(02-02-2021, 05:01 PM)Mavs03 Wrote: [ -> ]Random thought: I was watching the Mavs game. Is it just me or is Derek Harper the worst analyst in the NBA? He's atrocious. This guy makes these random predictions during the game..."So and so will hit the shot (turns out to be a brick), this guy will make the FT (turns out to be a brick), etc". He's rarely right in his predictions and doesn't provide anything of substance to the game. I had no idea that the Mavs had a foul to give in the last few seconds of yesterday's game. Not sure if it was Harper's fault or Followill's (although I like Followill as a play by play guy...he's terrific). Anyways, just wanted to vent about Harper. I just don't think he's good as an analyst.
He's so-so. Watch more road broadcasts and you'll see some terrible teams calling games.
(02-02-2021, 05:01 PM)Mavs03 Wrote: [ -> ]Derek Harper the worst
LOL. Harp starting to get to ya? Yeah that was me like 8 years ago. You learn to tune him out.
(02-02-2021, 05:01 PM)Mavs03 Wrote: [ -> ]Is it just me or is Derek Harper the worst analyst in the NBA?
He definitely can get repetitive at times, but he's far from the worst. In my opinion. Off the bounce.
Showing my age here, but I still miss Ortegal. I wouldn't be here if not for him. I know he had some annoying traits, but he was great at passionately conveying his love and knowledge of basketball to the viewer.
I wonder if the Mavs gave any thought about sending 2 of our players into a new bubble where they could possibly come back infected with COVID.
Chances are small but I'm paranoid.
Zach Lowe's pod has a segment on the "reeling Mavericks," with McMahon as his team source.
A few niblets --
Think the Mavs have made moves that made sense at the time, but which they might well do differently if they had had the benefit of hindsight. Tim thinks the
Mavs, in retrospect, did Luka a real disservice by hyping him as the team leader and turning the keys over to him on and off the court when he wasn't really ready for that. Not his fault, he's only 21.
Part of Mavs problem is that there isn't a real team leader. Luka is too young. Johnson is trying to fill in the gap, but there's a limit, since he's (a) just a guy, and (b) just passing through. None of the role players has enough gravitas to assume that responsibility. Barea was Luka's Yoda, exercising "ferocious" leadership in the locker room, and mentoring Luka in particular.
Looking back on it, would probably have been better to keep JJ another season.
Real question mark about the Mavs is KP, for reasons that have been discussed by this board.
Some of the role players' ceilings may be a little lower than Mavs fans have hoped. WCS is very athletic, but one of the worst finishers ever for that type of player. Josh Richardson had a great game last night, but may not be likely to end up as much better than okay as a consistent matter. And so on.
The offense is missing the "pop" it had last season. Just a slog. Sometimes painful to watch.
Of course, it's very difficult to make a judgment based on this season, so far. Doubtful that the Mavs will make any panic moves in the trade market.
Patience is more warranted than panic at this point.
https://www.espn.com/radio/play/_/id/30822146
(02-02-2021, 08:05 PM)mavsluvr Wrote: [ -> ]Think the Mavs have made moves that made sense at the time, but which they might well do differently if they had had the benefit of hindsight. Tim thinks the Mavs, in retrospect, did Luka a real disservice by hyping him as the team leader and turning the keys over to him on and off the court when he wasn't really ready for that. Not his fault, he's only 21.
Part of Mavs problem is that there isn't a real team leader. Luka is too young. Johnson is trying to fill in the gap, but there's a limit, since he's (a) just a guy, and (b) just passing through. None of the role players has enough gravitas to assume that responsibility. Barea was Luka's Yoda, exercising "ferocious" leadership in the locker room, and mentoring Luka in particular. Looking back on it, would probably have been better to keep JJ another season.
Thanks for sharing this and compiling the notes.
This is exactly been my theory for the last month plus. I have been beating the "leadership" drum for awhile as maybe the most central issue on the team and that Luka hasn't been able to fill that void as the Mavs and as RC have been asking.
Here are my previous thoughts to add to this conversation:
From Dec 29...
Quote:1) Luka is not yet the leader he should be.
2) I think the Mavs purposely moved on from JJB to create a leadership vacuum that they are challenging Luka to fill.
Luka is going to have some growing pains as he learns to lead, but he is going to learn by doing it. I think the Mavs are purposely saying, "This is your team. Lead. Step up. It has to be you."
From Jan 23...
Quote:RC is actually giving Luka a ton of freedom to grow into the leader and on-court coach for this team. I think he wants Luka to be what Kidd was for the championship team. I think Luka is not ready for that yet, or maybe it is better to say Luka is struggling in taking on that burden so far. I don't think Luka is the leader he needs to be yet for this team, and my read is that for better or worse RC is choosing to step aside and give him the room to work that out for himself (I think JJB moving on was purposeful by the Mavs to create a leadership vacuum that Luka HAD to fill).
In this game I would like to have seen Luka step up his own energy and get in the faces of his guys when the Rockets players came out much hungrier than them. Luka spends too much time talking to the refs when he should be encouraging and getting his own guys to step up with more energy. Luka cannot control the refs, but he can control his response to them, his energy on the court, and his encouragement and leadership of his team. That needs to be his on-court focus, ignore those blind fools in stripes.
Long story, short, I think the Mavs have a team leadership issue. RC is creating the space and environment for Luka to be that and Luka is still young and immature and not performing well at his leadership role yet. I am confident he will grow and get there in the coming years, but I think his failure to be the leader he needs to be is the overall issue with this team (greater than the talent holes IMO) from my humble and limited perspective.
(02-02-2021, 08:54 PM)Kammrath Wrote: [ -> ]Thanks for sharing this and compiling the notes.
This is exactly been my theory for the last month plus. I have been beating the "leadership" drum for awhile as maybe the most central issue on the team and that Luka hasn't been able to fill that void as the Mavs and as RC have been asking.
Here are my previous thoughts to add to this conversation:
From Dec 29...
From Jan 23...
Wow. Looks like you may have called it.
When Rick was selling the media on the idea that Luka was the team leader before the season began, Tim thought it might be more that Rick wanted people to start talking about and thinking about Luka in that way. But maybe not necessarily that he really thought Luka would be able to lead the team through a season like this turned out to be.
The way it has turned out, Luka no longer has a mentor, and is being represented as the mentor for his teammates, all in a season where everyone is just feeling his way through.
I remember early in the season, when a reporter asked James Johnson to comment on what kind of leader Luka is. Johnson looked as if he were trying to decide how to put something tactfully, and came up with the word "emerging." He further explained that it's just not realistic to lead an NBA team when you've been in the league for only two years, but he thought Luka would be a great leader in time.
I hadn't focused on this very specifically before now. I wonder what kinds of differences it makes on a granular basis. This seems like an un-Carlisle-like move. Color me a little confused at why they would try to force this issue with a 21-year-old, rather than letting it happen naturally. I believe that they did, just doesn't seem much like the Mavs. It's possible that I don't really know who the Mavs are at this point, of course.
Also, if they consider it a mistake in hindsight, just how they would go about transitioning to something different.
Now that I'm thinking about it, I recall all that stuff Rick said about how he didn't view post ups as productive plays in general, but Luka calls them, and as long as Luka thinks it's the thing to do, it's fine by Rick. It struck me as weird at the time, and not necessarily a great thing. I thought then that he was probably just covering for Luka calling plays that didn't work out so well. But now I wonder if they are feeding this kid a little more than he can chew, given the host of adverse circumstances there are to deal with.
They wanted Johnson to be that guy. Trade deadline if we aren’t in a good spot then that’s likely the upgrade. Before the season i thought Aldridge would be good for that role but that ship has sailed likely.
No reason why we can’t bring back Barea. Never should’ve left him off the roster in the first place. That was so foolish. He doesn’t even need to play a single minute
(02-02-2021, 09:51 PM)Jason Terry Wrote: [ -> ]They wanted Johnson to be that guy. Trade deadline if we aren’t in a good spot then that’s likely the upgrade. Before the season i thought Aldridge would be good for that role but that ship has sailed likely.
No reason why we can’t bring back Barea. Never should’ve left him off the roster in the first place. That was so foolish. He doesn’t even need to play a single minute
I would add a little nuance to that. Looking back on it, I think they wanted Luka to do it. Or, maybe at least for people to think Luka was doing it. I think Johnson, as the oldest player on the roster, took it on himself to try to fill in the breach as best he could, and the Mavs were okay with that, as long as Johnson was content to take a back seat publicly.
I think Barea does have an NBA exit clause in his Spanish contract. To be clear, though, Tim didn't say anything about the Mavs actually doing anything to get Barea back. Just that it probably hadn't been the right decision to let him go, knowing how things transpired.
(02-02-2021, 09:39 PM)mavsluvr Wrote: [ -> ]Color me a little confused at why they would try to force this issue with a 21-year-old, rather than letting it happen naturally.
There have to be reasons. HAVE to be. They wouldn't be thoughtless, reckless, and flippant with something so important.
My shot in the dark guess:
It might stem some from the locker room issues during Luka's rookie campaign with DAJ and Wes, etc. I think Luka manifests very naturally some incredible "alpha dog" traits on the court but I think he does not channel those properly as a alpha leader should, especially off the court or during timeouts. I assume this created some of the weirdness that made the DAJ/Wes drama. I think the Mavs want EVERY player that ever walks into their organization moving forward to know that this is LUKA'S team, no ifs, ands, or buts. But for that to work they need Luka to stop acting like a child and start being a man who is going to lead the team. I think the Mavs think that the only way Luka is going to mature the way he needs to is if he bears the weight and consequences of his leadership (no more coddling or enabling him). They might be purposely allowing him to fail so that he will mature to what they know he needs to be. RC might in a sense be NOT saving this team from this losing streak, giving Luka room to step up and say enough is enough.
My musings at the moment.
(02-02-2021, 10:00 PM)mavsluvr Wrote: [ -> ]I would add a little nuance to that. Looking back on it, I think they wanted Luka to do it. Or, maybe at least for people to think Luka was doing it. I think Johnson, as the oldest player on the roster, took it on himself to try to fill in the breach as best he could, and the Mavs were okay with that, as long as Johnson was content to take a back seat publicly.
I think Barea does have an NBA exit clause in his Spanish contract. To be clear, though, Tim didn't say anything about the Mavs actually doing anything to get Barea back. Just that it probably hadn't been the right decision to let him go, knowing how things transpired.
I meant that they wanted to bring in a veteran leader with the Johnson contract or whoever else they were working with OKC to get. One to compliment Luka
(02-02-2021, 10:12 PM)mavsluvr Wrote: [ -> ]I could see letting him work through some minor issues. But if this is really at the point that it is significantly affecting the team, continuing to set him up to fail doesn't seem to make much sense, or much in the character of the organization. Unless they just feel that now that this much water has flowed under the bridge, they don't have any real choice but to hang with it and hope for the best.
It's like parenting....you can't set a boundary up or make a threat and then not follow through, otherwise you lose credibility with your kids. Once the Mavs chose this course they had to commit to it. They can't back down now and say Luka is not the leader.
For the record, I think this was the right choice from my very limited perspective. I believe very strongly in growth through tribulation and am very grateful they aren't going to let Luka be a "child" for the next 4-5 years. As some Slovenian posters have observed, he is basically a spoiled rich kid who comes from a TON of privilege (which is unlike MANY NBA players) and I think the Mavs are approaching Luka with that in mind.
![[Image: EtQmbNBXYAAgkc5?format=jpg&name=large]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EtQmbNBXYAAgkc5?format=jpg&name=large)