Be honest guys, we sure could've used Parsons by now but just not for that max dollar. Dallas is good, scary good and if we play the way we did these last 3 games, they're going to give us an even worse beatdown than the Grizzlies.
Dallas has played a tougher schedule than Houston so far-- 18th toughest vs 27th for Houston. They also have a higher margin of victory than Houston does-- best in the NBA at +11.09 points per 100 possessions vs. 6th best for Houston at +6.18. By these objective measures, the Mavs have played significantly better than the Rockets have. The Mavs, as far as I know, have not had as many guys missing games than have the Rockets (only Raymond Felton, I think).
I didn't say they were a bad team, this was a response to the Rockets couldn't beatdown a common opponent. The Rockets dominated the Heat who then Dominated the Mavs...That's all I said, nothing about them being good or bad. As for the Mavs, they are a playoff team in the west, that makes them a good team. I'm not at all convinced that they are a good defensive team though. They are hot right now just like the Rockets were hot at the start of the season.
Because its apparent that teams have finally figured out our offense.. It doesn't take a Rocket scientist to know that teams don't sit around scratching their heads but try to adjust and find ways to counter the other teams offense We came firing out of the gates with something other teams were unprepared for. However, our offense is so simple (roleplayers pass to only two players- Harden or Dwight)ect.. the solution to the puzzle around the league has already been solved the scouts were right, we run the most uncomplicated offense in the league and without any plays we are screwed
That's cool. I wasn't addressing you. But there were plenty of people here laughing at Cuban for hampering his team by signing Parsons to a max contract. Well, it was a bad contract. But that doesn't mean the Mavs are not good. And I think people were too quick to dismiss Dirk as being washed up. We should have learned the lesson from Duncan by now.
It's one thing to just dismiss the Mavs' offense as "being hot", but let's look a little deeper. The Rockets' fast offensive start was carried by uncharacteristically accurate 3 point shooting, especially from Ariza. As we have so painfully seen, that has regressed horribly to the point where we are shooting not much off from league average from long range. But a full 42% of our shots still come from there, by far the most of any team. In accordance, our offense has fallen to the bottom 10. We really miss Jones as a secondary playmaker at the rim, because teams are staying close to our shooters. Hell, we're desperate for a secondary ball-handler overall. Terry can't really fulfill that consistently at his age. The Mavs aren't really benefiting from any hot streak from 3, however. They average the least amount of turnovers in the league while their defense gathers the most amount of turnovers. Combine that advantage they get on number of possessions with the fact that they're middle of the pack (just below league average) on 3 point % and #18 in FTAs per game. And yet they're still a historically elite offense. They're bottom 10 in pace yet still leading the league in scoring. The combination of stellar finishing from Wright and Chandler (leading the league in dunks and dunk percentage of shots), the driving and creating from Monta and many of their guards, Dirk's otherworldly shooting (even for him), the crafty cuts and glue guy things Parsons does, low turnovers, the high assists - it's all combining to show a system is just solid on offense. And no one on that team is even averaging 32 MPG. Dirk and Chandler are averaging 27. Carlisle is really something.
Or it's more apparent that the team is not playing it's best ball right now and as a result lost only one game so far in this cold streak. There is not much to "Figure out" when Harden and Dwight are playing as well as they can be. If Howard and Harden play well, there is nothing to figure out here. And not too long ago, the sky was falling in Dallas land because their offense wasn't good enough to make up for pretty bad defense. I didn't say that their offense was hot, I said though that they as a team were hot. The Rockets have their style of play and the Mavs have theirs. When the Mavs start locking teams up on a consistent basis, I'll be scared then. Until then all they've done recently is beat up bad teams, which I guess is good enough for them to get praise but when the Rockets do it it's just ignored, even by it's own fans.
Why are we talking about the Mavs challenging the Spurs when Memphis is outplaying EVERYBODY right now? It's too damn early to tell anything, and the Rockets haven't had their starting 5 in tact since game 4. Dallas is going to be a very good team. Houston is going to be a very good team. I think Parsons is a good player, but so is Ariza. For the price tag, I'm completely happy with Ariza, and I'm sure Mavs fans will tell you they are completely happy with Parsons. Saturday is going to be intense, and I for one can't wait.
For all the hand-wringing Rockets fans like to do about being disrespected, the Memphis fans have the real beef.
I said in a NBA thread about last week, that one of the teams the Rockets don't want to see is Memphis. Had a few people completely dismiss them. Memphis got better, undoubtedly so. They are probably the deepest team in the league right now too.
We lost only one game in the cold streak because two of those games were against the lowly Sixers and Thunder and we barely survived those games on the strength of our defense and together with the garbage offense of the opponents. Our SoS is 29th in the league.
Objectively, strength of schedule is based on a small sample size at roughly 12% of the season. Even so, the Mavs have a worse record as a result. .... it's too early to tell anything. There are too many trends and anomalies waiting to happen over the next 72 games for both teams. The Houston-Dallas game on the other hand will tell us quite a bit. And I'm expecting Dallas to come out with something to prove.
