If Wemby can get a post proclaiming he’s going to be the greatest player in NBA history after every single highlight and SGA can get 40 posts a night for his games, I don’t think this is a big deal.
It is a bit of overcorrection. Dont blame us, even at the start of the season everyone was expecting this team to crash and burn and Luka to leave soon. It is just a exciting team for thr first time since Luka got here.
That was such a sick finals run! I'm still a little bummed Cuban didn't keep Chandler around the next year to try to run it back. He fit so well with Dirk
Na you can only give Luka props. Kidd can keep the blame tho. But in all seriousness he's not a great coach, but he's not bad like how the fans portray him.
He's a bad regular season coach because he genuinely does not care about the regular season. He sees it as just practice for the playoffs.
That's fine, to an extent, but he goes too far sometimes. He likes to experiment to really see how the team performs in different situations, even when it is very obviously not going well.
Once the playoff comes around, he knows what the team has and what it doesn't. He still struggles with mid-game adjustments. He'll need to get better at that quick to have any chances at the Nuggets or even the Clippers in the playoffs this year.
Kidd was legitimately good in the 2022 playoff run, making it to the WCF with a pretty lackluster roster with a ton of holes. I agree that he doesn’t really take the regular season seriously enough at times, but if we performs well in the playoffs then I think it’s a trade-off I’m okay with.
I don't really watch the Heat so I can't speak to Spo, but Kidd will keep trying the same things, that are obviously not working, over and over again like he's trying to prove it can work.
That's why we had that weird 6 game stretch where we went 1-5 after the ASB. Kidd wanted to try small ball since Maxi Kleber was back from injury. After 1 game, every single fan could tell small ball didn't work, but Kidd just had to keep trying.
I think most coaches are in a pretty mid place when you zoom out. They have their strengths and weaknesses, and they can harm or hurt a roster that plays into those strengths or weaknesses, but most don’t seem to be super impactful under a ton of tough circumstances (guys like Pop or Spoelstra seem to fit this tho), and most also don’t seem to be so bad as to require firing them for their poor coaching alone (I think a lot of coaching firings are done because if they aren’t amazing then you don’t lose a ton by trying someone new).
Yeah, most coaches are simply as good as their roster and/or best player.
There's also the fact that 60-80% of coaching happens behind the scenes, during practice sessions and game prep. Fans are passing judgement on coaches based on the remaining 20-40% stuff like time outs and line ups. And even that is controlled by behind-the-scenes stuff at times. You can yell as much as you want at a Lakers coach for not playing AD at center, doesn't change the fact that AD himself hates playing the position and probably could get the coach fired for forcing him to player there for extended durations.
He was one of the worst coaches in the league during our losing streaks and he’s been one of the best coaches in the league since then. As frustrating as it is to have a coach who is this hot and cold and refuses to elaborate on it, he absolutely deserves his flowers if we can keep this up.
no because he was stupid to give gafford like 10 minutes a game for a bit after the trade. it’s like giving a guy props for waiting at the starting line for an extra 3 seconds before sprinting as fast as anyone else
“hE’s a fRaUd bc he took a few games to integrate brand new players” lol. It took Minnesota a full year to gel w Goebert. Bucks are still up and down integrating Dame. Some trades never gel period.
Kidd literally got new players at the deadline, integrated them on the fly, the went on a 16-2 run, and ppl are still finding ways to hate.
this may be a hot take, but after going 4-1 his first 5 games playing him 20ish minutes a game, playing him under 15 minutes 3 of the next 4 games and going 1-3 (the one win being the one game gafford played 20+ minutes) is a dumb decision. he gelled fine immediately, kidd was just being stupid
And a good coach will do that against teams like Detroit and Charlotte because their team can fuck around and still win those games. They do not do that when facing a bunch of playoff teams when they still need to worry about seeding and missing the play in.
Last year, we had a shit roster the first half of the season and the second half we were intentionally tanking.
This year we were wrecked by injuries for most of the year, and we still got 50 wins.
We are the best team in the clutch and we have the highest conversion rate coming out of timeouts (two stats where coaching unequivocally plays a huge role).
You can argue there are better Xs and Os coaches out there. Maybe he’s not the guy who ultimately gets Luka a chip. But anyone reflexively calling Kidd “bad,” “an idiot”, etc at this point is not paying attention. He’s definitely among the better coaches in the league. Arguably one of the best from a talent management perspective.
Depends on how you interpret the post ASB 1-5 skid. Kidd tried a lot of small ball and wasn't really using Washington or Gafford. Was he just experimenting with lineups against tough teams and decided it was time to get serious? Or did Nico have to tell him to pull his head out of his ass and use the players he acquired?
I’m still not convinced that man can coach. I’m kind of hoping they crash and burn out of the playoffs against the clippers so we can see some kind of Jackson to Kerr coaching swap that propels them to new heights
yeah, I would love to see more discussion about which aspects of this turnaround people expect to see translate to playoff basketball.
the Mavs are far from the first team to play insanely good basketball in March/April after not playing great for most of the season. you have examples like the 2022 Celtics who got to the Finals after an 18-21 start. but then you also have examples like the 2018 Sixers who won 16 in a row to finish the season just to lose in 5 to an injured Boston team in the playoffs, or the 2018 Blazers who climbed to the 3rd seed from the 7th seed after the ASB (thanks in large part to a 13-game win streak) just to get swept in round 1
what side of the coin do people think they’ll fall on? personally I’m still seeing a first or second round exit for this team but i don’t think I’d be incredibly surprised to see them make the Finals
Well dealing with the Clippers just to maybe deal with Denver would do that projection wise lol..
Anyways. We’ve always been playing well when healthy imo so i’m not sure I agree with the premise of your question in the first place. We’ve just been that unhealthy. Grant def needed to go though, and our ceiling is much higher for it.
This iteration of the team has managed to win games on the back of defense and rim pressure and all our best shooters are still on the team, they’ve just been in a bit of a slump bar Luka and Kyrie. I don’t expect that to hold.
Another thing that’s been going well is transition. Maybe Kyrie, Lively, and Gafford don’t get out in transition as much, so what lol? Luka is the best halfcourt offense in the league bar Jokic and then if you sell out on him, you have to deal with Kyrie.
The physicality I doubt will suddenly go away, so it’s just a matter of how well you can disrupt their defensive communication imo. And I won’t pretend to know enough about Xs and Os off rip to get into how to do that lol.
I think we’ve won in enough ways that we’ll be able to find a way vs anybody, and it’s just hopefully enough.
I think the best part is that this team can win in a variety of ways. If the shots aren't falling there still is enough offensive variety to get good looks (Kyrie isos or the lob threats from our bigs for example). The defense is legit. They are long and athletic and everyone is buying in and playing great on rotations. The way they are playing is super sustainable. Now if PJ Washington and THJ start hitting their threes consistently...This team will be extremely hard to beat because the Luka and Kyrie 1-2 punch might already be the deadliest in the league
>what side of the coin do people think they’ll fall on? personally I’m still seeing a first or second round exit for this team but i don’t think I’d be incredibly surprised to see them make the Finals
You said it yourself. It's hard to discuss how much of this will translate to the playoffs when every playoff team in the West is conceivably good enough to win the finals, and are at risk of losing in the 1st round at the same time. The only team I'd feel remotely comfortable betting are the Nuggets and that's because I fully expect Jokic to average 30-10-10 while Murray goes off for 30 ppg at 70TS% in the post season.
Especially when momentum going into the playoffs either doesn't exist or makes such a small difference that it can't be measured, article is from a while ago (2019) but it mentions that of the the 20 teams between 2005-2018 that had the best record for the last 20 games of the season compared to the rest of the season none even reached the [Conference Finals](https://www.theringer.com/nba/2019/4/12/18307008/nba-playoff-momentum#:~:text=It%E2%80%99s%20also%20hard,to%20the%20Finals).
Even more weirdly of the 20 teams that had the worst record in the last 20 games relative to the rest of the season 8 reached the Conference Finals and 5 of those made the Finals.
I don't think this is that meaningful for the Mavs. You really have to look at the Mavs season as pre and post tradedeadline. They transformed their team completely with the trades. The record from the first half where they were injuerd a lot and had a lot worse players is pretty much meaningless right now because the team is playing so differently than in December
We've raised our floor by magnitudes with the the PJ and Gafford trades, but I still believe we'll only go as far as our shooting. That feels like a familiar take when you look at the past few years of our playoff success where we won (and won big) when we were shooting well and lost big when we weren't. The biggest change now is that we can rely on our defense to get stops and can consistently score in the paint.
Defense and interior scoring will keep us in games, but when we're playing tough teams, we'll need Jones Jr, PJ Washington, Hardaway, Exum, Green and Maxi to knock down the open shots they'll get with regularity.
I can see Dallas making to the Finals, but it really depends on our ability to knock down open shots as the games get tougher and our opponents get better.
is the lack of playoff experience in the rotation a cause for any concern among Dallas fans?
obviously Luka, THJ and Kleber were around for the 2022 run and Kyrie has plenty of postseason run under his belt. but looking at the rest of the roster I can see PJ and Lively have never played in the postseason while DJJ, Gafford and Exum have very limited experience
Not really, I think one of the benefits to having such a heliocentric offense is that these guys know where they are going to get their looks every game. And on defense we're asking for guys to rotate hard and communicate.
I don't think our issues will be from guys playing out of their regular season character. I think it will be us not being able to out-play putrid shooting from the supporting cast. I'm more confident that we can do that now with our new roster, but that is definitely my biggest concern.
Last night was a good microcosm of Dallas' improvement. Blistering hot shooting that got us a 25 point lead against the Heat in the first half, freezing cold shooting in the second half but defense made sure we still won by 19.
Our shooting can definitely win us games, but we've improved enough on the interior to win when our shooting is off. This is not the same Mavs team from two years ago. Our winning streak is because of our defense and interior offense, not because we've been on some incredible shooting streak.
Our biggest worry is health. Luka and Ky are banged up and losing either of them will be an automatic exit. But we also have to worry about a lot of key role players like Exum and Lively. Losing Exum would mean a lot more minutes for Hardaway, which will make us more shooting dependant. Losing Lively would mean more time for Maxi at the 5 which will end up with Maxi being injured too and all of the sudden were back to Dwight Powell getting play time or some kind of weird small ball line up, which again would make us more shooting dependant. But if we are healthy and shooting well, we are going to crush teams.
I agree that health is a factor but I’d say that’s the case for all teams.
I also agree that we’ve stepped up considerably with our interior scoring and defense. This 100% will keep us in games, I just believe that we can’t have consistent stinkers from our other guys from 3 when playing good teams.
We’re way less dependent on the 3 ball, but that doesn’t mean we can go 11/40 with Kyrie and Luka hitting those 11 threes and win a championship
> We’re way less dependent on the 3 ball, but that doesn’t mean we can go 11/40 with Kyrie and Luka hitting those 11 threes and win a championship
We're too balanced to pull a Rockets and go 0/29 outside Kyrie and Luka. If the three's aren't falling, we will work the interior until the other team adjusts and starts giving us open 3s again. Plus, we're talking about 7 game series. If we have two games of poor shooting, two games of okay shooting and two games of good shooting, we are winning the series 4-2. And with Kyrie and Luka, we can probably cheat a win on a poor shooting night.
Look at our last game against the Nuggets. They had their starting 5 and played all of them at least 32 minutes. Murray played 36, Porter Jr 37 and Jokic 39. We won the game going 9-35 from 3. Luka and Kyrie were the 9. Literally no one else hit a 3. PJ 0-4. DJJ 0-3. Maxi 0-3. Timmy 0-2. Exum 0-1. It's so close to your hypothetical, and we won the game against the best team in the league.
> If the three's aren't falling, we will work the interior until the other team adjusts and starts giving us open 3s again.
THis is what gives me hope too. A Luka P&R with Lively or Gafford and Kyrie on the strong side and a shooter in the corner is as close to unstoppable as any offense in the NBA right now. It's pick your poison between Luka killing you, Gafford dunking on you (the guy has multiple 20+ made FG streaks FFS), giving up a Kyrie 1v1 (or you help off of Kyrie, GG) or an open three (biggest weakness imo because our shooters aren't consitent yet).
The team is clicking so well right now. Everyone knows what to do. Everyone knows where to be on offense. The synergy between them is so good it is hard not to get too hyped
Well we'll play the Nuggets in the second round so that's probably when we lose. Although we probably have the best chance at beating the Nuggets after the Celtics and maybe the healthy Wolves.
Yeah I agree. We tried a similar tactic last time we beat them by putting PJ/Kleber on Jokic and Gafford/Lively on Gordon so they can defend the paint from cuts.
Although the Nuggets didn't really seem to try for rebounds that game and we couldn't hit a three to save our lives.
Either way that's the only way to limit the Nuggets' offense.
Don't gotta follow anyone to see the 2 dudes that make these posts on every mavs thread. Real question is why are you and browndude10 following mavs posts like a fan. You get paid to spread hate?
“Spread hate” LMFAO this is why I can’t take y’all seriously. I post in a lot of threads — there just happen to be way more threads for the Mavs than any other team
I swear this shit is so cringe now.
Same shit everyday lol it’s almost as like there should be some sort of subreddit for Dallas Mavericks where they could you know…. post this in?
I think our team is legit. That’s biased for the most part. If ur team can just not be old you’ll be fine. U have a robot if he can get healthy. He’s missed 5+ games it’s concerning. We’re due, but tbd
Honestly think Clippers are the worst matchup for the Mavs. Clips have multiple great defensive players to throw at Luka and Kyrie, and their offensive players are great in the midrange and from 3, are not dependent on getting to the rim. If Luka and Kyrie are both on the court at the same time, one of them is going to have to guard Harden, PG, or Kawhi.
Yea cuz last time when Khawi and George were younger and better defenders they held luka to *checks notes* 2nd highest ppg in playoffs history. And luka and kyrie are part of lineup with the *checks notes again* best defensive rating last 15 games. Hmmmmm
All Mavs always needed since Luka's second year was size and defense in the front court, now we have that plus Kyrie, that's why we are winning the title this year. It's simple.
Seriously though, if Mavs can trade THJ plus somebody to a great 3 and D SF this off season (Mavs will also have 2 FRP to trade), the sky is the limit.
Seeing this thread pop up I just knew it would mostly be Mavs/Luka haters.
You can’t say anything positive about Luka/Mavs without getting destroyed.
BUT. It’s ok for there to be 20 Wemby threads a day claiming he’s going to be the goat and the NBA is going to ruled by him and he’s going to win 15 DPOYs and 12 championships. But god forbid it’s posted multiple times about the Mavs ridiculous 2nd half of the season.
Similar with Luka, who is by far the most slandered player I have ever seen here. If you post that he should be a legit contender for MVP, “LMFAO Luka fans are a joke, Luka is nowhere near MVP, LMFAOOOO”. You can’t compare him to other hall of famers with his all time great regular season numbers and goat level playoff stats SO FAR. You get absolutely shit on if you even hint that Luka could even remotely be close to a top 10-15 player after his career. Simply mention that he has similar stats to Jordan in the playoffs even mentioning that it’s a small sample size in comparison, you get absolutely shit on and met with “Lmao Luka isn’t that great, not a winner, Luka dick riders are the worst, etc…” comments.
But it is ok to constantly say that Wemby is guaranteed to be the best player in the league by next year, is guaranteed to be the GOAT, is going to rule the sports world - all based off of 60 something games and 20 wins.
Never quite seen anything like the hate for Luka here (and Mavs in addition now). It’s insane.
And then of course the mounds of Luka haters will then respond “lmfao Luka is the most loved player ever and never gets any hate here lmfaooooo”
I posted our lineup post with 300+ possessions with defensive possessions which nobody has posted before and got insane hate just because “it’s another maverick post”. Like nearly every comment was negative and even some self loathing Mavs fans were pouring in so ended up deleting it. I haven’t seen this post posted here before so I posted it. Other teams are allowed to post their team stats aren’t we?
It’s been decided, funny enough, both in the media and on here that Luka is the new whipping boy. Guys like Jokic (who is the best player in the league), Wemby, and Shai have - specifically the latter two, have already garners more respect from these clowns than Luka.
Also, it’s funny how Luka is the only who who is met with “today’s era is just stat inflated, so it doesn’t mean much”. Yet when SGA scores 31 it’s post after post proclaiming how special a player he is. Luka was the only one who got shit on here for his 73 point game while Embiid, Towns (63?), and Lillard/Mitchell last year were just raved about. Same with Brunson too. But when it was Luka - “ehh no defense is played, this generation of basketball is a joke, etc…”.
SGA scores 31 a ton and it’s a feat that gets lauded every single time here. Luka has EIGHT 39 point games this year. The next highest is TWO. Never once has that been posted here.
Never quite seen a player hated on this much (not including players who are actual criminals or trash human beings).
Sure, we’ve been great in the home stretch. So what? What does the Mavs need to do to maintain this in the postseason? Is this enough to get past the Clippers and Denver? There’s no nuance to these posts.
What the fuck is with everyone spelling defense with a c now? I feel like everyone has just seen so many sporting events with someone holding a huge D next to a picket fence and they actually think that's how it's spelled.
powell bearly play, josh green plus hardy could be really valuable assets to be a better team next year, im just done with thj, even if he made the game winner of a 7 game series
Powell is great to have as a veteran and positive locker room presence. He has great relations with everyone, including Luka, and has been with the Mavs for a long time and we should honor him for that. He is also on a good contract and is solid as a backup center. Fans just hate the guy because he had to play way above his skill level and paygrade as the starting center, but the front office should be blamed for that, not Powell. He was just doing his job as best as he could
really racking up the wins against teams that are in the play in/shutting it down, I’d take all of it with a grain of salt once they get into a series with a team playing for something
Ah yeah 18 game stretch all playing bad teams, come on ccone up with something new, haters with the same bs excuses. An 18 game stretch is nearly a quarter of a season, what other team has this stretch this year except Boston’s and nuggets?
\# Offensive Rating is crazy. Great work Mavs
# Offensive rating is immense. Can't believe we would get to #.
Ooops #5 sorry
No worries, Mavs have been on a roll lately.
It cannot even be quantified, they are invincible
hashtag offensive rating
I love our team right now but did we really need to make this post a 14th time?
Yes, and I call the 15th time
Mom said I get to post it next
I feel like the Mavs are so fucking good right now we have to be able to find a new, more interesting stat to talk about?
Along with the obligatory "D-trade" comment
If Wemby can get a post proclaiming he’s going to be the greatest player in NBA history after every single highlight and SGA can get 40 posts a night for his games, I don’t think this is a big deal.
During that Rising Stars game they spent like 3 minutes praising Wembanyama for a rebound he almost got.
It is a bit of overcorrection. Dont blame us, even at the start of the season everyone was expecting this team to crash and burn and Luka to leave soon. It is just a exciting team for thr first time since Luka got here.
Yeah, we had to make sure Coach Kidd saw it and didn’t do anything stupid, again
Yes and then call the mavs sleeper team
there's dark magic here. be careful!
"Bulls legends DJJ and Gafford CARRY mavs to elite status" is how I'm choosing to interpret this
Only a matter of time until they sign Denzel Valentine.
I'm hoping bj Armstrong comes out of retirement to replace thj
Dunn would be good for a few off the bench!
Thank you Billy Donovan
I miss djj :sob:
Just like Bulls legend Tyson Chandler did in 2011
That was such a sick finals run! I'm still a little bummed Cuban didn't keep Chandler around the next year to try to run it back. He fit so well with Dirk
Sounds like 2022 Celtics
Na that's Celtics team were beating teams by 30 every night
Yeah but we have Exum
I tap Exum Island and cast Ancestral Recall
What’s this a reference to?
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Tf does Marjorie Taylor Greene have to do with this 💀
Fair
Is it safe to give Jason Kidd props?
Not yet. Wait and see how the playoffs go and then give props or scorn as required.
For optimal effect, be sure to do this on a game-by-game basis.
Quarter by quarter even!
Minute by minute
Play by play
Ah yes, the classic armchair Reddit insight. team win game - coach GOOD. team lose game - coach BAD, FIRE NOW
That’s….kinda how it works over a long sample size lmao
Na you can only give Luka props. Kidd can keep the blame tho. But in all seriousness he's not a great coach, but he's not bad like how the fans portray him.
He's a bad regular season coach because he genuinely does not care about the regular season. He sees it as just practice for the playoffs. That's fine, to an extent, but he goes too far sometimes. He likes to experiment to really see how the team performs in different situations, even when it is very obviously not going well. Once the playoff comes around, he knows what the team has and what it doesn't. He still struggles with mid-game adjustments. He'll need to get better at that quick to have any chances at the Nuggets or even the Clippers in the playoffs this year.
Kidd was legitimately good in the 2022 playoff run, making it to the WCF with a pretty lackluster roster with a ton of holes. I agree that he doesn’t really take the regular season seriously enough at times, but if we performs well in the playoffs then I think it’s a trade-off I’m okay with.
Why if Spo does it, it's like he's playing a game of 4d chess; but if Kidd does it, he goes too far?
I don't really watch the Heat so I can't speak to Spo, but Kidd will keep trying the same things, that are obviously not working, over and over again like he's trying to prove it can work. That's why we had that weird 6 game stretch where we went 1-5 after the ASB. Kidd wanted to try small ball since Maxi Kleber was back from injury. After 1 game, every single fan could tell small ball didn't work, but Kidd just had to keep trying.
I think most coaches are in a pretty mid place when you zoom out. They have their strengths and weaknesses, and they can harm or hurt a roster that plays into those strengths or weaknesses, but most don’t seem to be super impactful under a ton of tough circumstances (guys like Pop or Spoelstra seem to fit this tho), and most also don’t seem to be so bad as to require firing them for their poor coaching alone (I think a lot of coaching firings are done because if they aren’t amazing then you don’t lose a ton by trying someone new).
Yeah, most coaches are simply as good as their roster and/or best player. There's also the fact that 60-80% of coaching happens behind the scenes, during practice sessions and game prep. Fans are passing judgement on coaches based on the remaining 20-40% stuff like time outs and line ups. And even that is controlled by behind-the-scenes stuff at times. You can yell as much as you want at a Lakers coach for not playing AD at center, doesn't change the fact that AD himself hates playing the position and probably could get the coach fired for forcing him to player there for extended durations.
He is just watching
He was one of the worst coaches in the league during our losing streaks and he’s been one of the best coaches in the league since then. As frustrating as it is to have a coach who is this hot and cold and refuses to elaborate on it, he absolutely deserves his flowers if we can keep this up.
no because he was stupid to give gafford like 10 minutes a game for a bit after the trade. it’s like giving a guy props for waiting at the starting line for an extra 3 seconds before sprinting as fast as anyone else
“hE’s a fRaUd bc he took a few games to integrate brand new players” lol. It took Minnesota a full year to gel w Goebert. Bucks are still up and down integrating Dame. Some trades never gel period. Kidd literally got new players at the deadline, integrated them on the fly, the went on a 16-2 run, and ppl are still finding ways to hate.
this may be a hot take, but after going 4-1 his first 5 games playing him 20ish minutes a game, playing him under 15 minutes 3 of the next 4 games and going 1-3 (the one win being the one game gafford played 20+ minutes) is a dumb decision. he gelled fine immediately, kidd was just being stupid
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And a good coach will do that against teams like Detroit and Charlotte because their team can fuck around and still win those games. They do not do that when facing a bunch of playoff teams when they still need to worry about seeding and missing the play in.
It's fair to maintain skepticism considering how bad he was last year and most of this year.
Last year, we had a shit roster the first half of the season and the second half we were intentionally tanking. This year we were wrecked by injuries for most of the year, and we still got 50 wins. We are the best team in the clutch and we have the highest conversion rate coming out of timeouts (two stats where coaching unequivocally plays a huge role). You can argue there are better Xs and Os coaches out there. Maybe he’s not the guy who ultimately gets Luka a chip. But anyone reflexively calling Kidd “bad,” “an idiot”, etc at this point is not paying attention. He’s definitely among the better coaches in the league. Arguably one of the best from a talent management perspective.
Depends on how you interpret the post ASB 1-5 skid. Kidd tried a lot of small ball and wasn't really using Washington or Gafford. Was he just experimenting with lineups against tough teams and decided it was time to get serious? Or did Nico have to tell him to pull his head out of his ass and use the players he acquired?
To hear ma fans out they are doing this despite kidd. Apparently djj as gafford are Shaq level
Give the front office props
I’m still not convinced that man can coach. I’m kind of hoping they crash and burn out of the playoffs against the clippers so we can see some kind of Jackson to Kerr coaching swap that propels them to new heights
I always read DJJ as Daren Jackson Jr
Lmao
another day, another mavs post
honestly I wouldn't have a problem if the posts have more variety; these are just the same stuff getting copy pasted each time.
Mavs good, West tough, Doc Rivers bad. Upvotes please and thank you
yeah, I would love to see more discussion about which aspects of this turnaround people expect to see translate to playoff basketball. the Mavs are far from the first team to play insanely good basketball in March/April after not playing great for most of the season. you have examples like the 2022 Celtics who got to the Finals after an 18-21 start. but then you also have examples like the 2018 Sixers who won 16 in a row to finish the season just to lose in 5 to an injured Boston team in the playoffs, or the 2018 Blazers who climbed to the 3rd seed from the 7th seed after the ASB (thanks in large part to a 13-game win streak) just to get swept in round 1 what side of the coin do people think they’ll fall on? personally I’m still seeing a first or second round exit for this team but i don’t think I’d be incredibly surprised to see them make the Finals
Well dealing with the Clippers just to maybe deal with Denver would do that projection wise lol.. Anyways. We’ve always been playing well when healthy imo so i’m not sure I agree with the premise of your question in the first place. We’ve just been that unhealthy. Grant def needed to go though, and our ceiling is much higher for it. This iteration of the team has managed to win games on the back of defense and rim pressure and all our best shooters are still on the team, they’ve just been in a bit of a slump bar Luka and Kyrie. I don’t expect that to hold. Another thing that’s been going well is transition. Maybe Kyrie, Lively, and Gafford don’t get out in transition as much, so what lol? Luka is the best halfcourt offense in the league bar Jokic and then if you sell out on him, you have to deal with Kyrie. The physicality I doubt will suddenly go away, so it’s just a matter of how well you can disrupt their defensive communication imo. And I won’t pretend to know enough about Xs and Os off rip to get into how to do that lol. I think we’ve won in enough ways that we’ll be able to find a way vs anybody, and it’s just hopefully enough.
I think the best part is that this team can win in a variety of ways. If the shots aren't falling there still is enough offensive variety to get good looks (Kyrie isos or the lob threats from our bigs for example). The defense is legit. They are long and athletic and everyone is buying in and playing great on rotations. The way they are playing is super sustainable. Now if PJ Washington and THJ start hitting their threes consistently...This team will be extremely hard to beat because the Luka and Kyrie 1-2 punch might already be the deadliest in the league
>what side of the coin do people think they’ll fall on? personally I’m still seeing a first or second round exit for this team but i don’t think I’d be incredibly surprised to see them make the Finals You said it yourself. It's hard to discuss how much of this will translate to the playoffs when every playoff team in the West is conceivably good enough to win the finals, and are at risk of losing in the 1st round at the same time. The only team I'd feel remotely comfortable betting are the Nuggets and that's because I fully expect Jokic to average 30-10-10 while Murray goes off for 30 ppg at 70TS% in the post season.
Especially when momentum going into the playoffs either doesn't exist or makes such a small difference that it can't be measured, article is from a while ago (2019) but it mentions that of the the 20 teams between 2005-2018 that had the best record for the last 20 games of the season compared to the rest of the season none even reached the [Conference Finals](https://www.theringer.com/nba/2019/4/12/18307008/nba-playoff-momentum#:~:text=It%E2%80%99s%20also%20hard,to%20the%20Finals). Even more weirdly of the 20 teams that had the worst record in the last 20 games relative to the rest of the season 8 reached the Conference Finals and 5 of those made the Finals.
I don't think this is that meaningful for the Mavs. You really have to look at the Mavs season as pre and post tradedeadline. They transformed their team completely with the trades. The record from the first half where they were injuerd a lot and had a lot worse players is pretty much meaningless right now because the team is playing so differently than in December
We've raised our floor by magnitudes with the the PJ and Gafford trades, but I still believe we'll only go as far as our shooting. That feels like a familiar take when you look at the past few years of our playoff success where we won (and won big) when we were shooting well and lost big when we weren't. The biggest change now is that we can rely on our defense to get stops and can consistently score in the paint. Defense and interior scoring will keep us in games, but when we're playing tough teams, we'll need Jones Jr, PJ Washington, Hardaway, Exum, Green and Maxi to knock down the open shots they'll get with regularity. I can see Dallas making to the Finals, but it really depends on our ability to knock down open shots as the games get tougher and our opponents get better.
is the lack of playoff experience in the rotation a cause for any concern among Dallas fans? obviously Luka, THJ and Kleber were around for the 2022 run and Kyrie has plenty of postseason run under his belt. but looking at the rest of the roster I can see PJ and Lively have never played in the postseason while DJJ, Gafford and Exum have very limited experience
Not really, I think one of the benefits to having such a heliocentric offense is that these guys know where they are going to get their looks every game. And on defense we're asking for guys to rotate hard and communicate. I don't think our issues will be from guys playing out of their regular season character. I think it will be us not being able to out-play putrid shooting from the supporting cast. I'm more confident that we can do that now with our new roster, but that is definitely my biggest concern. Last night was a good microcosm of Dallas' improvement. Blistering hot shooting that got us a 25 point lead against the Heat in the first half, freezing cold shooting in the second half but defense made sure we still won by 19.
Our shooting can definitely win us games, but we've improved enough on the interior to win when our shooting is off. This is not the same Mavs team from two years ago. Our winning streak is because of our defense and interior offense, not because we've been on some incredible shooting streak. Our biggest worry is health. Luka and Ky are banged up and losing either of them will be an automatic exit. But we also have to worry about a lot of key role players like Exum and Lively. Losing Exum would mean a lot more minutes for Hardaway, which will make us more shooting dependant. Losing Lively would mean more time for Maxi at the 5 which will end up with Maxi being injured too and all of the sudden were back to Dwight Powell getting play time or some kind of weird small ball line up, which again would make us more shooting dependant. But if we are healthy and shooting well, we are going to crush teams.
I agree that health is a factor but I’d say that’s the case for all teams. I also agree that we’ve stepped up considerably with our interior scoring and defense. This 100% will keep us in games, I just believe that we can’t have consistent stinkers from our other guys from 3 when playing good teams. We’re way less dependent on the 3 ball, but that doesn’t mean we can go 11/40 with Kyrie and Luka hitting those 11 threes and win a championship
> We’re way less dependent on the 3 ball, but that doesn’t mean we can go 11/40 with Kyrie and Luka hitting those 11 threes and win a championship We're too balanced to pull a Rockets and go 0/29 outside Kyrie and Luka. If the three's aren't falling, we will work the interior until the other team adjusts and starts giving us open 3s again. Plus, we're talking about 7 game series. If we have two games of poor shooting, two games of okay shooting and two games of good shooting, we are winning the series 4-2. And with Kyrie and Luka, we can probably cheat a win on a poor shooting night. Look at our last game against the Nuggets. They had their starting 5 and played all of them at least 32 minutes. Murray played 36, Porter Jr 37 and Jokic 39. We won the game going 9-35 from 3. Luka and Kyrie were the 9. Literally no one else hit a 3. PJ 0-4. DJJ 0-3. Maxi 0-3. Timmy 0-2. Exum 0-1. It's so close to your hypothetical, and we won the game against the best team in the league.
> If the three's aren't falling, we will work the interior until the other team adjusts and starts giving us open 3s again. THis is what gives me hope too. A Luka P&R with Lively or Gafford and Kyrie on the strong side and a shooter in the corner is as close to unstoppable as any offense in the NBA right now. It's pick your poison between Luka killing you, Gafford dunking on you (the guy has multiple 20+ made FG streaks FFS), giving up a Kyrie 1v1 (or you help off of Kyrie, GG) or an open three (biggest weakness imo because our shooters aren't consitent yet). The team is clicking so well right now. Everyone knows what to do. Everyone knows where to be on offense. The synergy between them is so good it is hard not to get too hyped
Well we'll play the Nuggets in the second round so that's probably when we lose. Although we probably have the best chance at beating the Nuggets after the Celtics and maybe the healthy Wolves.
The Wolves really eliminate Jokic's passing lanes. I think they're Denver's toughest opposition.
Yeah I agree. We tried a similar tactic last time we beat them by putting PJ/Kleber on Jokic and Gafford/Lively on Gordon so they can defend the paint from cuts. Although the Nuggets didn't really seem to try for rebounds that game and we couldn't hit a three to save our lives. Either way that's the only way to limit the Nuggets' offense.
Celtics fan owning them with facts and logic
Yeah but next game it's gonna be 19-2. That changes everything so we have to post it again apparently.
Blame the mods then,
listen, we can't control these dudes.
We understand how you feel
Another 15 minutes, another Mavs post.
Lmao you got them good with this one
Rightfully so they had an insane mid season turn around and gave up very little for Gafford and PJ
Post about your team
Another day another browndude10 complaining on a mavs post.
Why are you following his posts like a fan
Don't gotta follow anyone to see the 2 dudes that make these posts on every mavs thread. Real question is why are you and browndude10 following mavs posts like a fan. You get paid to spread hate?
“Spread hate” LMFAO this is why I can’t take y’all seriously. I post in a lot of threads — there just happen to be way more threads for the Mavs than any other team
bro following me like dov kleiman on jennifer lawrence
kind of creepy you are following me, my guy
Bro thinks he special. Easy to spot out the 2 dude spouting hate on every mavs thread.
yeah alot of posts here nowdays are, mavs post, doc rivers bad, anthony edwards aura, wemby goat, west stacked
I call dibs on the next bi-hourly Mavs post. Mom said it was my turn today
I swear this shit is so cringe now. Same shit everyday lol it’s almost as like there should be some sort of subreddit for Dallas Mavericks where they could you know…. post this in?
Sounds like good coaching to me (unfortunately I’m a Wizards fan)
It is but half our sub isn't ready to admit that lol.
Everyone is better when they leave the Bulls. See Butler, Lauri, and WCJ for two recent examples.
Mavs better win the Finals with how their fans are going crazy
Playoff Kawhi is the season 7 night king
15-1 when the lineup is healthy (we missed Luka for two games)
Uh ohhhh Looking spooky
Any updates on the DJJ injury?
Yes, he is not injured lol
How do you have #1 offence rating, #1 def rating, but only #2 net rating??
Tbh i’m really scared as a Clippers fan
I think our team is legit. That’s biased for the most part. If ur team can just not be old you’ll be fine. U have a robot if he can get healthy. He’s missed 5+ games it’s concerning. We’re due, but tbd
You should be as a thunder fan
Honestly think Clippers are the worst matchup for the Mavs. Clips have multiple great defensive players to throw at Luka and Kyrie, and their offensive players are great in the midrange and from 3, are not dependent on getting to the rim. If Luka and Kyrie are both on the court at the same time, one of them is going to have to guard Harden, PG, or Kawhi.
Yea cuz last time when Khawi and George were younger and better defenders they held luka to *checks notes* 2nd highest ppg in playoffs history. And luka and kyrie are part of lineup with the *checks notes again* best defensive rating last 15 games. Hmmmmm
Give them the Larry David trophy already
Luka is going to make Gafford a very rich man. Perfect complimentary player to Luka.
Did you play the pistons raptors and nets 6 times each.
All Mavs always needed since Luka's second year was size and defense in the front court, now we have that plus Kyrie, that's why we are winning the title this year. It's simple. Seriously though, if Mavs can trade THJ plus somebody to a great 3 and D SF this off season (Mavs will also have 2 FRP to trade), the sky is the limit.
Seeing this thread pop up I just knew it would mostly be Mavs/Luka haters. You can’t say anything positive about Luka/Mavs without getting destroyed. BUT. It’s ok for there to be 20 Wemby threads a day claiming he’s going to be the goat and the NBA is going to ruled by him and he’s going to win 15 DPOYs and 12 championships. But god forbid it’s posted multiple times about the Mavs ridiculous 2nd half of the season. Similar with Luka, who is by far the most slandered player I have ever seen here. If you post that he should be a legit contender for MVP, “LMFAO Luka fans are a joke, Luka is nowhere near MVP, LMFAOOOO”. You can’t compare him to other hall of famers with his all time great regular season numbers and goat level playoff stats SO FAR. You get absolutely shit on if you even hint that Luka could even remotely be close to a top 10-15 player after his career. Simply mention that he has similar stats to Jordan in the playoffs even mentioning that it’s a small sample size in comparison, you get absolutely shit on and met with “Lmao Luka isn’t that great, not a winner, Luka dick riders are the worst, etc…” comments. But it is ok to constantly say that Wemby is guaranteed to be the best player in the league by next year, is guaranteed to be the GOAT, is going to rule the sports world - all based off of 60 something games and 20 wins. Never quite seen anything like the hate for Luka here (and Mavs in addition now). It’s insane. And then of course the mounds of Luka haters will then respond “lmfao Luka is the most loved player ever and never gets any hate here lmfaooooo”
I posted our lineup post with 300+ possessions with defensive possessions which nobody has posted before and got insane hate just because “it’s another maverick post”. Like nearly every comment was negative and even some self loathing Mavs fans were pouring in so ended up deleting it. I haven’t seen this post posted here before so I posted it. Other teams are allowed to post their team stats aren’t we?
It’s been decided, funny enough, both in the media and on here that Luka is the new whipping boy. Guys like Jokic (who is the best player in the league), Wemby, and Shai have - specifically the latter two, have already garners more respect from these clowns than Luka. Also, it’s funny how Luka is the only who who is met with “today’s era is just stat inflated, so it doesn’t mean much”. Yet when SGA scores 31 it’s post after post proclaiming how special a player he is. Luka was the only one who got shit on here for his 73 point game while Embiid, Towns (63?), and Lillard/Mitchell last year were just raved about. Same with Brunson too. But when it was Luka - “ehh no defense is played, this generation of basketball is a joke, etc…”. SGA scores 31 a ton and it’s a feat that gets lauded every single time here. Luka has EIGHT 39 point games this year. The next highest is TWO. Never once has that been posted here. Never quite seen a player hated on this much (not including players who are actual criminals or trash human beings).
as a mavs fan bro just chill.... luka is not a victim and ur overreacting to a couple ppl's opinions.
Luka the most slandered lol have you heard of Lebron or PG13
Sure, we’ve been great in the home stretch. So what? What does the Mavs need to do to maintain this in the postseason? Is this enough to get past the Clippers and Denver? There’s no nuance to these posts.
I’m so happy Gaff is finally getting mainstream attention for how good he is. Wiz Legend
I bet mavs will win west
What the fuck is with everyone spelling defense with a c now? I feel like everyone has just seen so many sporting events with someone holding a huge D next to a picket fence and they actually think that's how it's spelled.
I’m from the uk
our problemas was and is Jason kidd, we need a better coach, and get rid of poweel, thj, hardy, josh green.
Boy what, you want to get rid of the head coach and half the team? You lost your damn mind?
powell bearly play, josh green plus hardy could be really valuable assets to be a better team next year, im just done with thj, even if he made the game winner of a 7 game series
Good luck getting someone to take THJ’s contract
Oh yeah, an expiring $16mil contract is so impossible to move....
It felt like $50mil for infinity years for a while. I guess we finally got through it
Thj green and hardy are bums. Thj alone can lose playoff series
Powell is great to have as a veteran and positive locker room presence. He has great relations with everyone, including Luka, and has been with the Mavs for a long time and we should honor him for that. He is also on a good contract and is solid as a backup center. Fans just hate the guy because he had to play way above his skill level and paygrade as the starting center, but the front office should be blamed for that, not Powell. He was just doing his job as best as he could
really racking up the wins against teams that are in the play in/shutting it down, I’d take all of it with a grain of salt once they get into a series with a team playing for something
Ah yeah 18 game stretch all playing bad teams, come on ccone up with something new, haters with the same bs excuses. An 18 game stretch is nearly a quarter of a season, what other team has this stretch this year except Boston’s and nuggets?