The Dallas Mavericks season was officially over once
the regular season had come to a close. With plenty of intrigue that one can’t
help but to try and digest.
Before the season had officially gotten underway,
Peter and I had done a preview show where I went on record saying “If the
Mavericks stayed healthy they would have been in the Western Conference
Finals.” Part of me was being a homer, another part was just being cautiously
optimistic, but in the end I was one hundred percent wrong about the way the
Mavericks had finished this season.
The
Good
Believe it or not after the way the season had
started, there was some good to come out of everything that had went down.
Something Mark Cuban had finally decided to admit to himself was that it was
time to rebuild. Deep down inside he knew it was coming, but never wanted to
admit it to the media or the fans.
It started with the Free Agent signing of Harrison
Barnes, a former first round pick from Golden State that honestly couldn’t be
show his full potential given the star power of Klay Thompson, Steph Curry, and
recent super star Kevin Durant that was added in the offseason.
Dallas didn’t stop there by coming to terms with
Steph’s little brother Seth who was a spark plug in Sacramento a year ago, but
wasn’t shown much playing time when he was there. Upon the mid-season to place
him in the starting lineup, he seemed to have found a home in Dallas.
Last but not least the trade for Nerlens Noel
solidified a much needed physical center they haven’t honestly had since Tyson
Chandler. With all the acquisitions, the Mavs sent Andrew Bogut to Philly in
the deal and released the aging Deron Williams. There was time for a change and
we’re seeing the beginning of something special that the Mavericks can build on
for the future.
The
Bad
The injuries kept the Mavericks at bay to start the
season. 4 out of the 5 starters were either hurt or were playing on limited
minutes which caused a dreaded 3-14 start. Every time they would get one
starter back another one would get hurt.
The damaging part about not having a healthy roster is
that a team can’t build any kind of chemistry, rookies thrown to the wolves,
and of course being overmatched by far superior teams. It’s amazing that this
team wound up sitting in a playoff race just after the All-Star break
considering the revolving door of players they had.
I guess the emergence of rookie point guard Kevin
“Yogi” Ferrell and the relief of the play of Harrison Barnes made some darker
days seem a little bit brighter, but the Mavericks never envisioned having to
play that route with the roster they had built in the offseason based on the
acquisition of shot blocker Andrew Bogut who wound up being a bust under Rick Carlisle’s
system.
The
Ugly
What else can you say other than the Mavericks haven’t
made it out of the first round of the post season since the 2011 NBA
Championship win. The front office has made some rather “bone headed” decisions
since then.
They let Tyson Chandler walk via free agency to chase
pipe dreams that they couldn’t ever close the deal on. This season was nothing
more than another failed attempt at what Mark Cuban considers having a
“competitive” roster. Note to Cuban- you’ve been fooling yourself for far too
long.
Last but not least, the proof is in the pudding that a
season winds up as ugly as it did when you’re sitting with potentially the 9th
pick in this year’s NBA Draft. With an aging Dirk Nowitzki and a history of not
drafting well, this doesn’t look good for the Mavericks, then again hopefully
they can break this bad luck.
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