Predictions for the Mavs this season

[HotrodBeaubois]

I think we're in good shape except for the 5 spot which quite frankly is a nightmare rotation as of now unless one of these guys plays way above their historic performance levels.

2 years ago we won 49 games with

Caleron Starting PG

And a Center rotation of

Dalembert 20.2 MPG / Wright 18.6 MPG / Blair 15.6 MPG

Zaza will be better than 2013-2014 Dalembert
Hopefully Mejri will be as good or better than 2013-2014 Wright
Hopefully Dalembert will be as good or better than 2013-2014 Blair

Deron will look like a MVP compared to 2013-2014 Caleron

People put too much stock in the Center position like it makes or breaks the team ...

PG-Deron Williams Top 5-10 Point Guard
SG-Wesley Matthews Top 5-10 Shooting Guard
SF-Chandler Parsons Top 5-10 Small Forward
PF-Dirk Nowitzki Top 5-10 Power Forward

C-Zaza everyone complains here ...But people need to take a better look at his stats

I think some of Zaza's uninspiring numbers were a direct result of Kidd's dumbass rotations

Total Games 73 Games 23.7 MPG 8.3 PPG 6.8 RPG
Starting Center 45 Games 25.8 MPG 9.8 PPG 8.3 RPG
December 15 Games 24.6 MPG 8.3 PPG 6.3 RPG
January 12 Games 25.7 MPG 9.6 PPG 9.0 RPG
March 15 Games 26.9 MPG 11.2 PPG 8.7 RPG


Who's to say Dallas only plays Zaza 23 MPG or even 26 MPG Why cant he play 30 MPG ?

Zaza PER 30 Minutes stats as a starter 11.4 PPG 9.7 RPG

11.4 PPG would rank him 14th in Scoring Among Centers right behind Douchedre Jordan
9.7 RPG would rank him 8th in Rebounding Among Centers

I don't see any reason why Zaza cant play 30 MPG . Even Tyson played 30.5 MPG with Dallas last year averaging 10.3 PPG 11.5 RPG not that much better than Zaza's 11.4 PPG 9.7 RPG PER 30 Minutes

I think Zaza will be pretty good playing for the best coach of his career on the best team of his career .

[Devassa]

I think we're in good shape except for the 5 spot which quite frankly is a nightmare rotation as of now unless one of these guys plays way above their historic performance levels.

2 years ago we won 49 games with

Caleron Starting PG

And a Center rotation of

Dalembert 20.2 MPG / Wright 18.6 MPG / Blair 15.6 MPG

Zaza will be better than 2013-2014 Dalembert
Hopefully Mejri will be as good or better than 2013-2014 Wright
Hopefully Dalembert will be as good or better than 2013-2014 Blair

Deron will look like a MVP compared to 2013-2014 Caleron

People put too much stock in the Center position like it makes or breaks the team ...

PG-Deron Williams Top 5-10 Point Guard
SG-Wesley Matthews Top 5-10 Shooting Guard
SF-Chandler Parsons Top 5-10 Small Forward
PF-Dirk Nowitzki Top 5-10 Power Forward

C-Zaza everyone complains here ...But people need to take a better look at his stats

I think some of Zaza's uninspiring numbers were a direct result of Kidd's dumbass rotations

Total Games 73 Games 23.7 MPG 8.3 PPG 6.8 RPG
Starting Center 45 Games 25.8 MPG 9.8 PPG 8.3 RPG
December 15 Games 24.6 MPG 8.3 PPG 6.3 RPG
January 12 Games 25.7 MPG 9.6 PPG 9.0 RPG
March 15 Games 26.9 MPG 11.2 PPG 8.7 RPG


Who's to say Dallas only plays Zaza 23 MPG or even 26 MPG Why cant he play 30 MPG ?

Zaza PER 30 Minutes stats as a starter 11.4 PPG 9.7 RPG

11.4 PPG would rank him 14th in Scoring Among Centers right behind Douchedre Jordan
9.7 RPG would rank him 8th in Rebounding Among Centers

I don't see any reason why Zaza cant play 30 MPG . Even Tyson played 30.5 MPG with Dallas last year averaging 10.3 PPG 11.5 RPG not that much better than Zaza's 11.4 PPG 9.7 RPG PER 30 Minutes

I think Zaza will be pretty good playing for the best coach of his career on the best team of his career .

I stopped reading after this. Not at all the case. Ill give you credit for being an optimist, but hey.. Im as big of a Mavericks fan as there is and our team is a dumpster fire at this point. Here is a more realistic look at our team:

Williams: Fat, lazy, old, injury prone
Matthews: Injured and might never be the same
Parsons: See Matthews
Dirk: Old and will likely play 25 MPG if Powell can contribute even a smidge
Zaza: Old and having to split time with someone even older than him

Bench is either old (Harris, Dalembert, Barea), useless (Felton, Mejri), or unproven/ not likely to get significant PT in Rick's system (Powell, Anderson, Evans, N'Dour, Jenkins)

[Teffer10]

I love and respect the optimism on this thread but I think people are really underestimating the competition.
We'll be lucky to win 7 division games and could very easily get swept by GSW, LAC and OKC.
And I'm guessing we'll play around .500 ball against Jazz, Suns, Kings and Wolves.

Cavs, Wiz, Heat, Raps, Bucks, Bulls and Hawks won't be push-overs in the east either.

Remember, we have rebuilt virtually from scratch again with a lot of questionable parts.

If this team wins 40 games I'd call it a successful season.
Not saying we shouldn't have hope but I think expectations should certainly be aligned with the situation and circumstances.

[HotrodBeaubois]

I love and respect the optimism on this thread but I think people are really underestimating the competition.
We'll be lucky to win 7 division games and could very easily get swept by GSW, LAC and OKC.
And I'm guessing we'll play around .500 ball against Jazz, Suns, Kings and Wolves.

Cavs, Wiz, Heat, Raps, Bucks, Bulls and Hawks won't be push-overs in the east either.

Remember, we have rebuilt virtually from scratch again with a lot of questionable parts.

If this team wins 40 games I'd call it a successful season.
Not saying we shouldn't have hope but I think expectations should certainly be aligned with the situation and circumstances.

Didn't be basically build from scratch last year with just 2 returning starters just like this year ?

[pastis]

Imo Dirk declined heavily in the 2014-2015 seasons compared to the 2013-2014 season. Its because that you simply cant argue like:" the player will be 1 year older each season so he will just slowly decline". DIrks 2013-2014 season was just phenomenal regarding his age. he still carried the franchise, scored over 20ppg on a 50/40/90 season. Remember how he riducilized LMA or Durant that season? he had an at least all-nba third team-selection-esque season....but well that is it.
maybe the 2013-2014 was his last shot to go for a ring with the right suporting cast. dirk had the riduclous clutch moments, the isos, he was the focal point of the offense and the enemies defense focused all on dirk. he spaced greatly for others.

no the 2014-2015. for me he declined like being 10 years older compared to last season. that is showed by the fact that he reduced extremly his iso situatons and fadeaways. Although Dirk announced before the 2014-2015 season that he feels just too tired to make lots of isos and fadeaways and that he wants to adjust his game due to his age, you could clearly see how dirk was exhausted at the halftime of a game already and nearly looked like dead if he had to play b2b or more than 30minutes.

with that background i think the mavs will have like 45 wins and miss the playoffs. Dir will have 15ppg/5reb on 44/36/87

[SOUNDCHASER]

I think Wes, Deron, Parsons and Dirk can squeeze out enough healthy play to win a lot more games than you dark side folk think they can.

Deron will come in here on a 1 year deal needing to perform for his next contract, Wes is under less pressure but is a DFW native with friends and family at every home game to drive him to be his best. Parsons is probably even more healthy and capable of getting back to his level of performance.

Wes might be the least healthy of the group but with Anderson and Jenkins as well as Harris we do have other options that could be surprisingly good options should he take longer to recover than first expected. Parsons has Anderson as well to help out at SF plus the find of the SL that had the Knicks upset at us. Ndour could be the answer to our losing Aminu and more with his 3 point shooting prowess.

Dirk is the one we need to have healthy. He is still the lead scorer on this team at least until Parsons starts to become the batman on this team. Behind Dirk you have crap unless Ndour morphs into a super scorer and at 6'9" he is PF size but not twin tower PF size and so many teams are going bigger at PF these days. CV is 6'11" but his defense is suspect. Love his shooting and when he is hot you need him in the game because he can stroke the 3 as well as any PF in the game not named Dirk.

So he is going to help us win some games but if Ndour gives us scoring and defense that would be very cool to develop. I just wish he was 7' but in a way not because at his mobility and size he backs up SF perfectly. With Parsons more likely to be healthy we may use him as the primary backup at SF if we need to use Anderson as a SG more often at the start of the season due to Wes being out. I like Harris somewhat but lets face it he is undersized at the 2. He would be better utilized at the 1 behind Deron.

3 point shooting does not require our guys getting tired out by using ones athletic ability so how is it we could be getting injured by being a jump shooting team? What aspect of the game is going to cause our guys injuries to rear their ugly heads and make us not perform well enough to win. Crunch time will still be productive as long as we have Dirk.

During the meat of the game if we play to keep pace and stay close we will be using the 3 point game a lot and just get buy with simple scoring that really does not require much physical exertion. If Parsons is 110% he will floor it to the basket and so will our young guys. Anderson can sky so can Ndour and Evans. Mejri looks like a lob monster as well. That should be enough inside scoring to open up the outside shooting and balance the offense. Deron can muscle other PG's to score inside and Wes is no slouch in that department either but if those 2 just take it easy and hit 3's they can do that without risking any injury and be well rested and capable for the 4th quarter.

Center is absolutely not a concern for me. I concur with the post above on Zaza being a capable center and the combo of Mejri and Sam is better than what we had backing up Tyson. Wright was a horrible center. Blair again a horrible choice. We now have 2 guys who could be as good as the starter if Zaza is able to become that. Mejri may get that job if he outperforms the others.

On defense we can play stoppers that we have in development like Anderson and Ndour. Parsons Wes and Deron are also good to great defenders. That is a small ball GSW style line up right there.Use Ndour or Parsons at the 5 and the other at the 4. Then you have Deron Wes and Anderson to play at the 1 through 3.

All 5 hit 3's all 5 play good to great D. The need for this lineup is non existent when you have 3 real centers who are all capable. Mejri runs well enough to give us an advantage in such a situation and is athletic enough to provide the small ball advantage while also giving us a real center to play with that kind of game. You only need to put 5 3 point shooters out there when playing from behind.

I would hope we develop Jenkins as a defensive PG as well. With Parsons being a primary point forward type we would just need a defensive PG and Jenkins may fit that bill at 6'4".

As for the hole at backup PF, what if we use Zaza as a PF for a few minutes per game while the center is Sam or Mejri? CV if he gets hot of course you use him but when he is not this might be a great option to try.

RC will get the guys to be in position to perform beyond their limitations and that is really the biggest advantage our team has over other teams. He can mold this team into a winning team that over performs and gets more wins than it otherwise would earn.

[Nowitness]

This team could very well be better than it was last year. Center is the one position that healthy is worse than it was last year, and Carlisle can turn just about anything into a playoff team (see: 2002 Pistons). It'll probably come down the same things that were problems last year (defense/rebounding).

[CoachJimCarrey]

When I click on the Mavs on Espn and scroll down a bit, there are 2 headlines right next to each other:

"Mavericks Will Take a Step Back"
and
"Mavericks Still Managed to Upgrade"

Based on numbers and analytics, we were the 3rd most improved team in the NBA.
Based on the 5 on 5 guys, we will take the biggest step back.
I guys ESPN is playing both sides of the fence here. Way to make a stand.....

[Teffer10]

I love and respect the optimism on this thread but I think people are really underestimating the competition.
We'll be lucky to win 7 division games and could very easily get swept by GSW, LAC and OKC.
And I'm guessing we'll play around .500 ball against Jazz, Suns, Kings and Wolves.

Cavs, Wiz, Heat, Raps, Bucks, Bulls and Hawks won't be push-overs in the east either.

Remember, we have rebuilt virtually from scratch again with a lot of questionable parts.

If this team wins 40 games I'd call it a successful season.
Not saying we shouldn't have hope but I think expectations should certainly be aligned with the situation and circumstances.

Didn't be basically build from scratch last year with just 2 returning starters just like this year ?

Maybe so but we lost our best scorer and best defender (and arguably our best player) this off-season. We might be a better team but other teams have gotten better as well and the east is catching up to us.
We might have a better roster and better team than last season but I bet we won't have a better record at the end of the season.

Just don't understand all of the enthusiasm about this roster. Sure there's some potential if a hell of a lot goes right, but seriously, where is our ceiling if that potential reaches its max....7th in the west???? Yippee!!!

[SOUNDCHASER]

If Deron returns to form, Parsons steps up now that he is the Point Forward and is getting the ball more, and if we returns to form as well then 1 through 3 we improve vs last seasons team since Parsons and Deron will be significantly better than they were last season and they will easily take up the scoring slack of losing Monta.

At PG last season we got pathetic scoring production from the scrubs we let play point and Deron is a major improvement on offense as well as on defense which Rondo was way over rated on D.

Dirk is same as he was last season or better IMHO. Tyson and all the scrubs we had at center are not better than having 3 legit centers who all have starting actual games on their resume. Mejri could end up being the best of the bunch and we know that Sam did very well here plus Zaza's numbers were good enough to rank him somewhere around the 15th best among active centers. To me the upside of Mejri is what put us over the top as they can all now play 20 + minutes and maybe one of them can play some PF.

That should more than give us what we need to compete given how less important the center position is in the overall scheme of things in todays NBA.

Having a great PG is more important these days than having a dominant center. Great 3 point shooting is also required to compete and this team is positioned to be among the top 5 in 3 point shooting.

We all now that defense wins championships and we are stocked with way better defensive talent. Ndour Anderson Jenkins Evans, Wes Deron Parsons and an adequate 3 headed center which has upside to me this and the 3 point shooting is what excites me the most.

If VAJ had stayed we would have a lot of people proclaiming us contenders but I disagree. I think the path that we fell into takes us closer to contender status than having VAJ playing here would. There would have still been a hole at PG. The nets would still have Deron and no way they would have cut him loose to play here. There would have still be vet min money to add Sam but no Zaza. The addition of Evans and or the Ndour experiment might not have happened and we would probably be looking for someone to add to the 3 PG's we already have. Jenkins would still have been possible as a vet min add but likely we would be looking for help at PG instead.

VAJ Sam
Dirk Powell CV
Parsons Anderson _?_
Wes Jenkins
Harris JJB Felton

If next season we can upgrade center and or find a PF/C to serve as Dirks replacement who can compliment whatever else we have at center then we will be a contender. Another season together to build chemistry with Wes Parsons and Deron = potential contender. If Mejri is a keeper to build around that is another step in the right direction since he would give us a legit starter and we could just keep Sam and Zaza to make for an excellent 3 headed monster.

If the young guys develop to play at multiple positions then Anderson 2/3 Jenkins 2/1 and Ndour 3/4 could all be rotation worthy players on bargain rookie level contracts.

That would be a fantastic core to take into the post Dirk years. Perhaps we are able to add another PF/ C next season and get onto the future while Dirk is still playing so we can reduce his mins even more.

[Shawn Kemp_40]

I think we're in good shape except for the 5 spot which quite frankly is a nightmare rotation as of now unless one of these guys plays way above their historic performance levels.

2 years ago we won 49 games with

Caleron Starting PG

And a Center rotation of

Dalembert 20.2 MPG / Wright 18.6 MPG / Blair 15.6 MPG

Zaza will be better than 2013-2014 Dalembert
Hopefully Mejri will be as good or better than 2013-2014 Wright
Hopefully Dalembert will be as good or better than 2013-2014 Blair

Deron will look like a MVP compared to 2013-2014 Caleron

People put too much stock in the Center position like it makes or breaks the team ...

PG-Deron Williams Top 5-10 Point Guard
SG-Wesley Matthews Top 5-10 Shooting Guard
SF-Chandler Parsons Top 5-10 Small Forward
PF-Dirk Nowitzki Top 5-10 Power Forward

C-Zaza everyone complains here ...But people need to take a better look at his stats

I think some of Zaza's uninspiring numbers were a direct result of Kidd's dumbass rotations

Total Games 73 Games 23.7 MPG 8.3 PPG 6.8 RPG
Starting Center 45 Games 25.8 MPG 9.8 PPG 8.3 RPG
December 15 Games 24.6 MPG 8.3 PPG 6.3 RPG
January 12 Games 25.7 MPG 9.6 PPG 9.0 RPG
March 15 Games 26.9 MPG 11.2 PPG 8.7 RPG


Who's to say Dallas only plays Zaza 23 MPG or even 26 MPG Why cant he play 30 MPG ?

Zaza PER 30 Minutes stats as a starter 11.4 PPG 9.7 RPG

11.4 PPG would rank him 14th in Scoring Among Centers right behind Douchedre Jordan
9.7 RPG would rank him 8th in Rebounding Among Centers

I don't see any reason why Zaza cant play 30 MPG . Even Tyson played 30.5 MPG with Dallas last year averaging 10.3 PPG 11.5 RPG not that much better than Zaza's 11.4 PPG 9.7 RPG PER 30 Minutes

I think Zaza will be pretty good playing for the best coach of his career on the best team of his career .

drinking the koolaid there ah?

Why do you autmatically think zaza is good? Also why do you not mention that both Blair and Wright were in the top 10 in the NBA in PER and production.


Zaza will not even play that much for the Mavs. Maybe 50 games at 15 minutes a game. Averages of 4 and 4.

Calderon is a lot better than Willaims. Williams is one of the worst players in the NBA and he's so bad you don't even have to guard him. Calderon is 70% on open threes that season.

Matthews is more like the 25th best SG in the NBA.
Parson is more like the 35th best chucker sf in the NBA
Willaims is about the 25th best PG if that.

The only thing you got right is Dirk as about the 5th best PF.

[HotrodBeaubois]

I think we're in good shape except for the 5 spot which quite frankly is a nightmare rotation as of now unless one of these guys plays way above their historic performance levels.

2 years ago we won 49 games with

Caleron Starting PG

And a Center rotation of

Dalembert 20.2 MPG / Wright 18.6 MPG / Blair 15.6 MPG

Zaza will be better than 2013-2014 Dalembert
Hopefully Mejri will be as good or better than 2013-2014 Wright
Hopefully Dalembert will be as good or better than 2013-2014 Blair

Deron will look like a MVP compared to 2013-2014 Caleron

People put too much stock in the Center position like it makes or breaks the team ...

PG-Deron Williams Top 5-10 Point Guard
SG-Wesley Matthews Top 5-10 Shooting Guard
SF-Chandler Parsons Top 5-10 Small Forward
PF-Dirk Nowitzki Top 5-10 Power Forward

C-Zaza everyone complains here ...But people need to take a better look at his stats

I think some of Zaza's uninspiring numbers were a direct result of Kidd's dumbass rotations

Total Games 73 Games 23.7 MPG 8.3 PPG 6.8 RPG
Starting Center 45 Games 25.8 MPG 9.8 PPG 8.3 RPG
December 15 Games 24.6 MPG 8.3 PPG 6.3 RPG
January 12 Games 25.7 MPG 9.6 PPG 9.0 RPG
March 15 Games 26.9 MPG 11.2 PPG 8.7 RPG


Who's to say Dallas only plays Zaza 23 MPG or even 26 MPG Why cant he play 30 MPG ?

Zaza PER 30 Minutes stats as a starter 11.4 PPG 9.7 RPG

11.4 PPG would rank him 14th in Scoring Among Centers right behind Douchedre Jordan
9.7 RPG would rank him 8th in Rebounding Among Centers

I don't see any reason why Zaza cant play 30 MPG . Even Tyson played 30.5 MPG with Dallas last year averaging 10.3 PPG 11.5 RPG not that much better than Zaza's 11.4 PPG 9.7 RPG PER 30 Minutes

I think Zaza will be pretty good playing for the best coach of his career on the best team of his career .

drinking the koolaid there ah?

Why do you autmatically think zaza is good? Also why do you not mention that both Blair and Wright were in the top 10 in the NBA in PER and production.


Zaza will not even play that much for the Mavs. Maybe 50 games at 15 minutes a game. Averages of 4 and 4.

Calderon is a lot better than Willaims. Williams is one of the worst players in the NBA and he's so bad you don't even have to guard him. Calderon is 70% on open threes that season.

Matthews is more like the 25th best SG in the NBA.
Parson is more like the 35th best chucker sf in the NBA
Willaims is about the 25th best PG if that.

The only thing you got right is Dirk as about the 5th best PF.

ROFL .....You talking about the great Caleron who put up 9.1 PPG 4.7 APG .415 FG% .415 3P% 11.34 PER in 30.2 MPG ?

I will gladly take one of the worst players in the NBA even with 13.0 PPG 6.6 APG .387 FG% .367 3P% 15.73 PER in 31.1 MPG I really doubt Deron will be shooting .387 FG% this year in Dallas ..Deron will be close or better to his career averages this year in Dallas .

You ever consider the reason Deron shot so bad last year had anything to do with coaching ?

2010/2011 12 Games 38.0 MPG 15.0 PPG 12.8 APG .349 FG% .271 3P% Coach Avery Johnson
2011/2012 55 Games 36.3 MPG 21.0 PPG 8.7 APG .407 FG% .336 3P% Coach Avery Johnson
2014/2015 68 Games 31.1 MPG 13.0 PPG 6.6 APG .387 FG% .367 3P% Coach Lionel Hollins


Don't think its a coincidence that his worst 3 years of his career came with his worst coaches of his career ..

Deron will average 18 PPG 10 APG on .450 FG% this year in Dallas with Carlisle coaching him .

[SOUNDCHASER]

https://www.facebook.com/salahmejri/videos/vb.237063877116/10152949777727117/?type=2&theater
Salah will play some at PF if he can shoot these regularly

[LJM]

Rick Carlisle will coach this team to 45-48 wins and grab the 7-8th seed. This group of players is pretty darn good if all healthy assuming they have decent chemistry and coach doesn't over play old Dirk.

Dirk Nowitzki the winner will get them to 45-48. Without him this roster and coach is a 25 win team in the tough West.

[LJM]

That's not anything close to what Calderon averaged as a Maverick. I'm a Warrior fan and I can tell you that he was a key player for the Mavs that season and worked well with Monta. I don't even have to look it up but Calderon was at 13ppg 6 assist, 50% and 47% on threes and 95% at the line. Also one of the best in Ast to turnover for the Mavericks. I think his per was probably more like 17.

[cmavswin]

I would love to believe that the Mavs are going to be better but I doubt it. There are a lot of " if this guy does this" optimism going on in this thread. Sorry guys but when your starting lineup has 2 guys that need to prove they are healthy and 3 guys that need to prove they are not over the hill you are going to have problems.

[No-Man]

guys like soundchaser are clearly delusional, 3 legit Centers? we have one in Pachulia, who is way way worse than Tyson, and that's about it, the rest are scrubs or unproven, likely scrubs also.
If we are respectable enough to send a late lotto pick to Boston I would call it a good season.

[SOUNDCHASER]

So how many games do we win with this horrible team?

I am saying 55 is within reach because I think this team is at least 5 games better than last seasons.

Center is no longer a worry to me Mejri and Zaza plus Sam is deep enough to do the job and Dirk is going to be primed to start the season with his summer play.

Parsons and Wes could beat the time line for showing up this system and Deron will be a very good PG for us this season.

Behind the starters Ndour is something I want to see more of but Jenkins and Anderson should be awesome.

Harris is an ex all star and great player to have off the bench and then we might have Powell ready to break out along with instant offense in Charlie. Evans is looking like he could be interesting to watch in an Aminu or Wright like capacity.

We will need to find a replacement for Dirk after he retires but he has always been able to make do with talent to get us into the playoffs. This supporting cast is stronger at SF PG and even though we lost Monta I think the combo of Wes, Anderson and Jenkins is extremely powerful and we may be improved at SG as well. Dirk can pull it off again at PF. Ndour may be an Aminu starter kit that can shoot to give us a small ball C/PF that can do some damage on both ends of the floor. At center we are improved when backups play and our only position where we stepped back is at starting center.

So improved at 3 1/2 positions. Stayed the same at PF and degraded at 1/2 a position which is the starting 5. Boy that sounds pretty good to me. Last year what we did if it had been in the East we would have been tied for the 3rd best team in the East.

We will smoke the East with this team and should compete way more that we did in the west last season because our defense is going to be a great deal better. The lack of defense was what killed us last season and Wes is about the best Harden stopper in the league.

I think with as much as we have improved at shooting the three ball that we are going to cause a lot of trouble for teams on that side of the floor.

[Brooklyn_34]

Too many ifs....I don't like to place hopes on injured players.

I will be very generous and say 41-41.

Any more wins, and it will be a very successful season.

But the competition has gotten way better. I say we don't make the playoffs.

I see this season being similar to 2012-2013.

[pastis]

I wonder about the optimism most users have regarding the mavs and especailly dirk.
everybody who watched dirk closely and regualry the last decade HAD to obverve his radically decline in the 2014-2015 season. Its not about his scoring or whatever. Its about his movement, his legs, his body fitness. Didnt you notice how Dirk was exhausted after 25 minutes running up and down the peremiter? Didnt you notice that his jump when shooting is extremly low, just like 2-3 cm above the bottom?
DO you really expect a coming back season from a 37 year old who never had the opportunity to play 5 feet from the basket and waiting for the assist from parker or ginobili for the easy layup or dunk? im laughing dudes. Who never had the opportunity to play 25 mpg while scoring 13ppg and still his team winning 60 games?
Im a huge Dirk fan, but i can be objective. It would be amazing if Dirk would hold his last years level. but im realistic. i expect more like 14ppg on 43/36/88. AND THIS WOULD BE DAMN gOOD.

Regarding the mavs in general: it all depends on how healthy matthews and parsons will stay and if williams can have a little renaissance. I expect from williams more a Darren collision season, than a 16ppg/8ass like some users here.

I dont see the mavs reaching the playoffs next year. phoenix, NO, Sacramento, TImberwolves and even Utah and Denver arent that bad compred to us.
Right now i have just portland and Lakers behind us.