Quote:
Originally Posted by mac222b
Magnum- I hope you're wrong!
I didnt watch the game today. Were there any signs of obvious tankage? Did Collinsworth and or Hopson play when the outcome was still in doubt? Its going to come down to whether RC is on board.
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I only saw the 2nd half. From what I heard on the post game show on ESPN radio, the game was never really in doubt. Carlisle pretty much used the patented Barea, Ferrell, McDermott (formerly Harris), Dirk, Powell lineup to creep within 4 pts early in the 4th qtr; the only exception is Collinsworth was in for Ferrell because he had foul trouble trying to stop Jrue Holiday. But, then Gentry put his starters back in, they went on a 10-0 run, and the game was over.
Games like this vs a playoff bound team that's fighting for playoff seeding don't worry me. Mavs don't have an answer for the Brow & even if they tried to beat New Orleans, they just aren't good enough. Which is what they proved today. I only saw Collinsworth, Hopson & Mejri get minutes once the Mavs were down by 15+. Noel only saw 2nd half action late in the 4th qtr once the game was out of reach. I think once the Mavs started to get within a few buckets of NO, Carlisle changed up the rotation. Which at this point it's not even about tanking, it's just real, real stupid. Missing talent evaluation opportunities to try & win a meaningless game. Even if the Mavs lucked out & hit the top pick in the lottery drawing, a lot of minutes have been missed since the All Star break where we could of been evaluating these guys at the bottom of the roster. Not to mention, Motley still hasn't seen the floor. Motley has played 8 minutes all season long. It's just stupid, stupid, stupid. Why go into next year not having any better idea what Motley's capable of at the NBA level, then we did at the start of this season?
To better respond to your post, the real problem comes into play next Saturday when Memphis comes in here with a rotation that the Texas Legends could beat a few times out of 10. Seriously, Memphis is tanking at an extraordinary rate. 13 losses in a row & counting. They want that #1 overall pick. Fuck it. They deserve it. They're playing this really, really smart. The Mavs just aren't. The Mavs will win that game next Saturday. There's literally no chance they lose that game. They're just not smart enough to lose a game they need to.
@ New York
@ Brooklyn
@ Sacramento
@ Orlando
vs Phoenix
The Mavs will go 4-1 vs this stretch & everyone here can kiss DeAndre Ayton, Luka Doncic, and Jaren Jackson Jr GOOD BYE! We are not going to get them.
When I think of that it pisses me off so much, and I'm so baffled why everyone (well seemingly) is so quick to defend Carlisle over this. "You can't blame Carlisle" "You can't blame the players" "Are you sure you're a Mavs fan? Player X deserves more respect than that"
Well, who can I blame then? Because Memphis is tanking. They're getting the job done. I don't hear Jarrett Jack bitching to the media about a winning culture. He took his seat on the bench & kept his mouth shut when the media asked him about it. The Mavs are the only organization where the owner gets on a national podcast & telegraphs their intention, the coach is flippant with the media & goes on a little temper tantrum starting only vets for 97% of the time for 7 games, having a little power struggle with the FO, and the players bitch about it in the media. The Mavs are the only team doing that, and it led to a win vs Indiana that we did not need, and it could of led to a win vs the Thunder. LOL @ the comments in the game thread for that one. "Good tank" Lol what?!? The Mavs did everything they could to win that game. That much was super obvious.
Here's the really bad news. The Mavs aren't good enough to beat bad teams when they sit their vets & try to tank, but they're dumb enough to win games they shouldn't & because of that this super talent deficient roster is going to miss out on drafting a player from the top tier & if they fuck around and beat teams like Charlotte, the Lakers, Detroit, etc. then they might miss out a player from the 2nd tier too.
And if that happens, it's going to suck to be a Mavs fan for at least the next 5 years.
How will Memphis look next year with Conley Jr, Tyreke Evans, Parsons, Marc Gasol, and DeAndre Ayton? That's a very real possibility because they will not win 22 games this year. They won't let it happen. Call it a coincidence if you want to, but they see the Lakers beat a banged up Spurs team and an hour later it comes out that Marc Gasol is questionable for Monday's game with San Antonio with a "left ankle" injury, when he sat out Saturday night's game due to "rest".
It's just really concerning because Memphis for sure finishes with a worse record than Dallas. We're about to go 4-1 vs those final 5 games vs the bottom 8, and every other team is trying to lose. It's really not even trying to. Watching these games in the final 5 minutes, these teams like Phoenix, Orlando, Brooklyn, Atlanta, they're just not good enough to close out games. They're smart. They put all of their inexperienced guys on the floor in those spots & they blow big leads. Hell, Brooklyn didn't even need to lose tonight, but they lost when they were 79.4% to win late in the 4th qtr according to ESPN. They're doing what we're not doing with Motley, they're putting young guys on the floor & seeing what they can do.
I don't see how we finished with a bottom 5 worse record in the league. It'll take luck, like we got on Friday vs the Bulls. Outside of luck, we're in a spot with another word that ends in U-C-K.