Preseason Game 2: Charlotte Hornets (0-2) vs. Dallas Mavericks (1-0) | 7:30pm CST

[SleepingHero]

I got bad feeling this team is over rated.  Not much shooting or perimeter d.  Might be in for disappointment

Another lotto pick to add to Cooper and Lively is something I wouldn't be against.

[Mavs2021]

Christie with some Josh Green defense.  A lot of activity and energy but his player is making all their shots. A little backup for him after a nice first game.

Respect for some truth talk, cause the usual Christie suspects are awfully quiet. If we had just gifted the Lakers Luka, we´d be winning tonight, cause AD and Christie have been the two worst players. 

The problems already showing against a barely real NBA team, no perimeter defense and no perimeter shooting.  Mavs are basically everything analytics hate. You are a slow 2pt shooting team in a fast 3pt shooting league.

Though a good GM could fix this quickly by trading AD/Klay + tanking to secure two young guards to grow with the very functional Flagg, Washington, Lively frontcourt.

[Deebo]

Another lotto pick to add to Cooper and Lively is something I wouldn't be against.

We don’t have the pick I thought

[KillerLeft]

I got bad feeling this team is over rated.  Not much shooting or perimeter d.  Might be in for disappointment

I don't even know how to rate them, personally, so your bad feeling is just as good as anyone else's. I have no earthly idea what to expect in real games. I don't know what to expect from the roster, how it's balanced, who will be healthy, or, maybe most importantly, what the hell the coach plans to do with it all.

[Mavs2021]

We don’t have the pick I thought

Realistically we have

2026 own
2027 none
2028 OKC
2029 Lakers
2030 Wolves or Spurs (we get the worse pick)

So this is the last year, we control our own destiny in regards to the draft and the only pick in the top 28 we will get until 2029. It basically depends on the Lakers/Luka, whether we see a top 20 pick until 2031.

You can´t wait 4-6 years to get another young guard to pair with Flagg/Lively.

[SleepingHero]

We don’t have the pick I thought

We own our 2026 pick outright.

We don't have 2027 unless we fall in the top 3.

OKC has swap rights for our 2028 FRP. 

We don't have our 2029 pick at all (but we have the Lakers' pick).

SAS has swap rights for our 2030 FRP. 

We have zero 2nd round picks until 2030.

[Mavs2021]

We own our 2026 pick outright.

We don't have 2027 unless we fall in the top 3.

OKC has swap rights for our 2028 FRP. 

We don't have our 2029 pick at all (but we have the Lakers' pick).

SAS has swap rights for our 2030 FRP. 

We have zero 2nd round picks until 2030.

Dybantsa will be a superstar and Danny Ainge is paying him $7M to play for BYU, so not hard to figure out, who gets the #1 pick next year. 

Nico should ask Silver for Peterson, and we´ll happily send AD to the Warriors for Kuminga + Moody + four 1st round picks. 

That would be the pipedream scenario.

[ACMFFL]

It's just a preason loss, imo the only thing that matters from these friendly games is that Coop looks like a legit difference maker on both ends of the floor.
Ofc team chemistry isn't there yet, I mean AD played only 11 games with the Mavs last season, Lively 6 (both coming from long injuries), Flagg is a rook, Dlo has to play his 1st official game in a Mavs jersey.

[DL2RimRocker]

It's just a preason loss, imo the only thing that matters from these friendly games is that Coop looks like a legit difference maker on both ends of the floor.
Ofc team chemistry isn't there yet, I mean AD played only 11 games with the Mavs last season, Lively 6 (both coming from long injuries), Flagg is a rook, Dlo has to play his 1st official game in a Mavs jersey.

It is only preseason but there was a lot to take from this game.

Cooper looked outstanding and DL looked solid and that was just about it.
It makes me want to see this team start rebuilding around Flagg and Lively sooner than later.

The lack of perimeter defense should be more than concerning to Mavs fans and I'm not sure what can be done to fix it outside of making a major trade.
Kyrie's, Gaff's and BWill's returns won't fix that situation and could actually make it worse.

Lack of floor leadership also sticks out to me. Cooper looks like the closest thing to the leader of this group.

[DL2RimRocker]

Respect for some truth talk, cause the usual Christie suspects are awfully quiet. If we had just gifted the Lakers Luka, we´d be winning tonight, cause AD and Christie have been the two worst players. 

The problems already showing against a barely real NBA team, no perimeter defense and no perimeter shooting.  Mavs are basically everything analytics hate. You are a slow 2pt shooting team in a fast 3pt shooting league.

Though a good GM could fix this quickly by trading AD/Klay + tanking to secure two young guards to grow with the very functional Flagg, Washington, Lively frontcourt.

Lack of perimeter defense and perimeter shooting aren't surprising but getting out rebounded by 17 when we pride ourselves on having the advantage of size is completely unacceptable.

[ACMFFL]

It is only preseason but there was a lot to take from this game.

Cooper looked outstanding and DL looked solid and that was just about it.
It makes me want to see this team start rebuilding around Flagg and Lively sooner than later.

The lack of perimeter defense should be more than concerning to Mavs fans and I'm not sure what can be done to fix it outside of making a major trade.
Kyrie's, Gaff's and BWill's returns won't fix that situation and could actually make it worse.

Lack of floor leadership also sticks out to me. Cooper looks like the closest thing to the leader of this group.

Yeah the lack of a legit POA defender concernes me too, way more than our 3pt shooting, but I'm still waiting to see this team playing some official games before drawing any conclusions.

[Winter]

Hornets were a step quicker on offense and defense, got a ton of rebounds, and probably played better than they will most of the season.

Flagg and PJ looked good. Klay was good. A tiny shout-out to Miles Kelly who can hit his shot.

AD is not so good in this offense, and if there is a postion for him, I don't think it's the one he's playing. He's not really impacting the game much at that position. Max looks like a rotation player - same as last year. D'lo and everyone else looked slower and more timid than anyone on the Hornets. That's probably expected to some degree. They'll get better, but AD is not a game changer when he's on the floor. Not yet, anyway.

[Mavs2021]

Hornets were a step quicker on offense and defense, got a ton of rebounds, and probably played better than they will most of the season.

Flagg and PJ looked good. Klay was good. A tiny shout-out to Miles Kelly who can hit his shot.

AD is not so good in this offense, and if there is a postion for him, I don't think it's the one he's playing. He's not really impacting the game much at that position. Max looks like a rotation player - same as last year. D'lo and everyone else looked slower and more timid than anyone on the Hornets. That's probably expected to some degree. They'll get better, but AD is not a game changer when he's on the floor. Not yet, anyway.

AD at PF behind an already slow backcourt is a major problem. 

Unfortunately the shoes salesman is not smart enough to trade AD, although GS is the PERFECT FIT for a trade.

It´s BEGGING to be done. We get all the Warriors picks that will be very good in 2-3 years. The Warriors have to do it for the Steph window, although they should not mortage their future. That´s when you take advantage of a favourable situation.

We tank one more season, draft a PG/SG to pair with Kuminga/Flagg/Lively and the veteran core of Gafford, Washington, Marshall, Kyrie, Russell, Christie will easily be good enough to be growing into a 50 wins play-off from the start of the 2026 season. 

We don´t own our picks, but instead we get all the Warriors and Lakers picks that could turn very good very quickly given the explosive age, health and character situations around Bron, Butler, Steph, Draymond and AD.

[ThisIStheYear]

We own our 2026 pick outright.

We don't have 2027 unless we fall in the top 3.

OKC has swap rights for our 2028 FRP. 

We don't have our 2029 pick at all (but we have the Lakers' pick).

SAS has swap rights for our 2030 FRP. 

We have zero 2nd round picks until 2030.

Yikes.  Super ugly. The Mavs future is ultimately contingent on what they’ll be able to move AD and Kyrie for.  I don’t think they could get much for them, which is embarrassing, especially for AD, since Nico judges him as nearly equal in value to Luka.

[Chicagojk]

Again, it is preseason.  I would not put much stock in anything.   Although, I did not like much about the starting lineup.   Mavs fan jam the previous night, so maybe last night was a little festive?    

With Exum out with knee issues for a bit, hopefully Williams can play soon.  This will be a golden opportunity for him to take this opportunity and run with it.    If he doesn't capture it or can't play, things get real dicey.  I really don't think you should be experimenting with Hardy after all the years worth of evidence.  I am also not really high on Marshall in this role.   Maybe you got to see some Nemhard as your third PG.   I have liked what I have seen in brief watch. Albeit with my Mavs glasses on in mop up duty.  Just looking for someone who can not kill you for 5-10 minutes.

Flagg is the bright spot for me. I think he is proving he will be or is a team top creator on the wing. We will see several growing pains this year if he is forced to have the ball a lot, but he looks pretty composed with the ball. Mostly making simple, smart plays. He had 3-4 times last night were he turned it over not making simple plays, but that doesn't bother me much.

[F Gump]

My takeaways are not the same as the consensus here.

Yes, the Mavs put up a stinker. But ...

Jimmy Johnson used to say, "A team is not as good as their best game, and not as bad as their worst." That applies here. For context, they just finished camp, plus they were just off a long flight from West to East (the worst impact on energy).

And they played with a lack of energy, with lots of confusion. A step slow - but not because they lack athleticism. They also got outrebounded badly, but not because they are a bad team for rebounding. That won't happen often. Defense was awful - in large part because DAR was horrendous, wandering around and guarding no one. 4-on-5 doesn't work. He is new to the defense and its schemes - or does he just not have any clue? We'll see what he does next time. But the Mavs - short their starting guard (Kyrie) - are still missing both B Will and Exum (injured) as an option. And when DAR is sparing it up, they need another option (but didn't have one to go to). I think that mattered. And this will not be a bad team on defense when it counts. If someone does not defend, Kidd will play someone else imo.

In summary, I suspect this game actually told us nothing. And it's only 1 game 0 in the standings, so no biggie. Move on, imo.

[Mavs2021]

Again, it is preseason.  I would not put much stock in anything.   Although, I did not like much about the starting lineup.   Mavs fan jam the previous night, so maybe last night was a little festive?    

With Exum out with knee issues for a bit, hopefully Williams can play soon.  This will be a golden opportunity for him to take this opportunity and run with it.    If he doesn't capture it or can't play, things get real dicey.  I really don't think you should be experimenting with Hardy after all the years worth of evidence.

Once again out of desperation they are trying to make Hardy a PG, when he´s probably a 40% 3pt SG offensively, if they stopped messing around with his confidence. He´s the 2nd best (currently healthy) 3pt shooter on the team with the worst AST/TO ratio on the team. How the f*** he still does anything, but catch and shoot threes or one escape dribble is an embarrassment to the coaching staff. They probably even be able to trade him, if they used him right for a season.

[Jym]

If nothing else, Dwight is easily the best 4th string center in the league

[loki]

Yikes.  Super ugly. The Mavs future is ultimately contingent on what they’ll be able to move AD and Kyrie for.  I don’t think they could get much for them, which is embarrassing, especially for AD, since Nico judges him as nearly equal in value to Luka.

I'd agree on Kyrie. He's too risky for another team to give up serious assets for. I think there's a good chance he retires in Dallas. 

AD should still get a great return, even if it looks bad next to the Luka deal. It's critical that they deal him this trade deadline to maximize his value and get a good draft pick for the last time until 2031. Unfortunately Nico won't give serious consideration to that until it's too late.

[RoyTarpleysGhost]

I don’t care about the preseason.

But after getting lucky and landing Flagg, I think moving AD has to be given serious consideration. You are loaded in the front court and lacking assets for the Flagg era.

I don’t see any way Nico and Kidd trade AD though unless we’re out of the playoff race completely for some weird reason.