eyeatoma wrote:Hobo4President wrote:eyeatoma wrote:
Still have not heard anything about last years epic fail.
You asked about his playoff performance.
Right there was none last year lol. He failed to make the playoffs. An MVP candidate last year. He had a similar team to this year, apart from Lively. Good to see them doing well this season, still doesn't excuse last year. If Embiid missed the playoffs people would have roasted him on a spit.
Dallas' collapse last year had everything to do with defense. Saying "he had a similar team to this year, apart from Lively" isn't true. Last game, Dallas started Lively, Grant Williams, Derrick Jones Jr, and Dante Exum. Overall the Mavs have 3 new starters, rebuilding their entire roster construction around Luka and Kyrie.
Now Dallas is still not a good defense last year, and you could argue that it's only slightly improved from last year, but that would also miss the point. Dallas was fine last year before the Kyrie trade. Their defense was rocky with Kleber and DFS missing time with injury, but they were surviving. The defense they had after the Kyrie trade (Maxi still injured, DFS traded) was not good enough to compete in the NBA. After the trade deadline they were the worst team in the NBA and dropped out of the playoff race, (and even the play-in race after a little tiny tank).
(btw it is totally fair game to criticize Luka for his contributions to a joke defense, and generally not helping the Mavs much on that end. It's a major detractor for me and I think I'm higher than average on his potential defensive impact. He's been better at times this year.)
Historically (if we can use that word considering Luka's career is still so young), Luka + another scorer + a lob threat + enough defense and shooting, has been a successful formula in the playoffs.