MAVS NEWS:

[Chicagojk]

Speaking of Alphas, or greats, I think we clearly have 3 players it is really great to have on our team. We have 8 more players who can be good to strong contributors to an overall very deep and strong supporting cast. I don’t think we can rule out Kyrie and AD playing at an Alpha or great level in next year’s playoffs. We can’t rule out that young Cooper Flagg is able to play a very strong third as a rising soon to be great player. 

I think all 3 of our stars are more likely to reach heights we may not expect precisely because of our potential top level supporting cast. These guys showed last year that they can compete hard and pretty well no matter what the situation. 

AD is an Alpha on defense, a solid rebounder, and can be an Alpha scorer at times. We would love getting him for just about any one but Luka. 

Kyrie has been wonderful here. He has been a great story. I’m not ruling out a great, Alpha performance from him in the playoffs. 

Cooper Flagg is certainly top 3 in the last 10 years as far as expectations for a draft pick. If he meets those expectations early even a little like Luka did, he can be a strong 3rd best player in all aspects of the game. 

This board is so great at knowing legitimate concerns as well as recognizing strengths of players and teams. I just think we have two guys who could rise to Alpha or great level in one or more playoff series, more than one good candidate for 3rd best player and more depth than most teams. We are plenty good enough to win a playoff series at our best. No this team is not a championship favorite nor even a certain contender. To me they will be fun to watch without worrying about high expectations. Even if too much does go wrong, we have a lot of guys who will be fun to watch and root for. Finally, they are way too good to rule anything out. I guarantee our guys aren’t.

I don't think AD is an alpha.  Or at least not the level of the top players who I view at this level.  I am really interested to watch AD this year.  I envision him as a really good/maybe great player on a really deep and talented team.   He had this a year or so in LAL but for the most part he wasn't a part of deep and talented teams.   I don't know if he still has that UK style of play where he was the best player on a deep team but didn't put up huge numbers.   

I am uncertain about this year.  With the injuries, some of the unknown questions. Lack of creation.  Maybe most important is having that guy in the last 5 minutes who just is able to get or create baskets.  Most of the contenders have this guy.   I am not sure either AD or Kyrie is best as this guy.   

What gives me most excitement about moving forward is the hope is if AD can be the type of player who elevates others, with Lively and Flagg along with AD being able to outproduce their counting stats.  The best players doing a lot of the small winning stuff makes a huge impact.  Dallas has other players who can do this in smaller ammounts.  They are a deep team that is big and physical and could potentially play a smart style of basketball.   I am not sure how it fits and what types of moves will need to be made in the future, but this is exciting to me.   This may offset not having a top 5-8 player in the league that most of the great teams have.   Maybe Flagg eventually gets there but you typically need to go through the tribulations to get there.