He quotes Dallas as having outscored the opposition by 5.3 ppg since the trade (including the OKC game). If you buy that it's scoring margin that really makes the difference, then without considering the competition, that's good enough for 4th best team in the league going off Hollinger's rankings and other teams' season-average MOVs (a fact that he somehow manages to interpret as a negative).
Of course, if we take schedule into account, we see that the average MOV for Mavs opponents during this stretch was just over +2. If we assume that it's reasonable to combine MOV additively to account for strength of schedule, then we infer that Dallas' MOV relative to an average opponent since the trade is in in excess of 7.3, which puts them just above the Cavs as best in the land by the MOV criteria.
Dear John, suck it.
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"He's coming off the bench aggressive right away, looking for his shot. If he has any daylight, we need him to shoot the ball. We know it's going in."
-Dirk Nowitzki on Jason Terry, after JET's 16 point 4th quarter against the Pacers.
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