On the eve the Mavs playing in the Western Conference Finals for the second time in three years, I've spent the last hour or so reading through this thread and decided to bump it. For the five or so people that still frequent this forum, I highly recommend you skim through this thread even just for a minute or so, because it is so easy to lose sight of just how damn far this team has come in such a short amount of time.
Seriously, just a few short months ago, the team was in absolute doldrums, and most of us wanted Jason Kidd's head on spike. Reading through the thread, it was clear the Mavs were more than a piece away from being relevant, and it seemed it would take at least a couple of years to get there. We all knew we needed another big outside of Lively. Lively, who by the way was completely unproven and some of us thought wouldn't contribute for a year or even longer. Welp, Lively as a 20 year old rookie has already proven himself to be one of the best rim protectors in the league, and could be a DPOY candidate year after year. And the other big we so desperately needed? Everyone, myself included, wanted Clint Capela, but figured he was out of our price range. Other names thrown around were Mason Plumlee, Ivica Zubac, and Andre Drummond. NOBODY mentioned Daniel Gafford. He wasn't on anyone's radar. Ditto for PJ.
And through most of the regular season, we were still more or less in the doldrums. An improvement over the disaster that was last year, but still a mediocre team barely clinging to a chance at the play-in tournament. Then the trade deadline happens. Between the summer of 2023 and the 2024 trade deadline, Nico accomplished in a few months what I thought it would take at least 2 years to achieve. The Mavs went from having the worst frontcourt depth in the entire league to arguably the best, and from having virtually no athletic wing defenders to a whole roster loaded with them.
The Mavericks are in the Western Conference Finals, people. Try to remember how utterly implausible that was just three months ago. We've gotten so used to good vibes and excitement for past couple of months, I think it's easy to forget how shitty things were just a little while ago, and how awesome it is that we're here now. Win or lose, this season is an absolute, undeniable, unequivocal, unqualified success. That being said, let's fucking win this thing!
Go Mavs.
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