Official: Dallas at New York preseason thread

[MavKikiNYC]

A couple of disappointments, a couple of small encouraging signs. I'd seen all I needed to by the end of Q3, and I NEVER leave early.

1) Harris's DNP--Disappointment. Went hoping to get a glimpse of Harris, and as is well documented here, he was out with a stomach flu.

2) Terry--On balance a disappointment. Went curious to see what Terry would bring, hoping it would add up to something encouraging. Can't say that it did. He didn't show much in the way of playmaking tonight, he had a couple of ill-advised passes that were TOs. He did show some ability to drive and penetrate, but didn't finish that well. After he heated up and found a rhythm, he did hit a couple of nice jumpers, but he definitely isn't a touch shooter on par with a Nash. But we all knew that already. On the plus side for Terry, he did make a couple of nice plays defensively to break up fast breaks, and get things started the other way, and he did seem to be applying a little more pressure to Marbury when he had the ball. He did get beat a few times off screens, however.

3) Mbenga--Encouraging signs. Wanted to get a look at Mbenga, and he did get some minutes. He wasn't quite what I'd expected physically--moves a little looser than I was envisioning, not the tightly-strung, quick-jumping Theo Ratliff-type I had in mind. But he moves well, and did challenge a lot of stuff defensively. Don't think he got his hands on the ball offensively, let along get a shot off. He looked a little lost on offense at times.

4) Dampier- A plus. I liked what I saw out of Dampier--post moves with purpose and results. He can score off the low blocks, and showed some nice move combos. Mavs were going to him a lot in Q1, and were going inside a lot. They shot 12-13 FTs in Q1, 8-8 FTs in Q2. They had only 2 3-point attempts in the first half. They really looked tonight to be emphasizing establsihing an inside game.

5) Calvin Booth--Mixed bag/disappointment. Was happy the Mavs re-acquired him, but he looks weaker than I'd remembered--better than LaF, but not on par with say...Wayne Cooper? Looks like he has lost some spring in his legs, but I will have to say that between him and Dampier and Mbenga, the basket looked to be better defended tonight. Often notcied two pairs of arms challenging shots at the rim, and occasionally three.

6) Dirk--tonight was just a workout for him. He was definitely looking to take the ballk to the basket tonight. I hate to say this, because....we've harped so long about having him take it to the basket. And he's definitely making the effort. But I see no finishing touch whatsoever from him. He put the ball on the floor a couple of times, beat KT easily, launched himself toward the rim, and.....thank God he got fouled. He just doesn't seem to have a good sense of how to get a shot off with a soft touch. Is he trying? Definitely. Is he learning? I'm not sure. Can that be learned? I don't know. I guess I'm a little skeptical about ultimate attainment if he's still learning at this point, and showing no more than he did a couple of years ago. He also rolled out that little sweeping hook tonight over TThomas, but it was almost like he was doing it on a dare. (It didn't go.) He has that beautiful outside shot. Is he ever going to be more than that?

7) Alan Henderson--looks like a pure rec-leaguer. Nothing left in his legs. Hope he isn't still weighting the bench down come January.

8) Entirely too much Sasser, Hood, Lopez tonight for my tastes. Thanks for nothing, Nellie. There were more flashes of potential shown in the 5-on-5 full-court match at halftime between 8-year-olds from Abbyssinian Baptist and Riverside Baptist churches (Riverside prevailed 8-4).

Bottom line: They showed some signs of where they're headed as a team. But they were missing too many parts tonight to give any clear óverall sense of what they could do. They have a lot of work to do to put it all together. But it seems pretty clear they're going to be playing a different brand of ball this year. How far that will take them remains the big question.