Dallas Mavericks 2023 offseason thread

[BliscoSantos]

We should trade those assets for a C. You don't need Jrue, if you have Luka and Kyrie, but we for sure need playable C.

If we use that package for a C, it has to be someone "playable" in the playoffs. I know a lot will disagree here but I'm gonna die on the hill that I'd rather have Holiday vs someone like Capela . In the playoffs, Capela plays 20-25 mpg and almost certainly not be in closing playoff lineups. Holiday would play 35-40+ mpg in the playoffs and be an elite defender guarding the likes of Curry, Murray, Fox, Ja, Booker, etc in the WC.

And it won't matter because we will be again killed in the paint, like we were against Clippers or Warriors. If you can't defend anything in the paint and can't rebound, you can't win.

You might check JRue TS% in playoffs, he's just a volume shooter, THJ has better numbers and he's getting old. I would rather have Brook Lopez, unfortunately he's even older.

Mavs have enough firepower on guards with Luka and Kyrie, it's true they need D, Josh should help there, but they need something desperately In the front court. Lively is just vivid imagination. He's at least 3 years away, probably a lot more. Nobody will openly admit, but Mavs are complete disaster on C, if Holmes can't contribute. They will probably have to finish games with Kleber on C.

Jrue would have made sense, if we traded for C instead of Kyrie.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, Mavs apparently don't agree.

Agree...Jrue is not a priority..a C and a big wing are...Turner,Capella, OG are Players who Mavs should looak at...Siakam is probably not in their reach

[41Dirk41]

I told you that the Powell resign was the awful move of the century because after that it was clear that we wouldn't have done nothing for upgrade the C spot.

Holmes is our last hope, if he is done we are done too

Powell-Kleber is the worst C pair in the NBA for the 4 straight year. We deserved a prize

[Maverick41]

Holmes is our last hope, if he is done we are done too

Our last hope is Lively. Even Holmes at his best would still be the worst starting C out of the projected playoff teams. That's not saying peak Holmes sucks, it's just that every other playoff team's big(s) are just better.

Speaking of Lively, he looked pretty good in training camp today. He's playing primarily with Luka and Kyrie too. Praying to the basketball gods this guy can be decent or man it's gonna be another rough season seeing guys like Powell and Maxi get bullied for rebounds.

[41Dirk41]

Holmes is our last hope, if he is done we are done too

Our last hope is Lively. Even Holmes at his best would still be the worst starting C out of the projected playoff teams. That's not saying peak Holmes sucks, it's just that every other playoff team's big(s) are just better.

Speaking of Lively, he looked pretty good in training camp today. He's playing primarily with Luka and Kyrie too. Praying to the basketball gods this guy can be decent or man it's gonna be another rough season seeing guys like Powell and Maxi get bullied for rebounds.

Lively can be the most C NBA ready in the history but he is still a rookie with no offensive skills, he can't make a real impact right now unfortunately.

TMac saying the Suns would have accepted THJ and Holmes for Ayton back in July... if it's not a fake we are the same morons just like past years

[Bob8]

Holmes is our last hope, if he is done we are done too

Our last hope is Lively. Even Holmes at his best would still be the worst starting C out of the projected playoff teams. That's not saying peak Holmes sucks, it's just that every other playoff team's big(s) are just better.

Speaking of Lively, he looked pretty good in training camp today. He's playing primarily with Luka and Kyrie too. Praying to the basketball gods this guy can be decent or man it's gonna be another rough season seeing guys like Powell and Maxi get bullied for rebounds.

It's impossible for a rookie like Lively to be ready immediately. Not only that he has to learn everything in offense and D, his body needs few years to become Nba ready too. Even rookie Luka, who was 1 of the most ready players to come in Nba, playing winning basketball in Europe, made a huge leap in year 2. Knowing how raw Lively is in almost every aspect, the most realistic scenario is 3-5 years.

[ozwizard8]

What a horrible trade for PHX. KD must be the worst superstar player in terms of team building. Kawhi at least forced Paul George to be traded who would defend. If Kawhi was not always catching injuries he would have much better chance to win a title with LAC. Lebron is always gifted by league with #1 picks etc to make sure his team gets top 10 talent but his mentors also do better job to surround him.

It really doesn't matter to improve offense in a KD team in expense of defense. I would rather have a good/great defensive team with KD. Then trust KD to make tough shots. He is still a top offensive player in the league. His value would only show if his team's defense is above average. Same **** with Luka. Adding Kyrie made Mavs worse. Mavs lost more defensive efficiency than they improved the offense.
With Kyrie on the team, and players lost for Kyrie (DFS, Dinwiddie etc), we started to have 2nd defensive liability on defense while losing height. Mavs started to give open 3pt shots, open layups, tons of offensive rebounds. Guess what even average NBA players shoot open 3s better than Kyrie's tough shot.

Mavs should follow the successful example of Denver and avoid disastrous Durant examples with the Nets and Suns.
+ An offensive juggernaut with playmaking ability (Luka, Jokic) needs an above-average defense to inflict damage.
Aaron Gordon and KPJ was a great addition to Denver. At SG and PF position they got one of the best defenders of the league. MPJ does not have great defensive fundamentals, but he is almost 7-ft at the wing. That means a great contribution to rebounding and weak-side help defense from a SF.
Luka basically needs that. A solid defensive foundation is enough for the Mavs to get back in the playoff 2nd round/WCF. A side-kick can be added afterward. We saw Beal traded for less recently. There will be players like this going forward.

Denver is a good example of offensive juggernaut surrounded with defensive parts to hide Jokic on D.
Controversial opinion:
Rockets was a good example too. Altough they never won a title, that Rockets-Harden team was the top 2 seed for many years and made many WCF appearances. They only lose to all-time great GSW team. I mean that GSW team even added KD which become unbeatable without them having injuries.
- Harden is great offensive player but he never showed he had the clutch gene. Relied to much on foul calls. Luka showed that he would perform even under stress in elimination games. Luka's performance, in general, is better in playoffs than regular season. He just never had a team to defend/rebound against Kawhi-PG or Curry-Wiggins.
Heliocentrism is not as bad as some suggest here. That system brought WCF for Dallas Mavs. Prime Lebron and Harden used to do that when they had the conditioning. Ideally, I would pair Luka with SGA to take the load off from him while not reducing team defense. But if its not happening, its fine to mimic Harden-Rockets to get back to being a contender.

[41Dirk41]

What a horrible trade for PHX. KD must be the worst superstar player in terms of team building. Kawhi at least forced Paul George to be traded who would defend. If Kawhi was not always catching injuries he would have much better chance to win a title with LAC. Lebron is always gifted by league with #1 picks etc to make sure his team gets top 10 talent but his mentors also do better job to surround him.

It really doesn't matter to improve offense in a KD team in expense of defense. I would rather have a good/great defensive team with KD. Then trust KD to make tough shots. He is still a top offensive player in the league. His value would only show if his team's defense is above average. Same **** with Luka. Adding Kyrie made Mavs worse. Mavs lost more defensive efficiency than they improved the offense.
With Kyrie on the team, and players lost for Kyrie (DFS, Dinwiddie etc), we started to have 2nd defensive liability on defense while losing height. Mavs started to give open 3pt shots, open layups, tons of offensive rebounds. Guess what even average NBA players shoot open 3s better than Kyrie's tough shot.

Mavs should follow the successful example of Denver and avoid disastrous Durant examples with the Nets and Suns.
+ An offensive juggernaut with playmaking ability (Luka, Jokic) needs an above-average defense to inflict damage.
Aaron Gordon and KPJ was a great addition to Denver. At SG and PF position they got one of the best defenders of the league. MPJ does not have great defensive fundamentals, but he is almost 7-ft at the wing. That means a great contribution to rebounding and weak-side help defense from a SF.
Luka basically needs that. A solid defensive foundation is enough for the Mavs to get back in the playoff 2nd round/WCF. A side-kick can be added afterward. We saw Beal traded for less recently. There will be players like this going forward.

Denver is a good example of offensive juggernaut surrounded with defensive parts to hide Jokic on D.
Controversial opinion:
Rockets was a good example too. Altough they never won a title, that Rockets-Harden team was the top 2 seed for many years and made many WCF appearances. They only lose to all-time great GSW team. I mean that GSW team even added KD which become unbeatable without them having injuries.
- Harden is great offensive player but he never showed he had the clutch gene. Relied to much on foul calls. Luka showed that he would perform even under stress in elimination games. Luka's performance, in general, is better in playoffs than regular season. He just never had a team to defend/rebound against Kawhi-PG or Curry-Wiggins.
Heliocentrism is not as bad as some suggest here. That system brought WCF for Dallas Mavs. Prime Lebron and Harden used to do that when they had the conditioning. Ideally, I would pair Luka with SGA to take the load off from him while not reducing team defense. But if its not happening, its fine to mimic Harden-Rockets to get back to being a contender.

Grant will fill the DFS hole and Kyrie is better than Dinwiddie... that trade was absolutely pretty good.

We need a starting C for contend but Cuban and Nico love Powell so much.

https://video.corriere.it/video-virali/giocatore-dell-nba-dimentica-essere-alto-2-metri-sbatte-pieno-contro-trave/bfdc32a4-59e8-11ee-b33c-c723630441ff

[ozwizard8]

What a horrible trade for PHX. KD must be the worst superstar player in terms of team building. Kawhi at least forced Paul George to be traded who would defend. If Kawhi was not always catching injuries he would have much better chance to win a title with LAC. Lebron is always gifted by league with #1 picks etc to make sure his team gets top 10 talent but his mentors also do better job to surround him.

It really doesn't matter to improve offense in a KD team in expense of defense. I would rather have a good/great defensive team with KD. Then trust KD to make tough shots. He is still a top offensive player in the league. His value would only show if his team's defense is above average. Same **** with Luka. Adding Kyrie made Mavs worse. Mavs lost more defensive efficiency than they improved the offense.
With Kyrie on the team, and players lost for Kyrie (DFS, Dinwiddie etc), we started to have 2nd defensive liability on defense while losing height. Mavs started to give open 3pt shots, open layups, tons of offensive rebounds. Guess what even average NBA players shoot open 3s better than Kyrie's tough shot.

Mavs should follow the successful example of Denver and avoid disastrous Durant examples with the Nets and Suns.
+ An offensive juggernaut with playmaking ability (Luka, Jokic) needs an above-average defense to inflict damage.
Aaron Gordon and KPJ was a great addition to Denver. At SG and PF position they got one of the best defenders of the league. MPJ does not have great defensive fundamentals, but he is almost 7-ft at the wing. That means a great contribution to rebounding and weak-side help defense from a SF.
Luka basically needs that. A solid defensive foundation is enough for the Mavs to get back in the playoff 2nd round/WCF. A side-kick can be added afterward. We saw Beal traded for less recently. There will be players like this going forward.

Denver is a good example of offensive juggernaut surrounded with defensive parts to hide Jokic on D.
Controversial opinion:
Rockets was a good example too. Altough they never won a title, that Rockets-Harden team was the top 2 seed for many years and made many WCF appearances. They only lose to all-time great GSW team. I mean that GSW team even added KD which become unbeatable without them having injuries.
- Harden is great offensive player but he never showed he had the clutch gene. Relied to much on foul calls. Luka showed that he would perform even under stress in elimination games. Luka's performance, in general, is better in playoffs than regular season. He just never had a team to defend/rebound against Kawhi-PG or Curry-Wiggins.
Heliocentrism is not as bad as some suggest here. That system brought WCF for Dallas Mavs. Prime Lebron and Harden used to do that when they had the conditioning. Ideally, I would pair Luka with SGA to take the load off from him while not reducing team defense. But if its not happening, its fine to mimic Harden-Rockets to get back to being a contender.

Grant will fill the DFS hole and Kyrie is better than Dinwiddie... that trade was absolutely pretty good.

We need a starting C for contend but Cuban and Nico love Powell so much.

https://video.corriere.it/video-virali/giocatore-dell-nba-dimentica-essere-alto-2-metri-sbatte-pieno-contro-trave/bfdc32a4-59e8-11ee-b33c-c723630441ff

That trade made 5th seed Mavs into what 10th seed?
Win now trade to LOSE
Objectively bad by every f’in standarts.

Now Mavs forced to give max contract to lunatic Kyr*e. Fingers crossed on that one. Hope he plays not act crazy like his Nets time…

In any case, Mavs spend assets for Kyrie and handful of cap space for him as well. No assets left to upgrade C position sufficiently.

Grant Williams should fill on-court role of DFS. Mavs spent their cap space for him. To fill hole created by kyrie trade Mavs spent an offseason FA for wing men instead of upgrading Center position.

Best hope is Kyrie playing good and getting traded for a legit C and some additional pieces.
Imagine if Kyrie worth Ayton+Jrue Holiday+picks. That’d be amazing. Of course Kyrie does not worth **** with that scary contract, losing track record, lousy performances.

[ejs78]

What a horrible trade for PHX. KD must be the worst superstar player in terms of team building. Kawhi at least forced Paul George to be traded who would defend. If Kawhi was not always catching injuries he would have much better chance to win a title with LAC. Lebron is always gifted by league with #1 picks etc to make sure his team gets top 10 talent but his mentors also do better job to surround him.

It really doesn't matter to improve offense in a KD team in expense of defense. I would rather have a good/great defensive team with KD. Then trust KD to make tough shots. He is still a top offensive player in the league. His value would only show if his team's defense is above average. Same **** with Luka. Adding Kyrie made Mavs worse. Mavs lost more defensive efficiency than they improved the offense.
With Kyrie on the team, and players lost for Kyrie (DFS, Dinwiddie etc), we started to have 2nd defensive liability on defense while losing height. Mavs started to give open 3pt shots, open layups, tons of offensive rebounds. Guess what even average NBA players shoot open 3s better than Kyrie's tough shot.

Mavs should follow the successful example of Denver and avoid disastrous Durant examples with the Nets and Suns.
+ An offensive juggernaut with playmaking ability (Luka, Jokic) needs an above-average defense to inflict damage.
Aaron Gordon and KPJ was a great addition to Denver. At SG and PF position they got one of the best defenders of the league. MPJ does not have great defensive fundamentals, but he is almost 7-ft at the wing. That means a great contribution to rebounding and weak-side help defense from a SF.
Luka basically needs that. A solid defensive foundation is enough for the Mavs to get back in the playoff 2nd round/WCF. A side-kick can be added afterward. We saw Beal traded for less recently. There will be players like this going forward.

Denver is a good example of offensive juggernaut surrounded with defensive parts to hide Jokic on D.
Controversial opinion:
Rockets was a good example too. Altough they never won a title, that Rockets-Harden team was the top 2 seed for many years and made many WCF appearances. They only lose to all-time great GSW team. I mean that GSW team even added KD which become unbeatable without them having injuries.
- Harden is great offensive player but he never showed he had the clutch gene. Relied to much on foul calls. Luka showed that he would perform even under stress in elimination games. Luka's performance, in general, is better in playoffs than regular season. He just never had a team to defend/rebound against Kawhi-PG or Curry-Wiggins.
Heliocentrism is not as bad as some suggest here. That system brought WCF for Dallas Mavs. Prime Lebron and Harden used to do that when they had the conditioning. Ideally, I would pair Luka with SGA to take the load off from him while not reducing team defense. But if its not happening, its fine to mimic Harden-Rockets to get back to being a contender.

Grant will fill the DFS hole and Kyrie is better than Dinwiddie... that trade was absolutely pretty good.

We need a starting C for contend but Cuban and Nico love Powell so much.

https://video.corriere.it/video-virali/giocatore-dell-nba-dimentica-essere-alto-2-metri-sbatte-pieno-contro-trave/bfdc32a4-59e8-11ee-b33c-c723630441ff

That trade made 5th seed Mavs into what 10th seed?
Win now trade to LOSE
Objectively bad by every f’in standarts.

Now Mavs forced to give max contract to lunatic Kyr*e. Fingers crossed on that one. Hope he plays not act crazy like his Nets time…

In any case, Mavs spend assets for Kyrie and handful of cap space for him as well. No assets left to upgrade C position sufficiently.

Grant Williams should fill on-court role of DFS. Mavs spent their cap space for him. To fill hole created by kyrie trade Mavs spent an offseason FA for wing men instead of upgrading Center position.

Best hope is Kyrie playing good and getting traded for a legit C and some additional pieces.
Imagine if Kyrie worth Ayton+Jrue Holiday+picks. That’d be amazing. Of course Kyrie does not worth **** with that scary contract, losing track record, lousy performances.

I need to see more of the duo before I can say the trade wasn't good, but the team pre-trade wasn't going to end up a 5 seed or higher and could have ended up in the same spot.

[Archx]

That trade made 5th seed Mavs into what 10th seed?
Win now trade to LOSE
Objectively bad by every f’in standarts.

Before or just after the season starts, usually me and Bob8 give our opinion here on Luka and Mavs moving forward and i think the only time we were wrong was when Mavs actually made it to WCF, i think no one expected that.

Last season we also said Mavs will burn out because of the load that Doncic was carrying and it won't be sustainable for the long run. Guess what? We were right again. Kidd played him entire 2nd half of games already in Dec., and we basically all knew this won't be good. They were barely beating .500 teams and Luka had to average prime MJ numbers in order for Mavs to even be competitive.
This team badly needed a 2nd star and a real center. When Doncic got injured, he was nr1 MVP candidate and Mavs even had a chance of getting to 3rd place. But like i said injuries plus trade contributed to the fact that their season completely derailed. Maybe they could have gotten in to the playoffs but with severly bruised up Luka, 1st round exit was more or less certain.

Not getting in to the playoffs and keeping the 10th pick was basically the reason how they got Lively, Holmes and OMax. Because of that draft night, they also made way to sign Grant. So,

What happens with Kyrie now is a mystery, it could fail or it could be amazing, we'll see. But yeah, real center is still badly needed.

[41Dirk41]

That trade made 5th seed Mavs into what 10th seed?
Win now trade to LOSE
Objectively bad by every f’in standarts.

Now Mavs forced to give max contract to lunatic Kyr*e. Fingers crossed on that one. Hope he plays not act crazy like his Nets time…

In any case, Mavs spend assets for Kyrie and handful of cap space for him as well. No assets left to upgrade C position sufficiently.

Grant Williams should fill on-court role of DFS. Mavs spent their cap space for him. To fill hole created by kyrie trade Mavs spent an offseason FA for wing men instead of upgrading Center position.

Best hope is Kyrie playing good and getting traded for a legit C and some additional pieces.
Imagine if Kyrie worth Ayton+Jrue Holiday+picks. That’d be amazing. Of course Kyrie does not worth **** with that scary contract, losing track record, lousy performances.

If you think that Mavs squad could have ended 5th you are a dreamer... they replace Brunson with Ntilikina and signed a lot of crap players

No way they maked PO last year mostly with those Luka injuries.
This is only an argument for your sake and for carry your opinion. But it's totally wrong.

Irving played amazing with our jersey, maybe better than Luka too and DFS was unplaybles in Nets jersey so the trade wasn't the problem but you can still put **** on Kyrie if that make you happy. It's ok.

It's easy give all the faults to Irving but the real fail was last off season where Nico and Cuban were horribles.
After understood their faults they filled Brunson hole maked another one in the SF/PF spot.
Grant Williams was an awesome signs.

Now we need a C, they had not the courage to trade for Ayton (rumors says THJ+Holmes was enough back in july or even Green if they don't think he earns a big contract).

I hope Holmes can be in 2020 shape and helps the team.

[Teffer10]

That trade made 5th seed Mavs into what 10th seed?
Win now trade to LOSE
Objectively bad by every f’in standarts.

Before or just after the season starts, usually me and Bob8 give our opinion here on Luka and Mavs moving forward and i think the only time we were wrong was when Mavs actually made it to WCF, i think no one expected that.

Last season we also said Mavs will burn out because of the load that Doncic was carrying and it won't be sustainable for the long run. Guess what? We were right again. Kidd played him entire 2nd half of games already in Dec., and we basically all knew this won't be good. They were barely beating .500 teams and Luka had to average prime MJ numbers in order for Mavs to even be competitive.
This team badly needed a 2nd star and a real center. When Doncic got injured, he was nr1 MVP candidate and Mavs even had a chance of getting to 3rd place. But like i said injuries plus trade contributed to the fact that their season completely derailed. Maybe they could have gotten in to the playoffs but with severly bruised up Luka, 1st round exit was more or less certain.

Not getting in to the playoffs and keeping the 10th pick was basically the reason how they got Lively, Holmes and OMax. Because of that draft night, they also made way to sign Grant. So,

What happens with Kyrie now is a mystery, it could fail or it could be amazing, we'll see. But yeah, real center is still badly needed.

I dont necessarily disagree with all you are saying but the part I dont get about last season is if Luka was so burned out, why didnt things get better when we traded for Kyrie?

Also, Mavs didnt look that bad with Kyrie minus Luka so I do see the benefit of trading for/re-signing Kyrie for that reason. They actually won a lot of games without Luka while Kyrie was here. So basing the benefit of adding Kyrie on that alone I would agree with you.

The thing that concerns me the most though, is how horrible they looked together (5-11) and then Cuban and Nico double down by re-signing Kyrie, basically trying to force a square peg into a round hole. And that concern doesnt even include the fact that Kyrie is, and always will be a nutcase and distraction to any team.

So to me, the very small benefit of having insurance if Luka is out for any length of time is not worth the enormous risk of the known facts about Kyrie's mental history and the fact of the dynamic superstar backcourt duo failing miserably in front of our eyes.

Sorry, not buying in to all of the optimism when too many obvious facts suggest otherwise.

[Mavrelous]

DeAndre Ayton was a VERY good player, a player worth at least 20/yr until game 3 of 2022 WCSF, ever since he's been trash and his coach and teammates were visibly upset with him.
I would've traded THJ and Holmes for him, in fact if they pulled this trade off they may have not needed the Spurs to facilitate the Grant Williams trade, I have no clue why they decided to pull out.
THJ/Holmes > Nurkic/Little
If they wanted another 3&D, Mavs could've added Bullock who is better than Allen.
Little is DJJ, they could've signed DJJ for the min.

[Bob8]

That trade made 5th seed Mavs into what 10th seed?
Win now trade to LOSE
Objectively bad by every f’in standarts.

Before or just after the season starts, usually me and Bob8 give our opinion here on Luka and Mavs moving forward and i think the only time we were wrong was when Mavs actually made it to WCF, i think no one expected that.

Last season we also said Mavs will burn out because of the load that Doncic was carrying and it won't be sustainable for the long run. Guess what? We were right again. Kidd played him entire 2nd half of games already in Dec., and we basically all knew this won't be good. They were barely beating .500 teams and Luka had to average prime MJ numbers in order for Mavs to even be competitive.
This team badly needed a 2nd star and a real center. When Doncic got injured, he was nr1 MVP candidate and Mavs even had a chance of getting to 3rd place. But like i said injuries plus trade contributed to the fact that their season completely derailed. Maybe they could have gotten in to the playoffs but with severly bruised up Luka, 1st round exit was more or less certain.

Not getting in to the playoffs and keeping the 10th pick was basically the reason how they got Lively, Holmes and OMax. Because of that draft night, they also made way to sign Grant. So,

What happens with Kyrie now is a mystery, it could fail or it could be amazing, we'll see. But yeah, real center is still badly needed.

I dont necessarily disagree with all you are saying but the part I dont get about last season is if Luka was so burned out, why didnt things get better when we traded for Kyrie?

Also, Mavs didnt look that bad with Kyrie minus Luka so I do see the benefit of trading for/re-signing Kyrie for that reason. They actually won a lot of games without Luka while Kyrie was here. So basing the benefit of adding Kyrie on that alone I would agree with you.

The thing that concerns me the most though, is how horrible they looked together (5-11) and then Cuban and Nico double down by re-signing Kyrie, basically trying to force a square peg into a round hole. And that concern doesnt even include the fact that Kyrie is, and always will be a nutcase and distraction to any team.

So to me, the very small benefit of having insurance if Luka is out for any length of time is not worth the enormous risk of the known facts about Kyrie's mental history and the fact of the dynamic superstar backcourt duo failing miserably in front of our eyes.

Sorry, not buying in to all of the optimism when too many obvious facts suggest otherwise.

I'm not sure that 2 games that Kyrie won without Luka qualifies as a lot of.

I believe it's normal that 2 players that are not used to play together, have more problems playing together than when they play alone. It was first time for Luka since first season that he doesn't control everything and has to play off ball too. You need time for big changes like that.

Expectations that 2 ball dominant players can click automatically were unrealistic, similarly as we have some unrealistic expectations for our rookies this year. I believe Luka and Kyrie will play better together this year and it's good for Luka's development to play some different system too. But unfortunately Mavs main problem is still the same. The worst front court in the league.

Luka was supposedly injured in last part of the season.

[41Dirk41]

Agree.

Little simple size... they need time. It's normal.

[Teffer10]

Agree.

Little simple size... they need time. It's normal.

Understand your point about playing with Luka, but the sample size is pretty large when it comes to Kyrie being a major issue for team chemistry in similar situations.

[Teffer10]

Before or just after the season starts, usually me and Bob8 give our opinion here on Luka and Mavs moving forward and i think the only time we were wrong was when Mavs actually made it to WCF, i think no one expected that.

Last season we also said Mavs will burn out because of the load that Doncic was carrying and it won't be sustainable for the long run. Guess what? We were right again. Kidd played him entire 2nd half of games already in Dec., and we basically all knew this won't be good. They were barely beating .500 teams and Luka had to average prime MJ numbers in order for Mavs to even be competitive.
This team badly needed a 2nd star and a real center. When Doncic got injured, he was nr1 MVP candidate and Mavs even had a chance of getting to 3rd place. But like i said injuries plus trade contributed to the fact that their season completely derailed. Maybe they could have gotten in to the playoffs but with severly bruised up Luka, 1st round exit was more or less certain.

Not getting in to the playoffs and keeping the 10th pick was basically the reason how they got Lively, Holmes and OMax. Because of that draft night, they also made way to sign Grant. So,

What happens with Kyrie now is a mystery, it could fail or it could be amazing, we'll see. But yeah, real center is still badly needed.

I dont necessarily disagree with all you are saying but the part I dont get about last season is if Luka was so burned out, why didnt things get better when we traded for Kyrie?

Also, Mavs didnt look that bad with Kyrie minus Luka so I do see the benefit of trading for/re-signing Kyrie for that reason. They actually won a lot of games without Luka while Kyrie was here. So basing the benefit of adding Kyrie on that alone I would agree with you.

The thing that concerns me the most though, is how horrible they looked together (5-11) and then Cuban and Nico double down by re-signing Kyrie, basically trying to force a square peg into a round hole. And that concern doesnt even include the fact that Kyrie is, and always will be a nutcase and distraction to any team.

So to me, the very small benefit of having insurance if Luka is out for any length of time is not worth the enormous risk of the known facts about Kyrie's mental history and the fact of the dynamic superstar backcourt duo failing miserably in front of our eyes.

Sorry, not buying in to all of the optimism when too many obvious facts suggest otherwise.

I'm not sure that 2 games that Kyrie won without Luka qualifies as a lot of.

I believe it's normal that 2 players that are not used to play together, have more problems playing together than when they play alone. It was first time for Luka since first season that he doesn't control everything and has to play off ball too. You need time for big changes like that.

Expectations that 2 ball dominant players can click automatically were unrealistic, similarly as we have some unrealistic expectations for our rookies this year. I believe Luka and Kyrie will play better together this year and it's good for Luka's development to play some different system too. But unfortunately Mavs main problem is still the same. The worst front court in the league.

Luka was supposedly injured in last part of the season.

If one of the alphas is willing to take on a lesser role then it might have a chance, but I think my chances of winning the Power Ball Jackpot is better and my optimism is about the same.

Agree on the frontcourt...they have done absolutely nothing to address that issue.
Added a below average 6'9 vet who isnt a true center and basically replaced McGee's role with Lively. Then resigned our biggest frontcourt problem.

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Before or just after the season starts, usually me and Bob8 give our opinion here on Luka and Mavs moving forward and i think the only time we were wrong was when Mavs actually made it to WCF, i think no one expected that.

Last season we also said Mavs will burn out because of the load that Doncic was carrying and it won't be sustainable for the long run. Guess what? We were right again. Kidd played him entire 2nd half of games already in Dec., and we basically all knew this won't be good. They were barely beating .500 teams and Luka had to average prime MJ numbers in order for Mavs to even be competitive.
This team badly needed a 2nd star and a real center. When Doncic got injured, he was nr1 MVP candidate and Mavs even had a chance of getting to 3rd place. But like i said injuries plus trade contributed to the fact that their season completely derailed. Maybe they could have gotten in to the playoffs but with severly bruised up Luka, 1st round exit was more or less certain.

Not getting in to the playoffs and keeping the 10th pick was basically the reason how they got Lively, Holmes and OMax. Because of that draft night, they also made way to sign Grant. So,

What happens with Kyrie now is a mystery, it could fail or it could be amazing, we'll see. But yeah, real center is still badly needed.

I dont necessarily disagree with all you are saying but the part I dont get about last season is if Luka was so burned out, why didnt things get better when we traded for Kyrie?

Also, Mavs didnt look that bad with Kyrie minus Luka so I do see the benefit of trading for/re-signing Kyrie for that reason. They actually won a lot of games without Luka while Kyrie was here. So basing the benefit of adding Kyrie on that alone I would agree with you.

Despite all of the negativity, they were the highest scoring duo since the trade. So i would say pairing did work, at least on paper. Other factors like absolutely no rim protection, horrible rebounding and Doncic's injury plus lack of bench mostly contributed to why Mavs missed the playoffs.

Luka is still battling today with the same injury he got in march, it's a no joke apparently. Remember, Kidd was forced to play zone a lot to hide his lack of movement on defense. So all in all, a lot of things went horribly wrong really fast for this team last year.

I wasn't in favor of re-signing Kyrie but on the other hand, what other options do they really have moving on? If they can develop in-house talent, they'll at least have some trade assests moving on and also future draft picks will open up aswell.

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DeAndre Ayton was a VERY good player, a player worth at least 20/yr until game 3 of 2022 WCSF, ever since he's been trash and his coach and teammates were visibly upset with him.
I would've traded THJ and Holmes for him, in fact if they pulled this trade off they may have not needed the Spurs to facilitate the Grant Williams trade, I have no clue why they decided to pull out.
THJ/Holmes > Nurkic/Little
If they wanted another 3&D, Mavs could've added Bullock who is better than Allen.
Little is DJJ, they could've signed DJJ for the min.

If i remember correctly, Mavs were forcing teams to take on McGee and Nico said Hardy&Green were basically untouchable, so that was a huge deal breaker. Then they had no other choice but to waive him, and for example, it's still the same reason why Capela is not in Mavs uniform right now.

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Before or just after the season starts, usually me and Bob8 give our opinion here on Luka and Mavs moving forward and i think the only time we were wrong was when Mavs actually made it to WCF, i think no one expected that.

Last season we also said Mavs will burn out because of the load that Doncic was carrying and it won't be sustainable for the long run. Guess what? We were right again. Kidd played him entire 2nd half of games already in Dec., and we basically all knew this won't be good. They were barely beating .500 teams and Luka had to average prime MJ numbers in order for Mavs to even be competitive.
This team badly needed a 2nd star and a real center. When Doncic got injured, he was nr1 MVP candidate and Mavs even had a chance of getting to 3rd place. But like i said injuries plus trade contributed to the fact that their season completely derailed. Maybe they could have gotten in to the playoffs but with severly bruised up Luka, 1st round exit was more or less certain.

Not getting in to the playoffs and keeping the 10th pick was basically the reason how they got Lively, Holmes and OMax. Because of that draft night, they also made way to sign Grant. So,

What happens with Kyrie now is a mystery, it could fail or it could be amazing, we'll see. But yeah, real center is still badly needed.

I dont necessarily disagree with all you are saying but the part I dont get about last season is if Luka was so burned out, why didnt things get better when we traded for Kyrie?

Also, Mavs didnt look that bad with Kyrie minus Luka so I do see the benefit of trading for/re-signing Kyrie for that reason. They actually won a lot of games without Luka while Kyrie was here. So basing the benefit of adding Kyrie on that alone I would agree with you.

Despite all of the negativity, they were the highest scoring duo since the trade. So i would say pairing did work, at least on paper. Other factors like absolutely no rim protection, horrible rebounding and Doncic's injury plus lack of bench mostly contributed to why Mavs missed the playoffs.

Luka is still battling today with the same injury he got in march, it's a no joke apparently. Remember, Kidd was forced to play zone a lot to hide his lack of movement on defense. So all in all, a lot of things went horribly wrong really fast for this team last year.

I wasn't in favor of re-signing Kyrie but on the other hand, what other options do they really have moving on? If they can develop in-house talent, they'll at least have some trade assests moving on and also future draft picks will open up aswell.

And worst defending duo so that basically equates to average at best. Then as you say, a very average at best supporting cast with no rim protection compounds the problem.

I get the selective facts for some optimism but until I see that translate to wins I'll continue the negativism.