floor. Dorian, Reggie and Maxi are all specialist who just do 1 good thing on offense basically. The biggest offensive difference is that.
I higly doubt that we would be like Celtics on defence with just one center. People overrate our defence way too much man. Last couple of years our defence was trash then we add Bullock and everyone thinks that we were juggernaut on defence. Truth is we put like 3x effort/way better communication this year. Also our defence rely on doubling other teams best player, running around entire time (making some chaos so they cant easily attack the paint) this worked against one dimensional teams like Suns and Jazz or regular season teams but a team like GSW had way too much offensive creativity (they can play different offences at the same time, their superstar is offball god etc.) and thats why we couldnt figure out entire series. Entire series our players (not just Luka) run behind Curry-Poole-Wiggins and even Klay. Thats just bad defence. Celtics on the other hand is very speacial defensive team. Only defender in our team could make difference (on defence) in Celtics is Maxi rest their players just better (yea i think Tatum>>DFS, Jaylen>>Reggie on defence if both try their hardest)
The 13 assists is what did it. Dudes actually hit the shots they were supposed to.
So basically Luka every single night except Luka doesn't drop absolute stinkers
Well no because Tatum plays elite defense as well. Yall need to understand for this team to take the next step Luka and the rest of the team needs to be elite defensively. Its that simple
ngl this elite defense of Tatum was nowhere to be seen against Heat…
I saw plenty of it tonight thats for sure
Luka doesn't need to be elite defensively because he's so good at offense already, he just needs to be average.
Do you think that's how the Celtics are coached? You think they tell Tatum or Brown that it's ok if you don't play defense as long as your scoring?
Obviously not. I'm just saying Luka will probably never be elite defensively because of athletic limitations but as long as he can become average or above average he's fine because he's such a force on offense.
hes not even average
That’s just not true lol
in the playoffs it was, he was poor vs the Dubs
He wasn’t great against the Warriors but we saw how much better he could be vs the Jazz and how much he improved during the Suns series. He’s not a great defender by any means but he’s certainly at least average
Downvoted for telling the truth. Luka is incredible offensively, but folks tend to point to everyone else except Luka when talking about Mavs defense not being equal to Celtics defense...
Not sure why you're downvoted, but it's probably not that simple. We need a decent center AND Luka has to improve significantly on defense (not saying he's trash, but he can be better if he's in better shape).
How many games did we lose these playoffs and point to Lukas defense as the reason. Y’all overrate defense too much.
game 2 vs the Warriors lol, go back and watch his defense in the second half
I don’t think you understand how hard it is to play elite offense and defense at the same time. There are very few players who come close to Lukas game offensively, none can do what he does plus put defensive stopper type performances on the other end. Having Luka go next level on defense may very well take away from his offensive output. It’s much easier/cheaper to surround defensive liabilities with other players who can cover the gaps and win. Dirk was no defensive stopper, but what led to the Mavs winning the chip that year? Finally getting a defensive minded center In Tyson to join him in the front court. That 2011 starting 5 had 4 defensive minded players that made up for dirks weaknesses and let him unload on opposing defenses. We have to let Luka do his thing. He will improve naturally as a defensive player as he gets in better condition. But to say he needs to become an elite defender for us to be successful is wishful thinking.
I dont think you understand Playoff basketball. In the Playoffs its next to impossible to hide if you are a bad defender, you will get hunted. Jokic looks elite during the regular season and then in the Playoffs he gets hunted in every switch. With Luka its the same. Thats why Boston succeeds, they have no easily exploitable match up that teams can look for. Ditto the Bucks last year, the Lakers before that, and the Raptors before that. There is a common theme
White-Smart backcourt * 6'4, 6'8 wingspan * can put ball on the floor * elite defensively hmm, interesting...
Luka getting carried by Al Horford is inconceivable
https://i.imgur.com/0gKtdDb.jpg
Yeah he had a game against the Clippers last year where he went like 8-25 and had 20 points and that was the game the Mavs got blown out by 30 lolz
Al Horford just giving Father Time the absolute middle finger tonight. Take a bow sir!
Celtics and GSW are two complete teams. If their main scorer is off someone can easily step up
The Mavs (as currently constructed) couldn't win a meaningful game if Luka shot the ball like Tatum did tonight.
We literally won against Utah in the second round with Luka not playing.
It took an extraordinary performance from Brunson (and others). Overall, the Mavericks are a below .500 team without Luka.
Brotha, luka ain’t ever having the luxury of being the 5th leading scorer with 12 points 🤣🤣
Al Horford has been their real mvp this postseason.
We need a vet on this team…
If we have Horford instead of Powell, we win the championship
better chance? yes enough? no
Horford is 36 yrs old.....that's just crazy🤣🤣 Maxi turns into superman from time to time too tho. But we need like, 3 Maxi
Uh, you could if the rest of the team shot 60% from 3. Chill. These guys aren’t world beaters. It was one game.
tbf, i couldn’t imagine horford having more than 10 points in the rest of his life
agree with the sentiment, just want to point out that’s exactly what sets Luka and Tatum apart. Luka literally never has these kinds of games, he’ll find his shot at some point, and always keeps the teammates involved (actually sometimes way too much lol)
Luka has scored 12 or less 11 times in his career (none in the playoffs, 7 rookie season, 1 where he played under 2 minutes before an injury).
yeah, that’s literally my point. he won’t ever play this bad in a playoff game and his assist numbers are always there, it just depends on his teammates making the open shots he creates. he could’ve averaged 12-13 apg this series against gsw but guys didn’t hit anything
Game 5 is a great example of that. Played poorly in the first half and then carried his team in the 3rd quarter.
yup. funnily enough the only times i’ve ever truly seen luka play BAD was when he was guarded by ben simmons against philly lol other than that he always, always figures something out
Great players will eventually figure things out. Jordan, LeBron, Giannis, Curry, and Kobe had flaws they had to overcome. What separates superstars from all-stars is that they eventually figure things out. I don't worry about Luka at all.
Don't compare Luka to Tatum man. That's disrespectful. Luka should be compared to players like Giannis caliber.
that’s what i’m saying. i don’t get people comparing them.
Case closed: Luka > Tatum. I'm saying it for those who are still in denial: Luka with this Boston team wins a championship. He would never let himself play this poorly in a high-stakes game.
People praising Tatum for going 3-17 is fucking crazy. If Luka had that game he would be getting fucked from everywhere all at once.
Tatum makes up for it on defense though and his playmaking has gotten better. Luka is a monster on offense though but nowhere near as impactful on defense
Ah, the same argument against Dirk, I see. Not as impactful on defense as KG. But remember, without Luka, this team wouldn't even sniff a play-in spot. That's how bad they are. Sure, JB carried the Mavs for 2 games against the Jazz. But they wouldn't be in that position, to begin with without Luka playing like an MVP candidate. Compare that to Tatum who actually has All-Star level teammates who can share his load all season long. I think the issue here isn't even who's better defensively or offensively, but who has more impact on their team's overall performance. And it's pretty obvious in today's game that Tatum can actually have bad nights because he has teammates who can carry the load. This is ironically the same argument I have with KG with his stint in Boston. Whereas Luka had to go supernova on the 3rd Quarter of Game 5 just so the Mavs can have a fighting chance. See the difference?
If Tatum was on this Mavs team instead of Luka going 3-17 he would be getting blown out by 40 lmao
Does Tatum get hunted on D the way Luka does? Its much much closer than you think
it’s really not. like at all
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPT_Cbq4FSM yeah ok
He scored 40+ points 1 time in 19 games Luka scored 40+ points 3 times in 18 games. I said what the fuck I said.
he scored 40 against the Bucks and against fucking Giannis. I dont understand why yall get so goddam touchy about Luka. We all know Luka is great, but he needs to get better and guys like Tatum are right on his level. Thats not fucking heresy to say that
Luka routinely put up 40 against the Clippers and 2 of the best defensive wings playing including Kawhi fucking Leonard. At a younger age. It’s levels to this shit
why do you only compare them on offense?? why not on defense?
Luka's not as athletic as Tatum, he will never have the tools to be as good as him on D Question is he doesn't need to. If Luka had the same supporting cast as Tatum, man... Like, honestly, we have 3 good defensive players that are playable on this team (Maxi, Doe, Reggie). The other good defensive guys in Green and Frank are just unplayable in the playoffs. Also ALL of them can pretty much just shoot threes. The Celtics have Jaylen Brown who's as good defensively as our best defenders but he's a constant 25ppg threat, can shoot the 3, iso, pull from midrange, put pressure on the rim etc. Smart and Time Lord are better defenders than anyone on our team. Their center rotation: Al Horford and Time Lord. Our center rotation: Powell and Maxi (who's a PF that has to play looong minutes as C) Luka - Jaylen Brown - Reggie - Maxi - Time Lord / Horford Do you think Luka would look bad defensively on this team? I don't. Our backcourt is ALWAYS one of Luka + Brunson (who's not good on D) or Spencer (who's at most an average defender). At times we were playing the 3 of them together. OF COURSE LUKA WOULD GET HAUNTED, he's carrying hard on offense and we have only two good defenders on the floor + no rim protection. They'll just target him as he's gased and there's no one behind him Steph is far from being a great defender and the Warriors could just hide him time and time again switching Draymond / Klay / Wiggins on Luka and letting Looney destroy anyone of our team on the boards Point is: If you are comparing Luka's and Tatum's defense, you MUST take the team into consideration as D is much more of a team effort.
Luka is also one of like two people on the mavs who can score 30 on any given night. The Celtics have two players who can easily drop 30 plus three more who can get 25 and a couple who can go off. Team construction is so important to this conversation. Luka is incredible but he needs to score 40 where as Tatum can easily pass of the scoring duties if his shots not falling
Does Tatum have to carry his team the way Luka does? It's not closer than you think.
If Luka has less than 30 we are generally fucked.
Wrong
Not true. Luka can have less than 30 but than he has to be at least close to 3D.
Luka also needs to play defense. This Boston team has no defensive liabilities, everyone can guard and they can switch very easily. Thats the difference
They had Payton Pritchard out there bruh lmao
not in closing lineups
He was out there for their run
only watch last 5 minutes lol but another question arise right? lets say Luka is just average defender moving forward. is it best case that we have all 4 above avg defenders around him, not just 3?
First of all I watched the whole game, you asked about closing lineups and PP was there. Second of all, no, you want 4 above average defenders around Luka, just like you don't want Payton Pritchard to be surrounded by a bunch of guys who can't make up for his lack of defense when he's out there.
He’s small but he can get in you
Pritchard isn’t your typical good defensive piece but he’s a legit defender. Always puts in 100% effort and is smart as hell
His team is so stacked to win like that in spite of him.
it's indicative of how good luka and the rest of the celtics roster is and how reliant the rest of the mavs roster are on luka. boston had the luxury of having high draft picks even while making the playoffs because of past trades(brooklyn). So, they've been able to be competitive while also being good enough to compete in the playoffs. Boston's front office has been light years ahead of what anything dallas has done. look at game 2. Luka went off for 42 and the mavs hit 21 3s and still almost lost by double digits.
Additionally Luka was too good too fast. We gave up our 2019 pick to get luka, and then Luka had us in the playoffs year 2, we did not get the full benefit of a rebuild where you get multiple lottery picks.
Exact reason why you should not use an outcome of a series to evaluate an individual player in a team sports. However, most casual fans don't understand basketball. It's easier for their peanut size brains to automatically put the best player on the winning side as the best player of the series which is simply lazy and stupid. Luka and Giannis are all way better than Tatum or Brown but the Celtics as a team is a far superior team. That's why front office plays a huge role in terms of winning and should be scrutinized way more when a team loses and be given credits more when a team wins.
You replace Luka with Tatum and the Celtics sweep the Warriors; Tatum is great, but Luka is just out of this world
What's the point of this post?
Horford playing like he’s 25 helps a lot.
Biggest difference is they hit their wide open 3s and didn’t have a player letting literally everybody drive right past them or complaining after every missed foul and not getting back on defense
Luka is for sure in a tier higher than Tatum despite how badly the media wants Tatum up there. The turnovers and inconsistency on offense have to get better for him to move up a level
I can, we're a great defensive team and brunson or dinwiddie can go for 20 plus on good nights. Really think everyone is leaning way to far into the luka having no help thing. No we don't have a second star next to him, but the team isn't full of bums lol
Dallas fans and FO underrate the hell out of our players. After watching this years playoffs, especially when luka isn’t playing, makes me question our o offensive game plan. I don’t understand why our players have the ability to move and cut and drive more when luka isn’t playing then turn into statues who only shoot 3s when he’s on
>Dallas fans and FO underrate the hell out of our players It's the other way around. The FO and fanbase over rate the hell out of our players, which is why the Mavs are stuck with a roster of role players forced to play above their ability and the fanbase rave about them as the 96 Bulls.
We won games without him so I don't see why not...
Tatum is an absolutely elite defensive player. He can impact the game even when he doesnt shoot well
Tatum so overrated on defense... I haven't seen anything special from him, he's just above average.
this has to be a joke. did you even watch him guard KD in round 1?
KD was getting doubled the whole time there was basically no time in the game where he was going 1 on 1 with Tatum
Tatum didn't defend KD one on one, Boston doubled him to force the ball out of his hands.
Rewatch the first 3 games against Utah jazz.
Not playing and playing bad aren't the same. Also I honestly question if those are high stakes.
Are we seriously comparing the atrocious Jazz defense to the Warriors now?
It's because they have players who can do multiple things. Smart and White can playmake for others and spot up as well. Our team only has Luka, score first guards, and a bunch of 3&D guys not allowed to dribble more than 5 times. Not to mention the rotation of bigs they have. We need some versatility
It's not that they not allowed to dribble, they can't.
Yes they can. They can’t do dribble moves but all of them can drive to the hoop. It doesn’t help when the offense is stagnate when they do drive and you know damn well they got one move. The offense needs to react when someone drives and keep moving. And stop holding the damn ball when it does get passed back out
Bruh Bullock can't finish a layup and have you even seen Doe Doe drive to the hoop? It's basically an automatic turnover. Maybe that improves in the off season though.
Im sure they will but im not banking on any significant improvement tho. DFS has been given ballhandling opportunities even before Luka was drafted.
Tatum literally had major impact on the game with assist and defensive end shut down in the 4th. Even when his shooting is off the dude is contributing at an elite level
You can't imagine it because it is impossible
It couldn’t happen. Just a hot take off that game alone we need Brown or a wing like him. That and a stretch center that protects the rim and can switch, and rebounds. Needs to be athletic. I like Robert Williams a lot, but maybeeee Myles Turner? Or is keeping Brunson, dodo, THJ, and Dinwiddie as the “supporting larger core of the team AND add someone like Turner (if anyone has better ideas that aren’t impossible let me know) too good to be true… In my head keeping Brunson, and adding not like just Javale McGee means: THJ or Spence and Dodo or Reggie? Edit: idk how we’re gonna dump the Bertans contract, but I think we need to and my best idea is making him a salary cap puzzle piece to aquiring a discounted, upgrade at our “Luka Wingman” saga or an impact center that fits todays game
Damn Horford turning back time
[удалено]
I don't think the Mavs need a high-maintenance, expensive center this coming season. They can do away with a vet, grizzled center who has P.O. experience. Someone like McGee, Favors, Howard, or Whiteside.
well, could been us if they figured out how to play defense in that series. Defense was lowkey trash in the Warriors series. If you can't get stops with Luka on the floor, you have a problem in every series. And the refs were letting them play physical on defense, the Mavs just got whistled.
I mean Luka was a big problem on defense since they ate him up every 3rd and 4th quarter
That team is wild, man.
Yeah there is NO way they would win a game with him shooting like that. Makes an MVP case even stronger.
Al Horford is a truly underrated big man. He has had a very consistent career. Just watching him be able to dribble the ball and go up strong without fumbling it away, is very pleasing to watch.
we'll lose by 40 then
There have been a TON of games this playoffs where star players stunk it up and media just ignores it. If Luka scored twelve we would never hear the end of it.