Don't think Dallas or Houston has much chance passing the first round. Dallas has a slightly higher chance because they actually have a coach that can coach, but still with West so packed they have a very slim chance passing 1st.
The difference is that the Spurs were actually slightly better in the regular season without Duncan on the court last year, he had a -2.2 on/off rating. Mavericks meanwhile were way better when Dirk played (+10.4) than when he didn't.
That's only one advantage. And coaching doesn't matter when it comes down to things like players being old, injured, or talentless (and sometimes a combination of those). With this year's Dallas team, Rick would probably be most effective by putting himself in the game.
If Dallas gets its usual production from Dirk and Tyson Chandler can regain dominant defensive form, then they will be a top 3 team next year. Too many ifs for me.
1) Both teams finish with same record. 2) meet in second round Houston eliminates mavericks 3) parsons will basically match his 2013-2014 stats. 4) Houston will see a significant upgrade in defense because of Ariza and his offensive game will almost match parsons. Why? : Ariza is a much better defender/steals/rebounds/stops and his offensive game matches what the Rockets are attempting to do overall.
Not sure if Ariza will match Parson's offensive numbers, or even if having him do that is a good thing...but he should be a better defender and his offensive game (3's) does fit better with what the Rox at least should be trying to do. FWIW....Ariza is who I preferred the Mavs get initially. That would have left another $7M or so available for other players, and Mavs needed Ariza's defense to replace Marion's. But, the Mavs ended up getting good players with what they had (Nelson, Aminu, etc), so not sure it would have made much difference.
Is that really more ifs than any other team has at this point, Rockets included? I think Dirk will remain about the same, and Chandler will be a dominant defensive force, but the question is for how many games. If he misses more than 15 games, or isn't available/healthy for playoffs, that will significantly impact them. They don't really have a replacement: Brandon Wright is a pretty skilled offensive player with limitations on defense/rebounding. James is a decent replacement for defense/rebounding, with severe limitations offensively. That is the big hole in the Mavericks depth chart. They used to have some undersized players that could come in and play very good for stretches at that position (Elton Brand and DeJuan Blair)...but they don't currently.
Ariza is just as good if not better from the 3 point line as Parsons. Ariza is slightly less able to create off the dribble. Ariza is by default a better rebounder. Ariza is a better defender although I think Parsons is more capable here than he is given credit for. I honestly believe Ariza is the better player and certainly fits better with Houston than Parsons did. In short...he's just what we need to improve overall in all facets...offensively, defensively, rebounding, steals.
Way to point out the one anomaly, hey that dude won the lottery if you buy a ticket you will too Dirk has been playing great ball over 12 years now he's gonna run out of gas any time now and not only is Chandler's game is dependent on his athleticism he's also been injury prone. I guess we'll see but I think Houston's gonna have a much better record than the Mavs.
I never thought I'd be following Dallas as much as I am, but the rivalry between them and houston is one that is quite interesting. Dallas, though they have no real superstars outside of an aged Dirk Nowitsky as of today, they have solid to very good ostensible potential all stars capable of playing like superstars on certain nights. Houston has 2 bonafide superstars with glaring holes in their games but are top dogs at their position, a couple of good players who can and will most definitely make an impact, though not in the same way CP and Monta Ellis can, and a roster full of not so good players =/ I personally think the Rockets should have developed D-MO better, the guy came into the league with a sick post-game, but that's already 2-3 years ago...
Right now, it is close enough that the final record comparison will likely depend on luck and health. A significant injury to a significant player can really put one team behind the other.
Okay, lets get something out in the open. Jameer Nelson sucks balls. Chandler Parsons will be a downgrade from what the Mavs had last year. I still respected the Marion/Carter combination. Carter was better offensively than Parsons. Marion was better defensively. The one and only reason this is even a discussion is because of Rick Carlisle. He blows McHale away. If Rockets and Mavs traded coaches right now, the Rockets are a top 3 team and the Mavs would be in the lottery or maybe sneak in for the 8 seed.
The Mavs has a very good coach, which the Rockets doesn't. He is smart and knowing the strength and weakness of his team, I saw how he utilize the zone defense to frustrate the Cavs and also how the offense improved with Nelson - yes I think he is a much more important addition than most people think, I think he is more important than Parsons to this team if the Mavs will hope for something big this year. I think the Mavs will score lots of points this year and also will give up a lots. The ZONE will give teams like the Rockets a lots of trouble because we like to penetrate, in order to beat the Mavs, we must shoot the 3's very well in those 4 games. Overall, I don't see the Mavs will be a contender, but I see them will be very close and having a very similar record as the Rockets. The west is loaded this year, I can see the Jazz and Nuggets to surprise a lots of people also. So 50 wins for any team in the west is not a easy task.
The Spurs team is ultra deep, they keep their old guys healthy by having depth down to 12 men, the Mavs built their team through cap space, which pretty much means, as you see when you look at their team, they have none.
It's easy to blame the coach, but it really isn't Kevin McHale's fault he inherited two of the most uncoachable players in the league. Harden plays no defense and is pretty much useless unless he gets the ball in iso. Sure, he's really good at flopping his way to the free throw line, but it doesn't help the 4 other guys on the team that pretty much just stand around when he has the ball. And Dwight got kicked out of practice at the all star game two years ago by Popovich because he was too disruptive. Plus, if Dwight really wanted to win a title, he would just focus his attention and energy on defense. Because insists he wants to be a "superstar", he insists on showing the world his crappy post moves. If only he just focused on defense, he could be an all time great defender like Rodman or Ben Wallace. He would probably be pulling down 20 boards a game if he cared about winning. McHale has done a decent job with the hand he was dealt and actually got a lot of value out of some pretty low end players like Beverly, Terrance Jones, and Troy Daniels who helped them stay in the series with the Blazers for an extra game.
Laughed at every one of these statements. Terrifically executed troll, slestack. You never fail to provide some great content.
