07-25-2025, 08:53 AM
(07-25-2025, 12:34 AM)F Gump Wrote: I think Kyrie is going to return relatively "soon," ie when compared to the prevailing doom-and-gloomy predictions. My over/under is G41, about 1/15, halfway through the season, and my guess is UNDER.
As far as the last half, if Kyrie is back and playing by then as I assume he will be, they should be improved over last season's back half. Way improved, considering the Mavs got almost nothing from any of their top 3 PGs in the second half (Luka 0, Kyrie 9, Exum 20), and of course nothing from Flagg or DAR.
The question of how they will do is really just about the start to the season and how many of the pre-Kyrie games they can win, and whether they have enough talent to match last season's 22-19 start. Last season in the first half, at PG Luka missed 22 of those 41 games, Kyrie 10, and Exum all 41, so it's not like they had huge PG depth to carry them then. We also should consider the Mavs got 0 games then from Flagg and DAR at PG, and both of those should contribute this season and be able to pick up the slack to some degree. In addition, so long as they are healthy, as a team they should be better defensively, perhaps even intimidating, with long agile players all over the floor.
I think its asking a lot for a nearly 34 year old Kyrie to come back from that injury and be immediately what he was. My guess is it will be like Dinwiddie who struggled his first couple of months, and at Kyrie age he may never get fully back to what he was.
That being said, its hard not to imagine this team being better than last year given all of the injuries. But the NBA is a strange beast. With all of the tanking its relatively easy to get to 40 wins. Its much, much harder to get to 50, especially in the west. They may need some injury luck to win enough to get out of the play in. Hopefully the next medical staff is better than the last one. Have they hired that team yet?
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