Check-In

[mavsluvr]

Hey, guys,
Not sure I ever did my check-in here. Y'all know me as "Scott" from the LMF board of yore, and of course "Scott4theMavs" from Fish's board. Had to give Dirk some love coming to this board with my new (if rather nonsensical) user name. Very grateful to Magickian for giving us a usable board, and great to see everyone here. 

I'm posting on the thread to announce a brief hiatus from major board participation and watching the games. This includes no updates on my power rankings until I start watching games again around the 11th of December. I non-apologize in advance for occasional posts, but I won't have watched the games, so I don't anticipate having much to say.

Why the hiatus? Because it hurts too much. It hurts to see a transcendent talent like Luka tearing the league and the stat sheet to shreds, and not enough help. I'm about done with DFS, Powell, and THJ, and that's a ton of player minutes per game. Those three guys dispell the illusion of depth (our depth is Luka, KP, Wright, Maxi, Justin, Brunson, Boban, and Curry if he gets his act together - pretty dang shallow, actually). I'm disgusted with Seth's disappointing play and Wright, Jackson, and Brunson's woeful underusage. I recognize that KP will be a work in progress, but I don't have the patience for it right now. 

Many were blaming Rick last night. I have to admit that many of the team's problems are on him. There have to be some Donnie orders to play THJ enough to keep his trade value high. To me, the problem is the offseason. I like Wright, Curry, Boban, and Maxi at the contracts we got them on, and DFS would look great if he had learned to hit the broad side of a barn. That said, Powell's contract is darn near Wes revisited, but of course the worst thing is $40 mil in cap room and no starters. Part of this is the rather psychotic decision that Wright isn't a starter, when yes he is. He's our third-best player, so he's a starter, period. However, there were far better players we could have gone after instead of bobbling a Miami trade we evidently didn't really want to do. We have no business attacking the Knicks' organization. This offseason was a barely-mitigated (by lots of value contracts for bench players) disaster. 

Zach Lowe asked Rick why Wright wasn't starting. Rick indicated that their data showed that Wright plays much better off the bench with Brunson and Hardaway. FWIW, I thought that was a rather bizarre answer, given that only ten games had been played at that time, and Wright had started only two. There is just no way, given that sample size, that they have any sort of compelling data to that effect. Be that as it may, I think we can take it as a statement from Rick that he doesn't want to start Wright. 

Obviously, many of the NBA's free agents underestimated Luka. I think it's pretty obvious that the Mavs' front office did, too. 

By December 11th, I will be interested to see between now and then if 1) the Mavs have won a single game against a probable playoff team, 2) the Mavs have won more than half of their games against probable lottery teams, 3) the rotations make more sense, and 4) the pull-up chucking has stopped. I also hope that Wright is consistently starting, that KP looks more solid, that Justin is playing consistently, and that THJ's minutes are way down. Of course, by that point, we'll be just a few days away from some possible trades.

At this point, I would say that there will be at least one significant trade this year, or possibly a coaching change. If not, it's hard to see this team as more than a team with a low lottery pick next summer. I hope I'm wrong. I think that the next almost-month should provide some clarity.

Cheers,
Scott41theMavs

Scott, 

See the above re Carlisle's thoughts on Wright starting. 

Sounds like you are pretty disillusioned at this point. Come 12/11, maybe we can help you come to terms with the situation. Or, alternatively, join in the venting. Or both, as the case may be. Catch you later.