Official 2013 Dallas Mavericks Season Thread: Welcome New Guys! Season starts VS ATL 10/30/13

[japanair21]

A new year, a whole new roster! This is getting kind of fun, even though we haven't been good since we won in 2011. . This past off-season, Cuban and Donnie took a different approach. We got guys here who are going to be here for a few years. We've even got some returning faces from the past!

Here's what I think our new projected depth chart will be.

PG- Jose Calderon, Devin Harris, Gel Mekel, Shane Larkin
SG- Monta Ellis, Wayne Ellington, Ricky Ledo
SF- Shawn Marion, Jae Crowder, Vince Carter
PF- Dirk Nowitzki, DeJuan Blair
C- Samuel Dalembert, Brandan Wright, Bernard James.

Some guys I have high expectatinos for, others not so much.

For my largest expectations, it comes from the top. It's Dirk. It has been touted that he's as healthy as he's been since 2011. That's a huge factor, because he missed almost 30 games last year dealing with his knee issue. They went 28-25 with Dirk in the line-up, and I expect Dirk to return to his typical 50/40/90% form this year. Very small sample size, I know, but put up 54/33/90 in the preseason, and he got a TON of open threes he just didn't knock down. But his mid-range game seems on point.

It may not be fair, but outside of Dirk, my largest expectation is out of Monta Ellis. I've been one of the bigger Monta fans on here, that doesn't need to be discussed, . But really, his talents haven't been utilized properly for quite a few years, and I'm hopeful that in a very unselfish team, he can flourish. He can still attack the rim, he can still handle the ball okay, he just needs to take the right shots. I'm already in love again with the Dirk & guard pick-and-roll. It's starting to work well, and it seems like they will both get along great.

Outside of those two? Ehh. I expect Shawn to get his usual dirty duties, cleaning up the trash. I expect VC to be fantastic some games, but more often than not a dud.

I expect Jose to be very efficient but a humungous liability on defense. That makes he wonder if we'll see a three-guard line-up to end some games, with Devin Harris out there too to guard PGs. They made Kidd/Barea/Terry work, I'm sure Rick will try it.

I am intrigued quite a bit by DeJuan Blair. I've always liked the guy, and feel like what he is talented at, can really help the Mavs. Need a bruiser on the boards.

I probably have lowest expectations for our young PGs, Sam Dally, and Vince. Dalembert just hasn't sat right with me. He can be a monster rebounder, but I just don't know how he fits with this team. He's definitely not a Tyson Chandler, and still doesn't know how to play defense without fouling apparently.

The two biggest unknowns for me are how much Jae and Ellington contribute to this team. They would be taking minutes from Calderon, Harris, Monta, Marion, and VC. That's a lot of minutes. Jae seems to have improved over the summer, and Wayne I really don't know a whole lot about.

I've come to the realization that this team will probably he stuck in mediocrity until we see Dirk retire, unless a blockbuster happens somehow and we end up with a James Harden-esque player. It is what it is, but if we can start being relatively competitive again, I'll be happy.

 

[SneakerProSr.]

5th seed unless Dirk gets hurt

 

[japanair21]

Great way to kick off the season!

I have only watched about 1/3 of the game, but am watching a replay right now, and just some quick hits.

Dirk is still an elite PF, no doubt about him having another All-Star caliber year.
Monta is very aggressive and it's a good thing, especially since he's attacking the basket.
Marion and Vince have pretty damn good chemistry together.
Speaking of Vince, if he produce like this once every few weeks, I'll be thrilled. Attacking the basket, hitting great shots. Not just sitting on the perimeter and chucking all game.

I don't have too much of an impression about Blair or Dalembert yet, but Dalembert probably has the second-best pair of hands in the Dirk-era.

That's not saying a lot.

 

[japanair21]

Calderon looking better tonight than he has the other two games.

Getting great looks for the rest of his teammates, as is Monta.

 

[SneakerProSr.]

Don't we already have one of these?

 

[japanair21]

Don't we already have one of these?

Link?

This is why I love Shawn Marino though. Even though he wasn’t too terribly efficient from the field, gobbled up boards against a very big team, played defense, and attacked the rim. 21/14/4/2 from a 35 year old man who hasn’t been in All-Star form for like six years?

Also nice to see an aggressive game out of Dally. I feel like he’s going to be one of those unreliable some nights he’s great some nights he’s terrible kinda guy.

I think I’m most happy with DeJuan Blair. The guy is all-hustle when no one else really hustles on our team. He’s stingy with the boards and has a decent touch around the rim.

Monta still feeling his way out, hoping this doesn’t last long.

 

[SneakerProSr.]

Don't we already have one of these?

Link?

This is why I love Shawn Marino though. Even though he wasn’t too terribly efficient from the field, gobbled up boards against a very big team, played defense, and attacked the rim. 21/14/4/2 from a 35 year old man who hasn’t been in All-Star form for like six years?

Also nice to see an aggressive game out of Dally. I feel like he’s going to be one of those unreliable some nights he’s great some nights he’s terrible kinda guy.

I think I’m most happy with DeJuan Blair. The guy is all-hustle when no one else really hustles on our team. He’s stingy with the boards and has a decent touch around the rim.

Monta still feeling his way out, hoping this doesn’t last long.

http://niketalk.com/t/561260/offici...-season-2013-2014-season-thread#post_19009723

 

[japanair21]

http://niketalk.com/t/561260/offici...-season-2013-2014-season-thread#post_19009723

Oh, well whoops.

 

[shatterkneesinc]

good start so far

 

[manny1]

 

[larrydavid]

Can't wait to see us at full strength, the bench is lackin' and we have too much riding on Dalembert down low when he goes against quality big men, but once we get Wright back we good money.

 

[SneakerProSr.]

Told yall.

Rick got Monta playing the best ball of his career

 

[D StaXX]

Haven't caught a game yet but I'm hearing good things.

 

[japanair21]

Can't wait to see us at full strength, the bench is lackin' and we have too much riding on Dalembert down low when he goes against quality big men, but once we get Wright back we good money.

So are we using this thread?

As important as Wright and Harris are, Gal and Blair have done a GREAT job. Gal is polished scoring the ball. He takes good shots, his shots. That's something a lot of NBA players still don't know how to do. And Blair has been an all-out beast. Tearing up the boards, hustling, getting steals, everything. He's scrapping. I love it.

 

[larrydavid]

Can't wait to see us at full strength, the bench is lackin' and we have too much riding on Dalembert down low when he goes against quality big men, but once we get Wright back we good money.

So are we using this thread?

As important as Wright and Harris are, Gal and Blair have done a GREAT job. Gal is polished scoring the ball. He takes good shots, his shots. That's something a lot of NBA players still don't know how to do. And Blair has been an all-out beast. Tearing up the boards, hustling, getting steals, everything. He's scrapping. I love it.

I'm a huge fan of Blair, especially coming in for Dirk at the 4, but we can't have him as our back-up C on defense... not because he's not good enough it's just that a dude at 6'7 is not going to be able to handle the likes of Marc Gasol, Al Horford, DMC, Dwight Howard, etc. on a nightly basis.

I have liked Gal's decision making though, didn't no much about him coming into the season but he's been a nice back-up, interested to see how he plays tonight against some quality PG competition.

 

[japanair21]

Shame we couldn't pull out the W tonight. OKC is the hardest match-up for the Mavs. If Russ OR KD plays well, we are losing. Most nights we can maybe scrap one out against anyone. OKC? Not them.

 

[japanair21]

I really hate that Larkin and Carter are getting so many damn minutes. Larkin has pretty much taken over all of Gal Mekel’s minutes. But Larkin has shot horribly all year, and has a lower AST:TO than Mekel. Mekel just seems much more natural on the floor, and has a really soft floater.

Carter has been an absolute black hole. Jae Crowder has played much better in all respects, but doesn’t get nearly as much time, or crunch time minutes. Not even mentioning going to Carter late in games which is inexplicable. Jae is shooting far better all around the court, and he plays much better defense because he’s more athletic than an ancient Vince Carter. The only thing that Jae doesn’t do well is draw fouls, which is something Vince does a little better than Jae, but it doesn’t matter.

Either way, I can’t wait till Devin Harris comes back, because that should mean that the Shane Larkin experiment should come to an end. I’m not saying I’m giving up on Larkin, but I don’t want him to eat up much time on the Mavericks 2013-2014 roster. Go down to the minors and ball out there. Learn to play basketball, and stop being so flashy.

 

[japanair21]

I know he's definitely not a Hall-of-Famer, but you don't need to be a Famer to have your number retired....

...So does Marion get his number get retired if he finishes with the Mavericks?

I never would've thought it would've been possible ten years ago given the Suns/Mavericks mini-rivalry, but Marion was just as important to the Mavericks as JET was during our finals run, just on the defensive end. When it's said and done, he might be there just as long as Terry, so I don't think it's outside of the realm of possibility.

 

[100027]

I don't like when teams retire players that didn't do their best work on that team. To me Sean Marion is a Sun, and Jason Kidd is a Net.

 

[japanair21]

I don't like when teams retire players that didn't do their best work on that team. To me Sean Marion is a Sun, and Jason Kidd is a Net.

I respect that.

I just like to take into account things like championships too. I'd retire every guys name from that team if I could.

Dominique Jones.

 

[japanair21]

Monta 9/15, 3/5 from three.
Dirk 10/13, 1/1 from three.

Jae, Larkin, Crowder, Vince, Mekel, Marion? 13/45, 1/15 from three.

|I . So hard to watch games like this. Missing Calderon was very evident. No leadership out there. Probably would've won these last two games. Christ.

 

[shatterkneesinc]

its a 2 man show, period
im pleasantly surprised with monta's production
the rest of the newcomers can go away

 

[japanair21]

its a 2 man show, period
im pleasantly surprised with monta's production
the rest of the newcomers can go away

Blair and Calderon have been legit.

 

[japanair21]

Here's a stat I love about Monta right now...

Monta has taken 177 shots in the paint out of a total of 327.

Over half of his shots he's taken are at the rim or in the paint, and shooting 50%.

That's exactly what I wanted from him. Sure, the turnovers are higher than you'd like, but he's also creating for others really well.

What you hated about OJ Mayo turnovers is that he would just dribble the ball away or get his pocket picked, CONSTANTLY. At least when Monta gets a turnover, he's driving to the basket, or trying to create for others. I'd rather take bad-pass turnovers than simply losing the ball.

Also, Dirk is shooting 51% inside of the three point-line, and really efficient in the paint. He's taking a lot more threes this year than previous years, and that's bringing his FG% down. For quite a few years, like 2008-2011 he just stopped taking so many threes.

Monta and Dirk are playing great, as is Calderon, Blair and Marion, but it's everyone else that we don't know if we'll see on a night-to-night basis, and that's scary.

Last year, it was only Dirk who would bring it nightly, and that's why we were so terrible.

 

[japanair21]

I know we’re only a fourth of the way through the season, but Dirk is having one of his best years ever shooting the ball. After the last two years were a struggle by his standards, his shot is as good as it’s ever been IMO.

He’s shooting the ball at 49.1%, third highest of his career, and from distance he’s shooting 42.1%, which ties his highest ever. His FT% is also as high as it’s ever been, but doesn’t get to the line as much as he did in years past.

Not to mention this is Monta’s third best statistical shooting year as well. His sophomore year he shot slightly better than he is now, but that can change obviously. On pace for 47/38/84 though, which is phenomenal for a two-guard. He’s not taking as many threes as he has in prior years, and he’s shooting better than he ever has from downtown. That’s a luxury.

49/42/93 and 47/38/84? That's a hell of a duo.