Time to acknowledge reality

[BigDirk41]

There's definitely no reason to trade for a rental. We look like we'll most likely be somewhere in the 4-7 range at the end of the year. As much as I love Luka, he needs to get it together at the end of games. He takes terrible shots late in games. He settles for step back 3's way too often..

[jesusshuttlesworth82]

username checks out

[bartlettbear]

WHY WASTE THE TO THERE!!!!!!!!!  RICK SUCKS!!

There's definitely no reason to trade for a rental. We look like we'll most likely be somewhere in the 4-7 range at the end of the year. As much as I love Luka, he needs to get it together at the end of games. He takes terrible shots late in games. He settles for step back 3's way too often..

That is all coaching it is what RC wants,


Mavs will not be title contenders until they get a coach that can finish games

---

Your not winning close games shooting 50 threes , you need to get the ball inside where games are won and get to the line 11 ft attempts

[TXBamanut]

I’m gonna bump this thread cause I think we’ve seen a lot of new data that is worth discussing.

At this point, the Mavs are looking anything but legit title contenders. I’d say we’d be lucky to make it out of a 1st round matchup even with home court advantage with the way we’ve shown an aptitude for blowing leads and poor clutch performances.

To be fair, we are banged up at the moment, but I don’t think that’s enough to explain the meltdowns we’ve seen.

Are you really serious?  I wondered how long the "oh my gosh, I told you so" Eyeor's would come flying back from the shadows.

Just stop.

You take Lou Williams, Paul George and Patrick Beverly off the Clipps, and run an injured Kawhi out there, they might actually have some letdowns too.

Same is true if you run take Anthony Davis, Kyle Kuzma and Danny Green off the Lakers....

Or Jamaal Murray, Will Barton and Gary Harris off the Nuggets.

I could keep going, but you get the idea...

There just aren't a whole lot of teams who you can take 2 of their top 3 scorers, and they another valuable piece in the rotation out and them just run around and beat everyone with ease...in this day and time, those teams really don't exist (the Warriors were an anomaly).

Just hold your horses and as much as you guys seem to want to, put the "we're doomed/sky is falling" stick back in your pants.  
 

Yeah, we've got things to work out...and they will.

Let's go Mavs!

[DrMav]

I’m gonna bump this thread cause I think we’ve seen a lot of new data that is worth discussing.

At this point, the Mavs are looking anything but legit title contenders. I’d say we’d be lucky to make it out of a 1st round matchup even with home court advantage with the way we’ve shown an aptitude for blowing leads and poor clutch performances.

To be fair, we are banged up at the moment, but I don’t think that’s enough to explain the meltdowns we’ve seen.

Are you really serious?  I wondered how long the "oh my gosh, I told you so" Eyeor's would come flying back from the shadows.

Just stop.

You take Lou Williams, Paul George and Patrick Beverly off the Clipps, and run an injured Kawhi out there, they might actually have some letdowns too.

Same is true if you run take Anthony Davis, Kyle Kuzma and Danny Green off the Lakers....

Or Jamaal Murray, Will Barton and Gary Harris off the Nuggets.

I could keep going, but you get the idea...

There just aren't a whole lot of teams who you can take 2 of their top 3 scorers, and they another valuable piece in the rotation out and them just run around and beat everyone with ease...in this day and time, those teams really don't exist (the Warriors were an anomaly).

Just hold your horses and as much as you guys seem to want to, put the "we're doomed/sky is falling" stick back in your pants.  
 

Yeah, we've got things to work out...and they will.

Let's go Mavs!

I think I’m anything but an Eyeore. I post a lot more on this board than the last, but when I did post even in the darkest times, I think I have been extremely optimistic and even struggle with objectivity when it comes to rating us and our players against other teams.

And I am still optimistic about the Mavs overall. We’re going to be title contenders for years to come as long as Luka is in a Mavs jersey, but at the moment we’re not playing like it and that’s ok to acknowledge. I think we could even discuss it without resorting to name calling if people so choose.

[dmavs4life03]

The problem(s) most of us are calling for don't concern the fact that we a down a couple guys to injury. The problems come down to coaching philosophies of rick. 

Like how one player (not named Luka) gets an allotted 15-20 mins and leeway to put up shots regardless of what they do to the team while others get stapled to the bench. Even after good games. 

Then add the 3 or die offensive scheme that looks great when we the 3s go down but isn't a reliable option late in games or even before it gets late by getting that run stopping bucket.

The terrible management of TOs and more importantly the lame play calls coming out of them.... and this used to be a Rick specialty.

Never fouling up 3. And not putting the players in positions to succeed beyond 3s. The spurs are gonna come take our spot if we aren't careful. The league now is on to us as an up and coming team and will overload on luka and live with the 3s. As a coach, he should run other schemes to get us more reliable buckets throughout the game. 

I liked the roddy oop for Dorian today... more of that maybe, some postups for Luka/Boban, some JJB P&R, more floaters for Seth/JJ, Never play Powell as the only big, give delon the green light that brunson has and the minutes consistently to rebuild his confidence. DFS and Maxi have been $$ lately when we need a 3. But teams are just pressing luka and we are folding like paper planes.

Cause this sorta offense we've been watching doesn't require much coaching. And as far as defense/rebounding, we can't do that consistently with the silly lineups you play with Dwight as the only big or the Delon/Curry/Brunson backcourt that always..... and I mean ALWAYS gives up 2nd chance hoops.

 Yes we're injured now and the refs are letting Luka get mugged right now but we compound it all by playing bad chucking 3s, standing around while the other guys get offensive boards uhhh smh!

[TXBamanut]

I’m gonna bump this thread cause I think we’ve seen a lot of new data that is worth discussing.

At this point, the Mavs are looking anything but legit title contenders. I’d say we’d be lucky to make it out of a 1st round matchup even with home court advantage with the way we’ve shown an aptitude for blowing leads and poor clutch performances.

To be fair, we are banged up at the moment, but I don’t think that’s enough to explain the meltdowns we’ve seen.

Are you really serious?  I wondered how long the "oh my gosh, I told you so" Eyeor's would come flying back from the shadows.

Just stop.

You take Lou Williams, Paul George and Patrick Beverly off the Clipps, and run an injured Kawhi out there, they might actually have some letdowns too.

Same is true if you run take Anthony Davis, Kyle Kuzma and Danny Green off the Lakers....

Or Jamaal Murray, Will Barton and Gary Harris off the Nuggets.

I could keep going, but you get the idea...

There just aren't a whole lot of teams who you can take 2 of their top 3 scorers, and they another valuable piece in the rotation out and them just run around and beat everyone with ease...in this day and time, those teams really don't exist (the Warriors were an anomaly).

Just hold your horses and as much as you guys seem to want to, put the "we're doomed/sky is falling" stick back in your pants.  
 

Yeah, we've got things to work out...and they will.

Let's go Mavs!

I think I’m anything but an Eyeore. I post a lot more on this board than the last, but when I did post even in the darkest times, I think I have been extremely optimistic and even struggle with objectivity when it comes to rating us and our players against other teams.

And I am still optimistic about the Mavs overall. We’re going to be title contenders for years to come as long as Luka is in a Mavs jersey, but at the moment we’re not playing like it and that’s ok to acknowledge. I think we could even discuss it without resorting to name calling if people so choose.

Sorry that I called you an Eyeor.  That better?

I said right before I clicked into the board last night, "wonder how fast the overactors hit the board?"  Then the first post I hit was yours, wiring about the Mavs, so I overreacted to it also.

When our team starts doing this when everyone is healthy or at least we don't have 2 of our top 3 players out and probably or best perimeter defender and secondary playmaker out... I'll worry, but I'm not freaking out.

[DrMav]

Sorry that I called you an Eyeor.  That better?

I said right before I clicked into the board last night, "wonder how fast the overactors hit the board?"  Then the first post I hit was yours, wiring about the Mavs, so I overreacted to it also.

When our team starts doing this when everyone is healthy or at least we don't have 2 of our top 3 players out and probably or best perimeter defender and secondary playmaker out... I'll worry, but I'm not freaking out.

It seems we have at least a couple differences in opinion. 


First, I don’t think I’m overreacting. It is easy for any of us to quickly react to highs or lows in the moment of a game, so I can see how this could be painted as one of those, however this is not a single game occurrence. The lack of closing ability, killer instinct, clutch play, or whatever you want to call it has been seen throughout the season at various points.

Second, you seem to think these shortcomings are primarily a product of injuries to top players. While that does play a role I think, I would also say that I don’t think it is a good enough explanation for how the quality of play drops in crunch time, as it has been an issue even when in good health. 

I think the struggles are more obvious now because when players are healthy, we’ve been a lot better than most teams and haven’t had as much crunch time, but there still have been issues when those situations have occurred. 

Of course if after losing our players to short term injuries we started losing due to what looked like a talent issue, and people started saying we weren’t contenders because of it, that would be an overreaction, but that’s not what’s happening here I don’t think.

As we watch more and more of our team, we gather more information about them to try and use to project out how they’ll do when playoffs come. I enjoy tweets about Luka and his ridiculous stats and where that places him in history as much as anyone, but it’s nice to have other stuff to discuss too. 

If you want to discuss the actual points and whether you totally disagree or whatever, that’s fine, but to just label things an overreaction seems to miss the point (willingly or not).

Apologies if any of this is difficult to read, writing from my phone.

[TXBamanut]

Sorry that I called you an Eyeor.  That better?

I said right before I clicked into the board last night, "wonder how fast the overactors hit the board?"  Then the first post I hit was yours, wiring about the Mavs, so I overreacted to it also.

When our team starts doing this when everyone is healthy or at least we don't have 2 of our top 3 players out and probably or best perimeter defender and secondary playmaker out... I'll worry, but I'm not freaking out.

It seems we have at least a couple differences in opinion. 


First, I don’t think I’m overreacting. It is easy for any of us to quickly react to highs or lows in the moment of a game, so I can see how this could be painted as one of those, however this is not a single game occurrence. The lack of closing ability, killer instinct, clutch play, or whatever you want to call it has been seen throughout the season at various points.

Second, you seem to think these shortcomings are primarily a product of injuries to top players. While that does play a role I think, I would also say that I don’t think it is a good enough explanation for how the quality of play drops in crunch time, as it has been an issue even when in good health. 

I think the struggles are more obvious now because when players are healthy, we’ve been a lot better than most teams and haven’t had as much crunch time, but there still have been issues when those situations have occurred. 

Of course if after losing our players to short term injuries we started losing due to what looked like a talent issue, and people started saying we weren’t contenders because of it, that would be an overreaction, but that’s not what’s happening here I don’t think.

As we watch more and more of our team, we gather more information about them to try and use to project out how they’ll do when playoffs come. I enjoy tweets about Luka and his ridiculous stats and where that places him in history as much as anyone, but it’s nice to have other stuff to discuss too. 

If you want to discuss the actual points and whether you totally disagree or whatever, that’s fine, but to just label things an overreaction seems to miss the point (willingly or not).

Apologies if any of this is difficult to read, writing from my phone.

In my opinion, you are overreacting or just jumping too soon (which is the same thing, but a lesser degree), because "killer instinct", "clutch", whatever you want to tag it as is a team characteristic that depends on the ability of your best players to come through at the end...because your best players are the ones playing.

Ergo, when you don't have your best players and you are expecting lesser players to do more than they are meant to do, you can't judge that of the team.

"Plays a role"...I guess Paul George, Kawhi and Lou Williams only "play a role" in the personality of their team...no, they, in large part, DICTATE the personality of their team.  And in this case, until I'm seeing the team, HEALTHY, doing that, then I'm not going to worry a whole lot about it, because at the end of the year, the playoffs, when you most need your players to come through at the end of the game to protect a lead, you'll be expecting your best players to do it.

If your best players aren't available, you probably won't win in the playoffs.

I am not saying DEFINITIVELY that this isn't a problem, but I am saying that until I see the team healthy experiencing this over and over, then I'm not going to freak out about it.

For example, in support of my point, a quote from your post.  You say "the struggles are more obvious now because when players are healthy, we’ve been a lot better than most teams and haven’t had as much crunch time" --- so when we were better, we didn't see these issues because we were just better than the other teams?  I get it that you are TRYING to say that we didn't have super close games at the end where we had to protect a lead, but in that very breath/post, you point out that we are a better team with everyone healthy and we don't see these issues there and why --- because we are better.  

Do you think it's pretty logical to say that our BETTER players playing that force LESSER players to play in their natural intended roles MAKES us more clutch?

You kind of just glossed over the points that I've posted and said that I don't want to discuss the points, when THE BIGGEST POINT (the point that nullifies all other points for me) was made in the original post I made...and you just ignored it because you were run off the 3 because you got your feelings hurt because you felt that I grouped you as an Eyeor...come on, man.f

That's not really a lot of discussion to be made on this point...

[DrMav]

Ha, I get called worse than Eeyore at work most days so I’m definitely not offended by it, more so pointing it out as when people start some sort of name calling they are often letting emotion affect their arguments. I’m not sure what points you’ve really made other than the team isn’t healthy so reactions to recent play are overreactions, and I thought I had addressed those. I think Ive tried to take a pretty level headed approach to evaluating the situation and addressed the fact that I don’t think health is such an issue that it negates everything here, but there is some degree of irrationality just stating there’s nothing to worry about and it’s not even worth discussing.

https://stats.nba.com/teams/clutch-advan...NET_RATING&dir=-1

Here’s team by team Clutch Stats if you’re willing to look at them, and they aren’t very favorable to us.


We’ve played 35 games with a 22-13 record, yet are 8-11 in games with clutch situations. So yes, it’s true that we’ve been better than teams a lot to the point we don’t even have a close game at the end with 14 such wins, and have been in most games with only 2 such losses. However, that still leaves over half the games we’ve been a team with a losing record with advanced stats that explain a lot of it. We’ve had a pretty healthy team for much of the season so there’s still a lot of games in that sampling even if you want to discount some so you can still learn a lot from it, even the recent stuff IMO. So I hope I’m answering your question, but it’s not like we are “more clutch” because we make clutch situations happen infrequently as that hasn’t really been the case even when healthy. We might avoid clutch situations more when we’re healthy because we click more, but they were still happening often enough and we weren’t performing great then either. These have been issues throughout the season, we’ve just seen more of a cluster recently rather than sprinklings throughout.

Also worth pointing out the obvious, but even still, we’re far more likely to have games with clutch situations than without in the playoffs, which is why I think it matters and brought it up.

If you think there’s nothing to discuss, fine. Some people might like to discuss why in these situation things like why does our shotmaking drop off so much, why do we turn the ball over more, why aren’t we rebounding as well, why can’t we make FTs (not necessarily just a clutch issue), does RCs burn through his TOs too early (personally I thought his TO call last night was just fine while others may disagree), etc.

There’s a lot of smart Mavs fans on this board, many much smarter than me when it comes to basketball, and I’d love to hear opinions/analysis and what people think the Mavs will do work on things, cause I know RC isn’t just shrugging his shoulders saying, “well we aren’t healthy so whatever.”