Jonny Blaze wrote:
Dirk/Van Horn/Josh Powell
Dampier/Diop/Mbenga
That's pretty horrific if you ask me. Dampier and Olowakandi are the same player. Other than that you got a combo of old washed up players and busts.
For teams that reached the Conference Finals they are bad.
I watched every game of the 2005-06 mavs.
This is really incorrect.
On paper the 2006 Mavs might not look like a juggernaut, but here is the big problem with a lot of Real GM "Analysis" the games arent played on paper.....but they were a great team.
You dont beat the defending champs on their home floor in a game 7 unless you are really good.
I will tell you exactly how the 2005-06 Mavs operated in the regular season and playoffs.
They had insane depth and under Avery Johnson played balls to the walls for the entire game.
So lets say the mavs were playing a pretty good team.
They trot out their starting lineup of
Jason Terry
Adrian Griffin (solid perimeter defender, slasher)
Josh Howard
Dirk
Diop
After the first quarter they might be up by 5 or 6 points.
They bring in their 2nd unit of
Devin Harris
Jerry Stackhouse
Marquis Daniels
Keith Van Horne
Dampier
Not a big droppoff. That 2nd unit would be a 30 win team....and with Dirk probably 50.
Better defensively because of Harris, Stackhouse, and Daniels....all this 2nd unit did was attack the rim.
Both units have solid centers anchoring the defense. Diop was pretty damn good in 2006. and while Dampier generally sucked in Dallas.....he's a pretty damn good backup center.
The 2nd unit would typically murder the other teams reserve...and if you swap KVH for Dirk....thats essentially two different starting lineups.
What would happen when teams would play the Mavs was that after a while the game would become a blowout because the Mavericks never let up. There was not a huge dropoff from the 1st or 2nd unit at any point in the game.
When Dirk went out....Jason Terry, Josh Howard and Jerry Stackhouse were all capable of picking up the scoring slack.
Lets not rewrite history people.
You dont beat the Spurs or win the Western Conference unless you are really good.
You have to understand that prior to the 2004-05 season, the Mavs didnt have any centers....and suddenly in 2005-06 we had two.
DeSagana Diop and Erick Dampier are two of the biggest reasons the Mavs beat the Spurs in 2006. Before that...part of the reason Tim Duncan would kill us was that he would foul out all of our big men....and by the end of the game we were having to play Najera or Raef LaFrentz on him
If you look at the 2011 Mavs....whenever Dirk went out of the game....it was tough for this team to score at all. Typically they just tried to hang on until Dirk came back.
The only other scorer the 2011 mavs had was Jet. Every one else played a pretty specific role.
