Why why why do we use so many words to say nothing?
Check it, when do we stop talking and start listening (why)
Why do you say you follow and then try to lead the mission?
Who gave you permission to create your own rendition?
And then speak about it to those who don't know quite yet
And never give a second thought to the effect
See, it's your type of Christian who scares off my friends
And then tells them that it's Satan keeping them from coming in.
--Dax Reynosa
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Friday, May 4, 2007
End of the Road for the Mavs
Well, that was a quick ending.
First things first, I give much respect and would like to congratulate the Golden State Warriors. There is absolutely no questioning that they were the better team this series. I said from the beginning of the series that the Warriors were a perfect storm to overcome the Mavericks:
- They were gelling at the right time, with Baron Davis coming back from injury and Stephen Jackson and Al Harrington learning to become a part of the team after they were traded there in midseason.
- They had the perfect players to defend Dallas' isolation sets. There was no way for the Mavs to use screens to set up mismatches. A Mavs' player could go from being covered by Harrington to Jackson to Matt Barnes to Jason Richardson to Andris Biedrins and Golden State lost virtually nothing in terms of size or athleticism. Even if taller players ended up being covered by Davis, he was strong and athletic enough to give them problems.
- And, of course, they had the perfect coach to put everything together. It was bad enough for the Mavericks that Don Nelson is probably the best coach in the history of the NBA at creating mismatches. Then you have to add to that that he knows the weaknesses of the Mavericks better than any other coach out there. Then you have to add to that the revenge factor he had against Mark Cuban. When you add up everything, you have to wonder if Dallas ever really had a chance.
But again, take nothing away from Golden State. They were hungrier, they set the tone, they just flat out played better. And good gracious, those fans. After watching the fans in Golden State, combined with what I've seen from the fans in Sacramento, it's pretty apparent to me that North Cali has the best fans in the NBA. To use the local vernacular, those fans are hella dope. I wish them the best of luck the rest of the playoffs.
I have to wonder about the future of the Mavericks as an organization. They are in one of the most unique situations I've ever seen in basketball, maybe even sports period. To recap their past two seasons:
- their average record has been 63.5 wins and 18.5 losses
- they have one Western Conference title, one Southwest Division title and one season with the best record in the NBA
- they're led by a man who won Coach of the Year one year and finished third another
- they have a player who finished third in the MVP voting and was was All-NBA first team, and will presumably be All-NBA first team again and possibly be the league's MVP
- they have two All-Star players
Ten years ago if you had told me that that was what the future held for my Mavericks, I would have taken it without even asking whose soul we had to sell. Yet with all that success, the way that the past two seasons have ended has made it painfully clear that Dallas is lacking...something. Maybe it's a few somethings.
While they weren't necessarily beaten the same way the past two years, the one thing that the Miami Heat has in common with the Warriors is a guard who was quick enough to penetrate Dallas' defense and strong enough to finish at the basket. The Mavs simply had no way to stop that. Devin Harris, bless his heart, is quick enough to stay with both Davis and Dwyane Wade and he's a perfectly willing and able defender but those two guys could both overpower him with relative ease.
The opposite end of the floor is where we find a true myriad of problems: no true point guard to initiate the offense and no low post presence. The crazy thing is that I could live with those problems. Avery Johnson found ways to overcome those deficiencies. What really bugged me was the way the team responded in the face of adversity. Despite Avery's demands that the team play better defense, despite his insistence on proper offensive execution, when times got tough for the Mavericks they would fall back into their old, jump-shooting tendencies. That's what I find most troubling. It could be overlooked in the 2006 Finals because there were other factors in play (the refs) but there are no such excuses this year. Plain and simply, the Mavericks team that won 67 games in the regular season fell apart in the playoffs. To me, that is simply a lack of heart (excluded from that criticism is Josh Howard, Devin Harris and DeSagana Diop) and that is inexcusable. It would be different if they played up to their potential and lost. I can appreciate a hard fought battle. But when you do so much to hurt yourself how am I supposed to root for you?
This makes it an interesting time to be a Mavericks fan. How are we possibly supposed to approach next season? What if the team flirts with 70 wins again? So what? We've been there before. What happens if the Mavs make it to the Finals? And? We've already seen that happen. Prove something else to me.
That makes this offseason very interesting indeed. You can't completely gut a 67-win team, can you? But at the same time it's quite apparent that changes do need to be made. Let's see what happens.
The most shocking thing to me this postseason was discovering how much people outside of Dallas hate the Mavericks. In reading message boards it seems to me that other than Kobe Bryant and maybe Ron Artest, Dirk Werner Nowitzki might be the most hated basketball player in the NBA. Artest's history speaks for itself. And I get, although I don't agree, why people hate Kobe. But for the life of me, I could not figure out why there is so much animosity for Dirk. So I asked around and started getting answers that really didn't make much sense to me. A lot of people spoke about how arrogant and proud Dirk is.
I found that fascinating because Dirk could possibly be the most unassuming player in the NBA. He never talks trash (like I said in my previous post, what he said about the Finals last year was an indictment on his team not the Heat), he doesn't beat his chest, he's never been anything other than humble in interviews. He even turns down endorsement opportunities just because they're not his thing. If anything, Dirk's rather boring and shy. But the deeper I dug, the more I began to understand. People don't really hate Dirk. They hate the Mavericks. And the reason they hate the Mavericks can be summed up in two words. The first one is "Mark." The second is "Cuban." And for that, I really can't blame anyone. Despite his relative silence this season, any holes that Cuban has dug have definitely been done by he alone. He went from being a maverick (no pun intended) owner whose enthusiasm and passion was a welcome change from the usual, boring sports' owners to being a loud-mouthed, trash talking lightning rod that everyone loved to hate. His own players had to ask him to shut up at the beginning of the season. So somewhere last night, as the game clock was counting down to all zeros, David Stern was doing a happy little dance because he won't have to deal with Cuban for the remainder of the playoffs.
First things first, I give much respect and would like to congratulate the Golden State Warriors. There is absolutely no questioning that they were the better team this series. I said from the beginning of the series that the Warriors were a perfect storm to overcome the Mavericks:
- They were gelling at the right time, with Baron Davis coming back from injury and Stephen Jackson and Al Harrington learning to become a part of the team after they were traded there in midseason.
- They had the perfect players to defend Dallas' isolation sets. There was no way for the Mavs to use screens to set up mismatches. A Mavs' player could go from being covered by Harrington to Jackson to Matt Barnes to Jason Richardson to Andris Biedrins and Golden State lost virtually nothing in terms of size or athleticism. Even if taller players ended up being covered by Davis, he was strong and athletic enough to give them problems.
- And, of course, they had the perfect coach to put everything together. It was bad enough for the Mavericks that Don Nelson is probably the best coach in the history of the NBA at creating mismatches. Then you have to add to that that he knows the weaknesses of the Mavericks better than any other coach out there. Then you have to add to that the revenge factor he had against Mark Cuban. When you add up everything, you have to wonder if Dallas ever really had a chance.
But again, take nothing away from Golden State. They were hungrier, they set the tone, they just flat out played better. And good gracious, those fans. After watching the fans in Golden State, combined with what I've seen from the fans in Sacramento, it's pretty apparent to me that North Cali has the best fans in the NBA. To use the local vernacular, those fans are hella dope. I wish them the best of luck the rest of the playoffs.
I have to wonder about the future of the Mavericks as an organization. They are in one of the most unique situations I've ever seen in basketball, maybe even sports period. To recap their past two seasons:
- their average record has been 63.5 wins and 18.5 losses
- they have one Western Conference title, one Southwest Division title and one season with the best record in the NBA
- they're led by a man who won Coach of the Year one year and finished third another
- they have a player who finished third in the MVP voting and was was All-NBA first team, and will presumably be All-NBA first team again and possibly be the league's MVP
- they have two All-Star players
Ten years ago if you had told me that that was what the future held for my Mavericks, I would have taken it without even asking whose soul we had to sell. Yet with all that success, the way that the past two seasons have ended has made it painfully clear that Dallas is lacking...something. Maybe it's a few somethings.
While they weren't necessarily beaten the same way the past two years, the one thing that the Miami Heat has in common with the Warriors is a guard who was quick enough to penetrate Dallas' defense and strong enough to finish at the basket. The Mavs simply had no way to stop that. Devin Harris, bless his heart, is quick enough to stay with both Davis and Dwyane Wade and he's a perfectly willing and able defender but those two guys could both overpower him with relative ease.
The opposite end of the floor is where we find a true myriad of problems: no true point guard to initiate the offense and no low post presence. The crazy thing is that I could live with those problems. Avery Johnson found ways to overcome those deficiencies. What really bugged me was the way the team responded in the face of adversity. Despite Avery's demands that the team play better defense, despite his insistence on proper offensive execution, when times got tough for the Mavericks they would fall back into their old, jump-shooting tendencies. That's what I find most troubling. It could be overlooked in the 2006 Finals because there were other factors in play (the refs) but there are no such excuses this year. Plain and simply, the Mavericks team that won 67 games in the regular season fell apart in the playoffs. To me, that is simply a lack of heart (excluded from that criticism is Josh Howard, Devin Harris and DeSagana Diop) and that is inexcusable. It would be different if they played up to their potential and lost. I can appreciate a hard fought battle. But when you do so much to hurt yourself how am I supposed to root for you?
This makes it an interesting time to be a Mavericks fan. How are we possibly supposed to approach next season? What if the team flirts with 70 wins again? So what? We've been there before. What happens if the Mavs make it to the Finals? And? We've already seen that happen. Prove something else to me.
That makes this offseason very interesting indeed. You can't completely gut a 67-win team, can you? But at the same time it's quite apparent that changes do need to be made. Let's see what happens.
The most shocking thing to me this postseason was discovering how much people outside of Dallas hate the Mavericks. In reading message boards it seems to me that other than Kobe Bryant and maybe Ron Artest, Dirk Werner Nowitzki might be the most hated basketball player in the NBA. Artest's history speaks for itself. And I get, although I don't agree, why people hate Kobe. But for the life of me, I could not figure out why there is so much animosity for Dirk. So I asked around and started getting answers that really didn't make much sense to me. A lot of people spoke about how arrogant and proud Dirk is.
I found that fascinating because Dirk could possibly be the most unassuming player in the NBA. He never talks trash (like I said in my previous post, what he said about the Finals last year was an indictment on his team not the Heat), he doesn't beat his chest, he's never been anything other than humble in interviews. He even turns down endorsement opportunities just because they're not his thing. If anything, Dirk's rather boring and shy. But the deeper I dug, the more I began to understand. People don't really hate Dirk. They hate the Mavericks. And the reason they hate the Mavericks can be summed up in two words. The first one is "Mark." The second is "Cuban." And for that, I really can't blame anyone. Despite his relative silence this season, any holes that Cuban has dug have definitely been done by he alone. He went from being a maverick (no pun intended) owner whose enthusiasm and passion was a welcome change from the usual, boring sports' owners to being a loud-mouthed, trash talking lightning rod that everyone loved to hate. His own players had to ask him to shut up at the beginning of the season. So somewhere last night, as the game clock was counting down to all zeros, David Stern was doing a happy little dance because he won't have to deal with Cuban for the remainder of the playoffs.
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