Kris and Dan Answer NBA Questions

Welcome to the third installment of "Kris and Dan Answer NBA Questions" here at the Block Party.

Over the next couple of weeks, to get ready for the NBA season (which opened yesterday!) Kris and Dan are going answer a bunch of questions. One question and two responses per post. Pretty straight forward.


Question 3: Can the Mavericks rebound from the playoff disaster against Golden State?


Kris says:

I will admit it even after the fact; I was on the Mavs bandwagon all season last year. I saw them play a ton on TV and I really thought they had what it took to win the whole thing; they were just so dominant in the regular season. They were explosive and varied on the offensive end and they even played some defense. But for whatever reason they ran into a buzz saw known as the Golden State Warriors.

The question is now can they rebound form that terrible loss and have another great season. I don't think so. There are just some teams I feel have a certain window of opportunity and this version of the Mavericks I think have run their course. We have sent his version of their starting lineup and it hasn’t gotten the job done in the playoffs. Their bench is rounded out with veterans like Dampier, Stackhouse, Eddie Jones and Trenton Hassell. Those guys don't really excite me anymore. I was a big believer in Devan Harris when he came out of Wisconsin but for some reason he doesn’t truly fit on this team, they are always better when Jason Terry is running the show. Unfortunately if Terry is running the show that means one of the crusty vets like Jones or Stackhouse is in the game.

What happened to the Mavs last year in the playoffs was a complete and total embarrassment. When something like that happens it is up to ownership and management to shake things up a little. It is obvious that everyone there was too comfortable and you could tell by their lack of reaction toward what happened, the only guy that seemed truly pissed was Avery Johnson, the coach. This was the time where Cuban needed to make the big splash and trade Dampier, Diop and Howard for a guy like Jermaine O’Neal or swap Nowitzki for Kobe . The leadership is the key ingredient that is lacking. This team has obviously shown a lack of heart and resolve on the court. It is so hard for championship teams to have a resolve and rebound from things, never mind a team that wasn’t strong enough to win a championship and has no on court leadership.

This then begs to the larger question and that is do European (or other foreign) superstars have the cut throat win at all costs mentality to lead to a championship. It is best summed up as a Jordan-esque quality; though we began to see it from LeBron last year, Wade with the Heat, Billups with the Pistons. The Spurs don’t really count; they are just so boringly efficient at both ends of the floor they exude the expression the total is better than the sum of the parts.

Dirk has the opportunity to prove me and everyone else wrong, but it is up to Dirk and Dirk alone. He needs to stand up and be counted, the great ones do it, ask Peyton Manning.

Dan says:

Dallas won 67 games last year.

They bring back the exact same team, which wasn’t particularly old to begin with. The exact same coach, who has been incredibly successful so far, taking the team to the Finals in 2005-2006 and to the best record in the regular season in 2006-2007.

I think they will recover just fine.

They ran into the worst possible matchup for them in the playoffs last year. Golden State was hot, they were motivated, and they played a style that Dallas did not match up against well.

The largest concern is this: in that playoff series, Golden State was determined not to let Dirk Nowitzki beat them. This is a normal tactic, leaving it up to the rest of the team to step up and lead. For Dallas, no one did, with the exception of Jerry Stackhouse, who is not even a starter. Jason Terry and Josh Howard were non-entities against the Warriors, and so Dallas failed.

I don’t expect that to happen again, as Josh Howard is a terrific player just coming into his prime, and Jason Terry is a talented and prideful veteran.

I think with fiery and ultra-competitive Avery Johnson as their coach, they will use that loss as motivation to have an even better year.

I think Dallas will easily be one of the top 4 teams in the West, and come playoff time, they’ll have just as good a chance to come out of the conference as anyone else.

Of course there will be questions, about their depth (they’re really only about 7 or 8 deep, depending on how you feel about Devean George), about Dirk and his “desire to win”, about Avery having the tendency to get outcoached occasionally.

But every team has questions, and these aren’t any more serious than any other top team’s questions.

So, Dallas is still a very good, very dangerous team. Losing badly in the playoffs last year will have no impact on what they will be able to do this year.