GAME 7: MIA (6-1) @ DAL (4-3) | 110-125 Loss

[ThisIStheYear]

Without Kp and Maxi, we weren't beating an engaged Miami team.   Ideally if KP is a 4 or 5, the Mavs need another starting caliber front court player.   Powell can be your fourth big (overpaid, but good for that role).

Ugh...but it is all moot if KP can't get on the court.

Losing Maxi is a pretty big deal admittedly. KP?  Who the hell is that?  I just see an entry in a ledger somewhere used to launder $31 million.

[SleepingHero]

I actually thought he was ok tonight.  He needs to shoot better but I like how he competed.  I think he has a chance to be a positive impact here.   Needs to shoot better though.

The amount of defensive lapses he had when he came in buried the team. Same with JB and THJ. The latter duo left Herro open back-to-back-to-back in the 2nd and that's all he needed to get super hot. 

Thankfully Brunson redeemed himself on the offensive side. Can't say the same for the other two.

[Kammrath]

The KP contract is a franchise killer.

The failure to tank Luka's rookie year was arguably just as big of a franchise killer. The wins at OKC, at MEM in OT, and then against PHX in 2019 are something I may never forgive RC for.

[JamesConway]

https://twitter.com/boweman55/status/145...87426?s=21

[VintagePejav2]

Chuck is right. The roster needs turnover. This isn’t going anywhere.

#TradeTingus

[SwisherPrice]

Need a time machine to go back to 2019 and stop the KP/THJ trade. Even if that meant keeping DSJ and having another bad team for 2019-20, at least we'd have more flexibility now. Now we are stuck with nowhere to go. They were too worried about impressing Luka early on so they went for the short-term investment instead of thinking long-term/big-picture.

[Kammrath]

https://twitter.com/bobbykaralla/status/...1074073600

[mvossman]

My Gawd the Mavs blow this year. And even worse, the opportunity to improve, during Luka’s rookie contract, has come and gone. This is peak Mavericks for the next few years. All improvement will have to be internal.  The KP contract is a franchise killer.

We can start trading first round picks next year, so there is route to improvement other than internal.

[Branduil]

Chuck is right. The roster needs turnover. This isn’t going anywhere.

#TradeTingus

People really wanted to believe the KP problem was entirely due to Carlisle. It was a nice dream, but nope. You can't squeeze blood from a stone.

[Kammrath]

Another note:

Luka ended the game a team worst -13. That is 4 of the first 7 games that Luka has been one of the two worst in +/- on the whole team. 

This is a MASSIVE issue.

[Jym]

Need a time machine to go back to 2019 and stop the KP/THJ trade. Even if that meant keeping DSJ and having another bad team for 2019-20, at least we'd have more flexibility now. Now we are stuck with nowhere to go. They were too worried about impressing Luka early on so they went for the short-term investment instead of thinking long-term/big-picture.

Didn't work out but I'm still happy with that trade. I think it had all the long-term fixtures you would want. KP and his glass body have just disappointed
Hopefully we can pull off something of that same magnitude or bigger before the trade deadline. Really need an infusion of talent
And most importantly I want to see Cuban have that will to spend again.

[cow]

Hopefully we can pull off something of that same magnitude or bigger before the trade deadline. Really need an infusion of talent

We haven't been good at trades in a while and I'd hate to be put back into future first round pick jail again when we are so close to paying of the previous disaster.  

I really don't see what trading KP would do for us at this point.  You'd have to pay someone to take on his terrible contract.  

MBT need to figure out Jalen's future.  Moving him would be the easiest way to tank and maybe return a somewhat valuable asset in return.  To a much lesser extent, the same decision needs to be made for DFS.

MBT need to figure out how to draft, quick.

[Kammrath]

Another note:

Luka ended the game a team worst -13. That is 4 of the first 7 games that Luka has been one of the two worst in +/- on the whole team. 

This is a MASSIVE issue.

So for perspective:

In Dirk's first 19 seasons he NEVER had a negative +/- and almost always led the team in +/-. When Dirk played, the Mavs outscored their opponents, almost without fail.


Luka was negative in his first season, positive the last two (but not by a whole lot), and now in his fourth season is a team worst -25.7. I am super concerned that Luka is not the true superstar that I was hoping he would be. True superstars impact winning, PERIOD. 

And before you blame the talent around Luka, don't. Worse talent around you actually makes being positive in +/- easier because the players who replace you suck.

This is genuinely the most alarming thing surrounding this team right now. The Mavs cannot outscore their opponents with Luka playing and are being outscored by 13.3 pts when he does. Seven games is a small sample size, sure, but these numbers are hugely alarming.

[BackToSquareOne]

Chuck is right. 

That's a bold take.

[Jason Terry]

So for perspective:

In Dirk's first 19 seasons he NEVER had a negative +/- and almost always led the team in +/-. When Dirk played, the Mavs outscored their opponents, almost without fail.


Luka was negative in his first season, positive the last two (but not by a whole lot), and now in his fourth season is a team worst -25.7. I am super concerned that Luka is not the true superstar that I was hoping he would be. True superstars impact winning, PERIOD. 

And before you blame the talent around Luka, don't. Worse talent around you actually makes being positive in +/- easier because the players who replace you suck.

This is genuinely the most alarming thing surrounding this team right now. The Mavs cannot outscore their opponents with Luka playing and are being outscored by 13.3 pts when he does. Seven games is a small sample size, sure, but these numbers are hugely alarming.

The KP situation is a huge dark cloud over this whole team. Make that go away and watch us start hitting 3’s and Luka upping his game back to previous levels. Happens in sports all the time

[BackToSquareOne]

The KP situation is a huge dark cloud over this whole team. Make that go away and watch us start hitting 3’s and Luka upping his game back to previous levels. Happens in sports all the time

So ... KP being away would make the Mavs team that has shot 18-45, 8-37, 12-37 and 14-42 from 3 in the games KP has .. been away .. a better 3pt shooting team?  

Maybe it's KP's presence on the bench that makes the Mavs shoot badly from 3? Just like Frank's presence on the bench and never being on the court made the Knicks D so good last season.

[cow]

So for perspective:

In Dirk's first 19 seasons he NEVER had a negative +/- and almost always led the team in +/-. When Dirk played, the Mavs outscored their opponents, almost without fail.


Luka was negative in his first season, positive the last two (but not by a whole lot), and now in his fourth season is a team worst -25.7. I am super concerned that Luka is not the true superstar that I was hoping he would be. True superstars impact winning, PERIOD. 

And before you blame the talent around Luka, don't. Worse talent around you actually makes being positive in +/- easier because the players who replace you suck.

This is genuinely the most alarming thing surrounding this team right now. The Mavs cannot outscore their opponents with Luka playing and are being outscored by 13.3 pts when he does. Seven games is a small sample size, sure, but these numbers are hugely alarming.

I have to think some of it is shooting woes:  42.6% FG, 25.5% 3PT, 72.5% FT.  All career lows besides FT% which is the worst since his rookie campaign.  His rebound numbers are a career low and assist numbers are the lowest since his rookie year.  

The whole team seems to be in a shooting funk.  

I think talent around him is somewhat justifiable when you've got 60M+ tied up in players that don't contribute night in and night out(KP, DP, Burke, Boban, Green, Moses, WCS, Brown).

Jalen is the only consistent player.  DFS is the captain of the shooting funk brigade.  Maxi is hurt.  Tim is Tim and is lucky I'm not putting him in that 60M (80M) group.  

Because of Luka's ball dominance and because of his athletic limitations on the defensive end, we've all known that it will take a very special roster around him to be a contender.  I still say he's a superstar but he needs to grow up and stay in shape and work on his shooting.  Otherwise his tenure with the Mavericks is going to be a far less successful version of the James Harden Rockets.

[RedFlag41]

I think Luka and the mavs played relatively well in this game, Miami was just better. Lowry and Herro made some incredible and timely shots, Bam was unstoppable inside. Dallas missed many open shots and failed to consolidate stops by not securing the ball after they force a miss.

Miami is a defensive juggernaut with so many capable defenders. making it difficult for the Mavs to make shots. They also have a lot of capable scorers making it very difficult for the Mavs defense.

I think the Mavs need to add a defensive inside presence, DP just cannot defend the paint.And, the Mavs also need to have another consistent scorer.

[dynamicalVoid]

Blow it up...and dont let analytics get in the way of that decision.

[loki]

It's too late to fix the roster in the short term. This offseason was the last real opportunity, but they didn't feel the need to change anything. These roster building problems go all the way back to the Luka deal when they voluntarily gave up a potential lottery pick instead of taking on salary from Atlanta.

I don't see things changing in a meaningful way until Luka demands Cuban remove himself from the decision making process. And I'm not sure if that would even get the job done.