02-08-2023, 09:16 AM
(02-08-2023, 04:51 AM)Dundalis Wrote: If the Mavs lose both Kyrie and Wood, this roster would be abominably thin. The FA market this off season is garbage, it's the following years FA market that's really good.
Completely disagree the Mavs have any shot whatsoever with the team as currently constructed. I don't think they even get out of the second round. The only shot they have is making another significant trade for a high level defender. An OG type is obviously ideal. Which would take Green and a first minimum. Maaaybe, they could with a PJ Washington who is a legit elite defender in the DFS mold, but better and younger.
IMO you can beat Jokic by letting him score as much as he wants as long as your perimeter defense is good enough to stop everyone else. People are obsessed with a big to stop the Jokic/Embiid types, but I think you can beat them as long as you can cover the perimeter. Currently we can't do either. We currently have no truly versatile POA defender, Green can only do it on 1-3, he just isn't big enough for any other position. OG and Washington, like DFS, can guard 1-3, 4's and even some small 5's but are even better defensively. Even then it's an uphill battle just to get out of the west IMO. Would need a lot of things to go right.
I need to step back a moment and breathe in the contempt contained in the bolded for the offensive combination of Luka and Kyrie ("Lukyrie hate detected"). We aren't talking about the Bron-Wade/Durant-Harden/et al. "pick your poison" situations. We're talking about juggernautic unstoppability in the fourth quarter. Then you throw in Green and Hardy. I wouldn't be surprised if the Mavs average 45 points in the fourth quarter in the playoffs. In other words, defense is gravy when the other team has no prayer of stopping you. I fear exactly one team in the West, and that's the team we play tonight, if they can string together the health and cohesion that has eluded them. As long as Luka and Kyrie are both healthy, I'd gladly put down a grand that no team in the West outside of the Clippers is beating us in a seven game series. The Celtics would give us problems in the Finals.