3 Points: Mavs' woes vs. West's best

[Lord Cuban]

ESPNDallas.com columnist Jean-Jacques Taylor and MavsOutsider.com editor-in-chief Bryan Gutierrez will join Tim MacMahon each week to run a three-man weave on a few questions on the minds of Mavericks fans.

1. What does the Mavs' 0-5 record against top-eight teams in the West mean?

Gutierrez: It just means that they're struggling early in the season. A pretty similar talking point was made during the 2010-11 season as they struggled against the best in the West. That year's Mavs squad went just 2-15 against the other West playoff teams after New Year's Day. It ultimately worked out for them, right? This team isn't a championship contender right now, but this early hole they're in doesn't insinuate they're automatically doomed in April or beyond.

Taylor: It says they're still learning how to play with each other since they have so many new pieces. When you're playing other good teams, everything is harder, which means the games are harder and closer. The mistakes the Mavs get away with against the dregs of the league are punished severely by the good teams in the league. Right now, it's about stacking wins and positioning themselves to be playing their best basketball in May, June and July.

MacMahon: It certainly isn’t an encouraging trend, but leave it to Mark Cuban to find a positive spin. “I guess the bright light is we probably have more room to improve than any of the other [contending] teams in the West,” Cuban said. “We’ve had more turnovers than any of those teams ahead of us, so hopefully that leads to more improvement as we go on.” The Mavs need to end the trend to climb the West standings, but it isn’t necessarily an accurate predictor of sure playoff doom. Remember, the 2011 champion Mavs went 2-15 against West playoff teams from New Year’s Day until the end of the regular season.

Other Questions:

Spoiler:

2. Are we seeing signs of a steep decline for Dirk Nowitzki?
3. Can Chandler Parsons keep up his December production?

Full post: http://espn.go.com/blog/dallas/maverick ... -best-mean

[dirkforpres]

3/5 of our starting lineup just got here this summer... Cleveland has (had?) similar struggles up until lately too. Not too worried about it.

[Mr Grant Hill]

well, the mavs lost
AT san antonio
AT portland
AT houston
and AT memphis

playing on the road hardly compares to playing at home. got blown out by the blazers, other than that we're talking about close games.

then again, the mavs currently are 25th in defensive rating despite having played one of the easiest schedules of all teams.

then again, this team is still a work in progress. guess what, this could be a work in progress for another year. training camp started at the end of september, we're talking about practicing/playing together for like 12 weeks, 12, that's nothing.

you see ... a lot of "then agains".

i'll stand by my first impression, though: a super fun team to watch and to root for. but not a real contender. and there's nothing wrong with that. nothing.

[EntropyPR]

I've read the "Have we seen the start steep decline for Dirk?" the past 2 seasons. He's older, has had some off nights and with someone like Monta he just doesn't have to do as much but he can still ball. The 2 OT game in Chicago was a good example. Cold during the game but turned it on during OT.