Big man

[MavKikiNYC]

You make a somewhat respectable case for Raef as a hypothetical threat, and if Nellie made the trade, judging him to be a 3-pt threat on the basis of his 3-point shooting with Denver in the first 2/3 of last season (.434 on 75/173) and thus a threat to <cue fairy tale music> "draw Shaq out" ....well, it's not such a stretch to see where Nellie made his mistake. (Raef proceeded to go 29/95 .305 after joining the Mavericks, finishing 104/268 .389.)

But Raef's season (which you cited) of .367 on 51/139 in 00-01 still isn't comparable to Dirk's .379 116/306 (factor 2.2x) in 99-00; or Dirk's .387 151/390 (2.8x) in 00-01; or Dirk's .397 139/350 (2.5x) in 01-02. I don't think it's at all controversial to say that Raef's hitting the same percentage on half (or fewer) as many attempts doesn't categorically make him a 3-point threat to be feared (and certainly not a threat on par with Dirk).

Going beyond these rather micro-focused assessments, one might also look at LaF's scoring average, his teams' offensive production, and his teams' records for the year in question to determine whether his 3-point prowess translates into efficient team production, and ultimately, wins. (Or was he just jacking up meaningless 3s in meaningless losses on a bad team?)

Perhaps I should've phrased more carefully ...saying that, based on what I actually (as opposed to hypothetically) saw Raef do with the Mavericks last season, I don't think he's ever going to be a fully-realized, consistent threat from 3-point territory within the Mavericks' system, given what they need him to do, and given the players with whom the Mavericks will most likely use him.

This gets more to the points I added in the edit--does he fit with Dallas like they expected him to (no, I don't think so), and is that really the best philosophy to pursue in the future (no, I don't think so). I recall that there was considerable sentiment on this board after the Kings series that a change of philosophy was necessary, and a change of course is what I'd like to see them take.

Again...just my opinion.

Gig 'em, Ag.