Generally speaking, the teams that cop hype early are the teams they expect to fail, but can generate hits until the collective wakes up. There's been more about the Mavs than the Spurs (what's new), Thunder (well I heard about Durant's foot), Clippers (Ballmer? not sure about their team, do they still have Chris Paul?), or us, there's maybe a case there's been more than all 4 teams put together, I've never seen a team so obsessed with playing up their favorable pre season predictions than that one. No one realistically thinks Tyson will give them 82 games, 65 might be lucky, Dirk might give them 75 if lucky, their most important players are old, they're not San Antonio, they don't have the depth to cope with 15-20 games and minute reductions. There's also the "all round team" that prevails across the mediaverse, it's odd, but I'm sure I can't be the only one that has noticed how there's a hard on for these teams that builds thru mid level players rather than the Lakerseque superstars rule them all (so much so, there's been a plethora of these dip****s that have been trying to tell us the Spurs were just a bunch of role players), problem is, history has generally told us, the Lakers are right.
I think this Dallas team will be pretty good, but not good enough to be a true contender and certainly not as good as their championship team. That finals team is remembered for Nowitski's incredible offensive output, but IMO they won because they also played truly superb team defense. Tyson Chandler manned the paint like a Defensive Player of the Year, Marion gave LeBron James fits, and Kidd did just enough on the perimeter. And of course, Nowitski went nuts on offense. This Dallas team is more loaded on offense, and if Tyson Chandler and Dirk will replicate their championship performances, they might get to the conference finals. But I'm betting that they're missing the defensive toughness and cohesiveness needed to win it all.
That Dallas team was the #8 offense and the #8 defense, and got hot in the playoffs. This Dallas team will probably be about #4 on offense and #18 on defense. Sure they might get hot for 1 round, but the chances of carrying a defense that bad through 2 series without transcendent offense is basically nil (eventually your shots go cold, and if you can't defend for ****, you aren't winning).
I don't see offense as being that big of a problem for this team. I think Nelson, Parsons, Felton, Devin Harris and maybe even Richard Jefferson should have respectable outside shots to keep the offense honest. It does seem like Dallas really aimed to bring in a bunch of offensive minded players, and odds are they're going to hit on a rotation that will work. Defensively, though, I think Carlisle really has his work cut out for him this season.
They are decent shooters but I was talking Peja like shooters when they went deep into the playoffs, winning a title.
No, I don't see anyone like that on this roster. They'd have to get it done by committee. Then again, IIRC their championship team didn't have elite shooting outside of Dirk. I believe Barea, Terry, and Kidd (from the 3-point line) contributed enough when it counted. Peja was on that Mavs team but he was a shell of his former self during the playoffs. I don't believe he made any impact in the finals.
Their lone championship came as a surprise I must say. They weren't always in the WC or Finals consistently as the Heat did before that.
I did not realize it before but they had brought in Marion a season before their championship run and Chandler for just that one season, according to Basketball Reference. Kidd was there for a few years. So with Dirk peaking at the right time, it was really a perfect storm for the Mavs that year. Too bad they didn't get the chance to see if they could repeat the success.
Does anyone know the cap situation for Dallas in the next three years? Will they be in the running for KD/LMA come free agency time, or does Chandler tie up some of their flexibility?
This man could've waited 1 more year to become filthy rich. Now it's looking more and more like Parsons + Ariza > Papinikulou + Ariza.
http://hoopshype.com/salaries/dallas.htm Looks like 29 mil on the books for 2016, they can shed a 2 mil or so of that, and then Monta and Chandler have POs.
Has Dallas turned Chandler gay or was he always a closet case? When I see this, I imagine Drake on the couch singing "Hold on, we're coming home" to him SMH
