Rethinking our approach

[MFFL]

I think it's obvious from this series that the Mavs will have to make a major change in philosophy. Dirk will have to be established as THE MAN for us to progress to the next level. Just as it's a truism in baseball that great pitching beats great hitting, it's a truism in basketball that great front line play beats great guard play (except Michael Jordan). Since we don't have a great center (sorry Mavinator), Dirk is our path to progress. Finley will have to show that he is the team guy that I know he is and make sure Dirk becomes a force. Dirk should be our Garnett - touching the ball every possession. Finley will be the best second option in basketball (other than Kobe of course). This will be difficult but necessary for the Mavs to have a chance against the Lakers or the Spurs. I don't want to be Phoenix - winning 50 games every year but eliminated every year in the first or second round of the playoffs. I WANT TO WIN IT ALL! And this is the only way I know to do it.

[Fidel]

Am I the man or what? [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]
Murph will definitely agree, Kid won´t hehe.
That was largely discussed in the "earning the nba championship" thread and also in some other threads earlier (obsevations from germany i.e.). And of course thats just what should happen MFFL.

[LonestarROB]

I agree and I think we saw it starting to happen the last 2 games. Dirk has taken the next step and passed Finley as THE MAN. He's becoming a leader and there heart and soul.

[Fidel]

I just hope Finley can deal with that. During the season it often didn´t seem so.

[LonestarROB]

I agree Fidel. but he's just going to have to except it.

[MFFL]

The public perception of Finley is that he is a team guy who is dedicated to winning. Dirk becoming the Mavs main weapon will make the team win. I hope that Finley is the man that I think he is.

[The Crippler]

Finley for Webber...

[MFFL]

That would be a sweet deal. Glad to see you back Crippler!

[Fidel]

That would be great but will not happen, but perhaps if we throw in Howard...[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

They shot a combined 6-33 tonight. Hey that´s AI numbers so they have to be considered for MVP of this game [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

[djb]

I'm not in favor of trading Finley, but hypothetically, who here would do a Finley for Brand/Mercer/Crawford trade?

[LonestarROB]

Hmmm, interesting. I might do that.

[Fidel]

The Bulls would´t do that.
Finley is not the best 2 guard in the game and big men like Brand are hard to find

[MFFL]

We could trade Finley and survive (if we got value back). Nash and Dirk are untouchable.

[Fidel]

How bout that:
Webber to New York
Houston to Dallas
Finley and Camby to Sacramento
I don´t know if it would work under salary cap but I´d like it

[The Crippler]

I'd do it...you win in this game with size still. Brand is not the biggest, but he takes up a lot of space and is still athletic. Plus, he has good hands, which is very necessasary for a post player. Crawford would be a good backup pg, and he's only 20. It would be nice to get bird rights on a player like him for the future. I don't like Mercer though. Maybe throw in Brad Miller instead, or hell, even Fred Hoiberg...

[djb]

That's a HORRIBLE trade Fidel! Finley for Houston?! OH HELL NO!

[MFFL]

There are people who think Finley's shooting percentages are bad. They are great compared to Houston!

[Fidel]

Why not? I like Houston, ok maybe throw someone in like Kurt Thomas.

[LonestarROB]

Don't tell me you just said Kurt Thomas. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif[/img] [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

[djb]

Finley for Houston is an extremely un-even trade. Besides, I heard the Knicks were interested in signing him to a long-term deal. Doing so, however, would severely limit their chances at signing Webber.

[Fidel]

Perhaps I don´t know some things about your thinking of the Knicks here??
Houston has similar shooting stats to Finley but he´s a better pure shooter. I guess he just stands a little behind Spree in New York.

[Fidel]

Also it was just a suggestion.
I think a Brand/Mercer/Crawford for Finley deal would be pretty uneven for the Bulls. But it could just be because I´m not the greatest Finley fan.
Perhaps he´s a better player than I think. Also I was just looking for someone we could get for Finley that would be good enough to keep us in the playoffs. I think Houston would be good enough. Finley is better of course.

[MFFL]

The numbers just don't match up

Points Per Game: Finley 21.5 - Houston 18.7
Field Goal Percentage: Finley 45.8 - Houston 44.9
3 Point Percentage: Finley 34.6 - Houston 38.1
Rebounds Per Game: Finley 5.2 - Houston 3.6
Assists Per Game: Finley 4.4 - Houston 2.2

Finley is a far better player.

[MFFL]

Plus Finley is two years younger than Houston. Not ragging on you Fidel, I just don't think that would be a good trade unless we got Camby too.

[djb]

The only reason I mentioned the Bulls trade was because a) they obviously want to sign Finley this summer, b) they've considered dangling Brand in the market before, and c) who's to say Brand will re-sign with them once his contract his up?

Anyway, I'm really not in favor of any trade involving Fin..not unless it's some incredibly un-even trade, such as a Fin for Webber swap. The Mavs just finished up an incredible regular and post-season run, so there should really be no need to discuss trading Fin. I'm sure Mark's checkbook will be enough to sway some of the prospective free agents this summer.

[Fidel]

Yeah but I think Finleys numbers are also better because we are a better team, and we score alot more points. Plus the Knicks were just structurally flawed this year that hurt Houstons numbers. He shot 48.3 percent last year and 43.6 percent beyond the arc. He had 19.8 points.

[Fidel]

But DJ is right: no need at all to trade Finley. And for Howard (unfortunately) there will be no takers.

[Fidel]

To my defense I might add another thing.
It´s pretty hard to follow the NBA through television in germany here. They don´t show an even share of all the teams. In the US I guess that would mean you see certain teams only a few times, here it means you don´t see them at all. That includes some decent teams as well. I haven´t seen the Magic or the Sonics at all this year, and the Knicks only a few times. Because I´m a long time follower of the NBA (back to the 80´s, that was on AFN then) i pretty much know all the players but my impressions of them might sometimes be a little older. I don´t think thats the case very often, but for Houston i.e. my impression was that he´s a terrific shooter (which he was last year) and I had him in for 20 a game and 40% 3pt shooting. I just didn´t know his numbers dropped so much.

[MFFL]

Fidel - your earlier post summed it up. the Knicks were just structurally flawed this year. That team somehow thought that 3 good players for 2 positions was the way to go. Why they wanted Rice is beyond me. Maybe we can get Rice and Camby for Howard?

[Fidel]

The only way I see that happening is if they get Webber and he lobbies for that. But to get Webber they must give away Camby already.
Otherwise I don´t think thaey would do that. I don´t think anybody around the league would take Howard+his hefty contract now. He just didn´t play well lately.

[Fidel]

Next year there will be a chance of trading Howard to a team that wants to clear capspace after 2003. But I think thats just what the Mavs want. (Isn´t Duncan a FA in 2003?).

[Fidel]

And is Howards contract not a slot from the days of the old Cba. Which would mean we could sign someone to this slot for the same amount of money?

[MFFL]

It looks like Juwan will be a Mav for two more years. Maybe someone on the team will step up and force him to be the 6th man. Maybe Najera at small forward and Dirk back to power might be the answer.

[MFFL]

fidel - that is my understanding about Juwan's contract. I read it in the newspaper from the Mavs beat reporter for the Fort Worth Star Telegram. I have not ever read it anywhere else though.

[MavsFanFinley]

Finley has clearly failed us this season, especially in the playoffs. What a disappointment he's been since coming from Phoenix. He's obviously over-rated and has shown this organization no loyalty or promise.

Your right-you can't trade him. I mean what could you possibly get for him? We would rob the Knicks if we traded him for Houston. How about a trade with Utah to get John Crotty? That's a steal for us but Utah is smarter than to do that trade.

The right thing to do is to let Finley leave on his own. You know, Nelson, Cuban and company could maybe keep quite about their disappointment in him and give him a chance elsewhere--admit they made a mistake in resigning him before. All of us here should thank God he's a free agent but try to wish him well. You know, maybe he could return home--work out in the summer and maybe--just maybe--make the Chicago team.

It's sad that we hoped for so much from Fin and that he failed us on all levels. He did nothing for us this season, nothing in the Utah series and certainly nothing in the Spurs series. Eisley makes him LOOK GOOD!

If it weren't for Dirk this season, we would be where the Bulls and Clippers are right now. Dirk never has a bad game--if he does it's because of food poisoning but never because he has an off-night. We've never seen him choke, he shows up to play every night. He's the leader of this team--now if Finley would just leave, we win a championship next year.

[aexchange]

that post was about the biggest amount of garbage ive ever seen.

the regular season games in reunion against san antonio and orlando are games i can think of off the top of my head that the mavs won because of finley.

utah game 5, finley single handedly carried the team until the fourth quarter when everybody started clicking. game 4 against san antonio, finley was completely clutch in the fourth quarter, nailing 4 of 6 shots including a crossover that almost broke antonio daniel's ankle's and made him fall to the floor.

finley had an off game. hes human. it happens.

[Fidel]

Hhmmm you missed something there,
MavsFanFinleys post was meant to be sarcastic.

But MavsFanFinley you missed something too but I guess it´s not you fault. No one here wants to trade Finley. Of course he´s very important to the team. I like Dirk better but I don´t mind if anyone likes Finley (or Shawn Bradley [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]) better. That was speculation based upon an argument in another thread where it was dicussed if we could lose Finley and still make the playoffs. I think it came up here because there could be problems with Finley when the Mavs try to install Dirk as the go to guy (which some people on this board think they should do in order to keep improving next year). Finley is a heck of a player and it would definitely hurt the Mavs to loose him.

[Fidel]

And MavsFanFinley
no need to be harsh. I thought we were over with that.

[Fidel]

And finally:
I don´t know MavsFanFinley if your post was directed to me, but if so read the thread and you´ll see that the whole Finley thing was brought up by guys like Crippler,Rob and Dj. I´m pretty sure you respect the basketball opinions of those three guys don´t you?

[MFFL]

MavsFanFinley - I'm a pretty big Finley fan, he's my favorite player on the team. But I'm a Maverick fan first. And I have to go back to my first post great front line play beats great guard play. Michael Finley would be an outstanding 2nd option on this team, but Dirk needs to touch the ball every time down the court, aka Garnett.