03-30-2021, 07:08 PM
Mavs are in a tough spot to compete in the West next year as well. Jazz and Suns are much better than expected. We thought they were going to be on a lower tier but they are at least very good regular season teams, if not more. Lakers are the Lakers. Clippers will likely be in contention again but have the most risk of completely falling apart. Nuggets are contenders, Blazers are contenders if they can ever get through a season healthy. Warriors will be back as contenders.
So you have basically 7 teams to me in the 1st and 2nd tiers in the West before you get to the group the Mavs are in. The Mavs are trying to hold off Grizzlies, Spurs (who always overachieve) and other young teams, from leap-frogging them. A healthy Mavs team is probably a playoff team but there is low margin for error and now you have to deal with this whole play-in tournament.
The play-in tournament is probably the best anti-tanking measure the NBA has ever come up with. Now you have teams that would be tanking actually competing for those last spots. I actually am a fan it for that reason and because it gives the bottom seeds some momentum headed into the first round where otherwise they look like dead-man walking most years.
It would suck to lose the play-in tournament because it feels like you didn't really "make the playoffs." Mavs are definitely sort of the best of the low rung teams at the moment. I am not sure how they get into the 2nd tier of very-good-maybe-not-true-contenders. Suns did it by adding super-old CP3 to everyone's amazement. Mavs have at least established some kind of floor where the play-in tournament is sort of their floor for the forseeable future. You only need to be the 10th seed to make that tournament.
So you have basically 7 teams to me in the 1st and 2nd tiers in the West before you get to the group the Mavs are in. The Mavs are trying to hold off Grizzlies, Spurs (who always overachieve) and other young teams, from leap-frogging them. A healthy Mavs team is probably a playoff team but there is low margin for error and now you have to deal with this whole play-in tournament.
The play-in tournament is probably the best anti-tanking measure the NBA has ever come up with. Now you have teams that would be tanking actually competing for those last spots. I actually am a fan it for that reason and because it gives the bottom seeds some momentum headed into the first round where otherwise they look like dead-man walking most years.
It would suck to lose the play-in tournament because it feels like you didn't really "make the playoffs." Mavs are definitely sort of the best of the low rung teams at the moment. I am not sure how they get into the 2nd tier of very-good-maybe-not-true-contenders. Suns did it by adding super-old CP3 to everyone's amazement. Mavs have at least established some kind of floor where the play-in tournament is sort of their floor for the forseeable future. You only need to be the 10th seed to make that tournament.