[FINtastic]

Originally Posted by dirno2000

I agree. He's far from an idiot and over the years he's been more than fair to the Mavs.

Still, this is a case of a stat guy cherry picking numbers to make a point that’s based in emotion. It's intellectually dishonest. The following section is the worst:

Dig deeper, and still, nothing about the Mavs screams "contender." They rank 10th in offensive efficiency and 12th in defensive efficiency. Their offense is predicated on the lowest-percentage shot in the game, the long 2, and three Mavs (Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Terry and Butler) are among the league's leading practitioners of the shot. Sure, that trio converts from midrange more often than most, but it's still a difficult way to build a high-powered offense.

Thus, if the Mavs are to be legit, they will have to improve on defense. That's where the additions of Haywood and, to a lesser extent, DeShawn Stevenson, could help. But even if those two vault the Mavs all the way into the league's top five in defensive efficiency -- an unlikely occurrence -- they still would be on an even footing with only the West's other second-tier teams.

The point of the article is to examine the Mavs viability as a contender POST trade. That being the case why is our full year offensive and defensive ranking even remotely relevant?

His single worst point is that if we move from 12th to 5th in defensive efficiency we'd be on par with the second tier teams in the West. Of course he’s conveniently ignoring the fact that to make such a dramatic leap this late in the season we'd likely have to be the best defensive team in the league post trade. Like KG said, Hollinger knows these things and the fact that he's purposely ignoring them tells you all you need to know. I’m an insider so I read his per diem everyday and I know he's better than this.

That was definitely the weakest point of his article, and I couldn't figure out why he was making it. Using the entire season's worth of stats isn't going to make his case about this particular team.