Quote:
Originally Posted by Bryan_Wilson
Not to be too much of a Mavs homer but how in the world are we still getting projected for 34 wins? If Dirk doesn't miss 25 games last year we might have actually stumbled into the playoffs. And after NN was here if you take out the last 3-4 games we admittedly did tank we were a .500 team. If none of our players from last year take one step in their development we are still a better team than the one that was on the floor those first 30 games. The only reason I don't have us making the playoffs is because it could be similar to the year where it took 50 wins to make the 8th seed. The Mavs could win 40-44 games and miss the playoffs, which is not close to being a tank team.
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I think you're forgetting how much better the West got in general, making it that much tougher to get wins against teams that we play the majority of the time. I agree that 34 is low and I would personally take the over by about 6 games, but I think us making the playoffs is going to be a real challenge unless everyone can stay healthy and Matthews can play much, much better with less of a responsibility to create offense now (that and DSJ playing at a ROY level).
Frankly, as sad as it is to admit, we're probably to the point in Dirk's career where banking on him missing less than 10-20 games a year is more of a hope than a reality, but I sure hope I'm wrong about that. I think he rests AT LEAST 8 games (we have 15 back to backs) and, again, then you're assuming he doesn't have any swelling in his knees, etc if you expect that to be all he's out for. Just low odds at this point, but fingers crossed for sure.