Game 53: Oklahoma City Thunder (35-16) vs. Dallas Mavericks (29-23)

[Dundalis]

I woke up early Sunday morning to watch the replay of the game.  I'm glad I did.

What an amazing debut.  We matched athleticism and depth with one of the league's most athletic and deep teams.  This is easily the quickest team in Mavs history.  Everyone was moving well including somehow...Luka.  Playing with more athletic teammates somehow allows Luka to move at a different speed.  What's really amazing is that we're athletic but not undersized.  That's never happened in Dallas before.  It's hard to describe the new Mavericks without using the word "athletic" many, many times.  

Gafford looks like a perfect fit on this roster.  The Thunder could have really used Gafford and rather than spend a first on him, they facilitated our acquisition.  Sam Presti probably didn't sleep so well last night after watching that game.  Gafford's rebounding and elite finishing near the rim elevate our potential this season.  This is what we needed.  Jason Kidd owes Nico a big hug.

PJ Washington looked really good.  Perhaps I overreacted about the trade?  His quickness compared to Grant is really striking.  His ability to take it to the rim and finish effectively is welcome here.  His defense will determine whether that trade is a success.  If he gives good effort, maybe it will work out for us.  Very early returns are good.

Maxi has returned with great vengeance.  I thought his career as a useful player might be over but that was a mistake.  With his pinky toe at full force, he's playing like he was 2 years ago...which is really nice to see.

This was NBA basketball at its most amazing.  The Mavericks bludgeoned a contender.  That makes me feel like we are a contender too.  I didn't feel that way 4 days ago.

Even though I'm definitely pro the trades we made, while you have been at minimum skeptical, but maybe now a bit more open minded, I'm still wary of assessing anything after one game positive or negative. Both Gafford and PJ obviously have flaws in their games, many of which will not be obvious after one game. I'm still very optimistic that PJ can have a Dinwiddie like turnaround in efficiency (maybe not quite as ridiculous a change as that), and given defense is predominantly effort based, I think even the most professional of players struggle to maintain consistent effort after many years on a losing team. It also probably helps less if there's additional disharmony off the court. I know they are professionals, but they are also human beings and it just happens. Winning in and of itself gives players a different level of energy and motivation. The fact that PJ started his career as both a talented and promising offensive player while also being a versatile and very good defensive player, that slowly fell off after multiple years perhaps getting jaded on pretty much the worst run org in basketball says there is something to revive there, as opposed to extracting something that was never there.