The secondary ball handler has been subtracted, ariza is totally incapable of initiating any kind of offense. That means harden has the ball in his hands almost exclusively. And when ariza was here last, he routinely got beat like a drum on defense. Gambling an absurd amount and constantly losing his man I absolutely hate the ariza signing, he's complete garbage, one good season doesn't change my opinion of him
My only reason for optimism right now is that we seem to be building a more defensive minded roster. Ariza, Dorsey, Johnson, and Smith are all upgrades at the defensive end but if we still plan on playing this pedal to the metal style of offense without Parson and Lin's ability in the open floor we may be too reliant on three point shooting. Where do the easy transition buckets come from? I still see us as top 5 team in the west and capable of beating any team in the East in a 7 game series (yes, including Cleveland). Lucky for us OKC, SA, Potrland and Clippers haven't really made any spectacular moves this off season either.
Now that is a complete overreaction. The Rockets will easily be in the playoffs. What so many people are forgetting in the midst of all of this, is the James Harden and Dwight Howard are stars. I firmly believe that, especially since James is only 24. I do hope that we can get something else, because I hate wasting another year of Dwight in his prime. But besides that, it is ridiculous to say we will struggle to make the playoffs.
It sucks to think we are 3rd in the state but I agree. Mavs are better than us now and we are not near the Spurs. They have the GM, the coach, and the right mix of players. We really don't have any of those things.
Anyone who thinks we need a new GM is being silly. Anyone who thinks we're barely going to make the playoffs is crazy. We have the best center and shooting guard in the league. McHale is not a great Xs and Os guy but the players love him and want to play for him. Ariza will improve our defense. Hopefully Harden takes the next step in becoming a superstar by playing more defense. Our bench is much stronger. Asik will be missed but I want to see what Dorsey can do.
I think we're better than the Grizzlies but match up poorly with them, making them a tough team for us to beat but a team that I don't think we'll finish lower than in the standings. Warriors are a toss up, IMO.
Some of you are extremely optimistic. We have similar talent as last year and we retain the same coach. How are we different than 1st-round exit team we had last year???
Mavs better than the Rockets? Are you kidding me? Howard > Chandler T.Jones < Nowitzki Ariza = Parsons Harden > Ellis Beverly > Felton And we have the better bench
Ask yourself that question: Wasn't Parsons just as important to the team's success as Dwight was? The year before Howard, the team won 45 games with Parsons having a 7.0 WS and Asik, being the center, having a 5.5 WS. Swap Asik out for Howard and you gain almost 3 wins (Howard's 8 to Asik's 5.5). Aside from getting more production out of the starting center position, the Rockets got significant contribution from Terrance Jones last year as his WS was 7.6 vs .7 the year prior. And they also had a much better bench compared to the year before Howard's arrival with Asik and Lin bolstering the bench. I might be on a WS binge as of late but the numbers do help paint a good picture of how each player contributed to the cause.
You don't get that fear factor facing Chandler Bing as facing Big D12 in your grill. If D12 was in lilliards grill on that last shot, I guarantee you he would have missed. Defense wins championships bro. I would rather have a great defense and a team offense... oh.. like the spurs do.
I don't know if you remember but asik came back from injury is also the time we started to gel and solidify home court advantage. I don't know if you remember but Portland was pulling away from the series until we inserted asik into the starting line-up. One could argue that we would've have been swept if it wasn't for his production. On paper right now we are a worse team. Don't worry no need to talk me down. Let's compare the bench 13-14 bench PG: Lin SG: Daniels/Garcia SF: Hamilton/Casspi PF: Dmo/Asik C:Asik 14-15 PG: Smith SG: Damiels/Johnson SF: Gee PF: Dmo/Adrien C: Dorsey In my opinion we lost chemistry, leadership, and experience only to replace with retreads. You don't win championships with development projects, but with veteran leadership. No need to talk me down....
? Your response really had nothing to do with what I posted. If you're referring to the importance/contribution of Parsons v. Ariza then, yes, I'll agree with your round-about way of saying Ariza's defense is world's better than Parsons. But that doesn't escape the fact that Ariza is still a 3 and D player that had 91% of his jumpshots (which includes baseline 3s) assisted versus Parsons 80%. Like I said before, I can't see any drop off in production from the starting lineup but that bench....that's an entirely different story.
It is absolutely laughable to say that the Mavericks sport a better roster than us. Devin Harris is their starting point guard. DEVIN HARRIS. Monta Ellis is a rich man's Kevin Martin. Dirk Nowitzki and Tyson Chandler are getting ready to sign up for an AARP card. I swear people seem to forget about the fact we have two of the top players in the league just because they weren't acquired this offseason.
