OT: Desert Scar, I think the Mavs will be a different team this year. With Avery throwing tantrums about defense from the start of training camp, the team will have a different personality than last year even with the same players. Either the players will adapt to Avery and play more disciplined and tougher, or he will lose the team sometime during the year. We are going to find out if Avery is really head coach material. I'm not convinced players can tolerate him for a whole season. If he's the real deal, the Mavs will be much better because Nelly just didn't care about defense and Avery's coaching will bring them up a notch. I agree we will be better because we have two stars (including one superstar) and, to me, the Mavs are just a version of the Grizz with better players. Also, when I said defending the Rox should be straightforward, I didn't mean easy. I meant the plan should be very plain. If Yao is "on", UH OH for the other team. If Yao is ineffective, lacks effort or gets in foul trouble, defending the Rox is not difficult.
I think the Mavs thing will be difficult to duplicate for two reasons: 1. Only a couple of teams have that kind of size and quickness at the guard to exploit that weakness. Stackhouse and Finley together is a mismatch for a lot of teams, not just the Rockets. 2. Even against teams with guards who have size and quickness advantage, the addition of a second legit shotblocker like Swift is going to negate a lot of team's ability to drive to the basket. This team will have three legit shot blockers in Swift, Yao and Deke to clog up the middle. I do still believe that this team's most glaring weakness is the lack of perimeter quickness on defense. Frankly, they don't even need that much scoring out of that position. They just need someone who can keep up with quicker guards. For now, they will have to scheme around it and there may not be a better defensive schemer in the league than JVG other than Larry Brown.
Crowd the lane, and Triple Yao Ming. Then Leave space for TMac to shoot from outside, if his shots doesn't drop keep doing it. If he gets hot, and hitting everything. Throw up the white flag, because having Yao Ming Triple, TMac getting hot, it's over.
I agree with #1 completely, but I do think that's how we'll be attacked every game. Regarding #2 I've always said Yao closes the lane/alters more shots much more than people realize, and the addition of Stro should help greatly. With our current backcourt we could win 60+ games and then still lose in the first round of the playoffs simply because of the age there and lack of speed. I think it would be a much easier task to coach a team to a 7 game series victory against us than it would be to beat us in any given game. Avery got shellacked here, but his comments about his team after game 1 were spot on. Though the Mav's do present a backcourt problem for us I firmly believe SA, Seattle and Phoenix would have beaten us too (I didn't then, I had to realize it). Head is a huge wildcard this year. I've said he's like Scott Brooks with speed, handles and a shot. If this guy can come in and harass guards in the 4th quarter defensively then maybe Sura/Wesley/James can be more of an impact than they were. It is possible, and it's the only hope I currently have that could make the loss in the playoffs to the Mav's inconsequential. Stro won't be enough to get us to the WCF finals this year.
Double up on Mac for sure by leaving Sura like mentioned. I'd even triple team T-mac depending on who's in the game for us. When teams double and our guards are on that's when we fired on all cylinders (3's galore) and blew opponenents out. Who knew a JVG coached team could have outputs of 127 some odd points. I think everything Dallas did to us has to be taken with a grain of salt. We were starting Ryan Bowen for a few of the games and he also had significant playing time. It was basically like playing 4 on 5 on offense and sometimes even 3 on 5 when Sura or Wesley were left open.
