Quote:
Originally Posted by jthig32
Butler was flat out awful for the first half of his season, and the Mavs were still really good despite his terrible play. So I have a hard to time chalking up a ton of the problems now to not having him. They certainly would be better with him healthy, but markedly so? I don't think so.
I think, more than anything, the league has caught up. The Mavs are a team filled with veteran players, most of whom had already played with each other. It's not uncommon for a team like that to get out of the gates fast and then lose steam as the season wears on.
It really says something about how this team is constructed that we can lose our second best SF, and someone who is probably not one of the four best players on this team, and it's looked at as a major blow. And it's because we're so hard up for true two-way players.
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Full on, double rainbow all the way across the sky. Obviously meaning I agree. But it should be a no brainer that not having Butler is a major problem right now. I don't follow how you can state the fact that we need two-way players so badly and in the same post suggest that Caron basically isn't that big (or markedly so) of an issue.
I just don't think we stand a chance without Caron unless we get above average contributions from everyone else NOT named Dirk. Our depth isn't as it was designed without him and that was one thing a lot of us thought would counter NOT having a legit or all-star type 2nd scorer/option. Now that we don't have that guy who can play and contribute above average on both ends while keeping a semi-conventional lineup it's going to be a lot tougher.