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MavsFanFinley · 08-31-2001, 08:28 PM

Nash, Finley will have more help off bench
August 30, 2001 Print it

All of a sudden, the Mavericks have a glut of guards, creating the potential for lively camp competition for spots in the rotation.

Dallas got caught short in the backcourt late last season. Starters Michael Finley and Steve Nash both had outstanding years. Finley made his second straight All-Star game and Nash was one of the league's most improved point guards. But play off the bench was seriously lacking.

Spares Howard Eisley and Vernon Maxwell did not get the job done and Greg Buckner missed more than half the season because of injuries. Buckner is healthy again and ready to compete, but Eisley was traded and Maxwell was released.

This summer owner Mark Cuban made sure that Finley and Nash won't be overextended like they were last season because coach Don Nelson had little faith in the backups. Five-time All-Star Tim Hardaway, a Nelson favorite, is aboard. Nelson is also a fan of Buckner, especially on defense.

Free agent Adrian Griffin will play both the two and three, and defense will also be his primary responsibility. Griffin has already been penciled in to defend Kobe Bryant, which the Mavericks hope will draw them closer to being competitive with the Lakers.

Hardaway will play both backcourt spots, although most of his minutes should come at the point. Free agents Darrick Martin and Khalid El-Amin and draft choice Kenny Satterfield will also compete for a point guard role. . . .

Nash didn't have much left physically at the end of last season, and part of the reason was that he played non-stop basketball for almost a year due to his commitments to the Canadian nationals. Nash curtailed his court time early this summer, but did receive permission from Nelson to help the Canadians attempt to qualify for the 2002 World Championships.

Nash averaged just under 30 minutes in 10 games and Canada completed its mission, qualifying with a victory over Puerto Rico to take the bronze medal in the Tournament of the Americas in Neuquen, Argentina. Nash had 22 points and 11 assists against Puerto Rico.

How much will the late summer flurry of activity affect Nash once camp begins? Last season he was plagued by back and hamstring problems. . . .

Three other Mavericks are involved in international competition. Dirk Nowitzki and Shawn Bradley will be playing for Germany -- Bradley for the first time -- in the upcoming European Championships. And Wang Zhizhi has been suiting up for China in the World University Games. Wang had 21 points in a 79-73 victory over Canada.

POSITIONAL ANALYSIS

Coaching: Dallas lost developmental assistant Kiki Vandeweghe to the Nuggets, who hired their former star forward as GM. Vandeweghe won't be replaced, but the Mavericks still have the league's largest coaching staff: seven full-timers and another handful of former players who work with young players before and after practice.

Cuban believes a big coaching payroll produces results, and it would be hard to argue after the team made such strides last season. Nelson did an outstanding job with a young group last season. He relates to his players and doesn't overwork them at practice. Players know their roles, and there are few surprises. As a former player, he has respect in the locker room and on the practice floor.

Nelson employs a run-and-gun offensive style to take advantage of his team's youth. Dirk Nowitzki, Michael Finley and Steve Nash have the green light to shoot the long jumper when it's available. Nelson likes using small lineups, sometimes with three- and four-guard units along with Nowitzki at center. That forces opponents to leave their power players on the bench or risk being run ragged.

Defensively, Nelson is as unpredictable as any coach in the league. The Mavs make extensive use of traps and presses to quicken the pace and mask his team's lack of an imposing interior defense.

Murphy3 · 09-01-2001, 09:52 AM

it would be nice if he could hide the lack of interior defense..but in the end, it will be what gets the mavs knocked out of the playoffs

seelenjaeger · 09-01-2001, 10:58 AM

murph, he may be able to cover our inside defense, but he wont be able to cover the wrong colour of our uniforms, the real reason for us not beeing able to win a championship ...

madape · 09-02-2001, 09:25 AM

No, its not the uniforms. Its the fact that you can't win a title in the NBA without a dominant big man. Just like in the NFL where you can't win the Super Bowl without a dominant quarterback. Its true!! Just as Trent Dilfer.

MFFL · 09-02-2001, 12:59 PM

What was the theory before the Cowboys won their first Superbowl... teams with the leading rusher in the NFL don't win it all.

Almost every championship team violates at least one >rule< on the best way to build a champion. In fact, I think the best way to win the championship is to ignore the "experts" and build a team that is different from the last champion.

seelenjaeger · 09-02-2001, 07:58 PM

I think the most important thing about winning a championship is ...

HELL if I knew that I´d sell this wisdom in a second and become a rich man! If there´s a recipe for a championship-cake which works all the time there would have been some guys doing it ...

we HAVE a dominant big man in Dirk ...

let´s keep confident until we´re out of the run?

TheKid · 09-04-2001, 10:03 AM

I agree with you MFFL...

Murphy3 · 09-04-2001, 10:09 AM

most experts didn't say that you don't win championships with the leading rusher..yes, maybe some did, but very few.
it's just not logical.
and thekid, you'd agree with anyone that had an opposing view with me.

mffl, your argument is completely different...
you're taking a positive..like having a leading rusher in the NFL and comparing it to a negative in the nba, not having good interior defense. you can't do that..that's rediculous.

Having the leading rusher in the NFL has no correlation to losing other than pure chance prior to emmitt smith winning the rushing title and the cowboys winning the super bowl.

but, having poor interior defense and not winning an NBA title go hand in hand.... having poor interior defense is something that is so important that teams simply do not win title without it....especially in a series..anything can happen in a playoff where it's one loss and your out....
but in a playoff series, you must have solid interior defense to make it through 4 rounds.

TheKid · 09-04-2001, 10:31 AM

Murph, for someone who claims to always read people's posts thoroughly (sp) I don't think you do. If you think I ALWAYS disagree with you, YOU'RE WRONG... Actually I'm one of the FEW people who probably agree with the majority of what you have to say about Juwan. Actually I should have been more specific I agree with what MFFL had to say about every championship violates one rule. That's VERY TRUE... Last years superbowl champs did. The theory that you can't win an NBA title with a GREAT big man, the Bulls, destroyed that theory by winning six of them with great big men such as Will Perdue, Luc Longley, Bill Cartwright, Robert Parrish (WHEN HE WAS WAY OVER THE HILL) and Stacey King! There's always ONE theory that necessarily doesn't fit.

Also I think as a team you should ignore the experts. Look at the Ravens for example, if they listen to the experts, they were lucky to make the playoffs. I can recall SEVERAL people saying, there is NO WAY they can make the playoffs with their offense as terrible as it is. Well guess what. They did. That's the way I feel about this Mavericks team, if they keep listening to the experts, they'll tell them that they can never beat the Spurs or the Lakers. While it looks damn near impossible, they have ot atleast believe they have a chance. Believing they have a chance will only happen if they DON'T listen to what the "experts" have to say.

Murphy3 · 09-04-2001, 11:26 AM

i'm not listening to what the experts say...i'm giving you my opinion..and my opinion is, is that you don't win a championship without a solid interior defense. i don't need anyone to quote stats or history, because i know stats and history..and they are on my side...but, i also know basektball...and basketball logic says that you don't win championships without a solid interior defense...no, it doesn't have to be great..but it does need to be good..and right now, the mavericks interior defense is far from good.

i don't need an expert to back me up because the game of basketball will back me up in the past, this year and into the future.
it's not something obscure like "teams that have the leading rusher haven't won a championship so their must be something that keeps the team from winning it if they have a leading rusher".
it's not something obscure like that.
it's how the game is played and won. teams that WIN CHAMPIONSHIPS have a good interior defense..they play good overall defense.
that's simply how the game is played..no matter what the style or the era...that is how the championships are won

TheKid · 09-04-2001, 11:47 AM

No one is saying that you can't win championships without good defense. However it is possible for teams to win championships without stellar defense. Do you know where the Lakers ranked defensively TWO of the years they won their titles? One year it was 15th in the NBA and another year it was 10th. In one of those years (I believe it was the year Magic Johnson ended the season in the top five in steals) they were number 4 in the league for most points allowed. So you tell me they had good interior defense by ending the year giving up an average of almost 100 points a game. Now granted, I KNOW basketball was more up tempo then and 9 times out of 10 this won't win you championships, however the fact remains there's always an exception to the rule. This is one of them.

Maybe this is what Nellie is trying to go after. I'm not saying it's the best way or it will even work, but it has worked before so whose to say it couldn't happen again? I'll be the first to say, I can't say I agree with it because I can remember MANY games last year I wanted to throw the damn TV out of the window because we couldn't get a damn defensive rebound and I KNOW that would have made all the difference in the world in the playoffs. So I'm just saying, maybe Nellie has a plan in place however we won't know until the season, but it could work and I'm willing to see if it does.

Evilmav2 · 09-04-2001, 12:55 PM

I don't see how some of y'all can claim we have a poor interior defense while we have the future all-time leading shot-blocker in NBA history on our roster, and while the zone rules are going to make him even more effective... The Mavs may have the most stifling interior defense in the league next year if Big #44 keeps out of foul trouble (we certainly will rank among the top five most intimidating shot-blocking teams in the league)...

Murphy3 · 09-04-2001, 01:33 PM

evilmav..
bradley can be a dominating center at times but would be much more effective with a big body at the 4.

but of course, he's very effective and dominating at times...i completely agree about that

mavs_afroman · 09-04-2001, 04:26 PM

To win in the NBA you don't need a great big man. You need a great post defender and rebounder. The Bulls didn't have anything close too a great C or PF. They had Rodman, Grant, and a whole crew of other guys(Sally, Caffey, Longley?, Wennington, Dele) who could come in and rebound and play good defense. If we had a post defender that could hlod the opponents C/PF to no more that 20pts. I think Nash, Finley, and Dirk will take care of the rest.

Murphy3 · 09-04-2001, 04:53 PM

that's what i've been screaming for a long time
the mavs don't have to have alot of point production from the 4 or 5 spot..but they are going to have to be a bit stronger at the 4 spot defensively to compete for a title

TheKid · 09-04-2001, 05:24 PM

It seems to me NO ONE is disputing the Mavs need more defense and rebounding. No one is disputing that. However maybe they feel with the rule changes, Bradley will become a bigger factor and maybe Juwan could as well. Also, there aren't too many very strong power forwards that we have the "ability" to acquire that would be able to run the style of basketball Nellie is looking to do. I mean McDyss probably could but we're not getting him. Shaq could, but we're not getting him. So we're working with what we have. We don't know what Bradley, Juwan will be able to do with the new changes, that "may" enhance their game, maybe not but we don't know yet. Maybe the changes could make someone like Eschmeyer a factor.

Or in the sense where Nellie is trying to run his "small ball" with a lineup of Nash, Hardaway, Fin, Dirk and Juwan, we're not trying to dominant any boards with that lineup I'm sure.

Afro man, I know the Bulls had a cast of characters, but let me tell you something of those guys you just named, Rodman and Grant were the ONLY two who had a major impact. My point was, with Jordan and Pippen who took ALL the pressure off everyone else, they would have won a championship with ANY decent forwad and center playing that four and five spot.

dallmav · 09-04-2001, 08:55 PM

I would like to see anthony mason here.

Murphy3 · 09-05-2001, 09:21 AM

thekid, can you come up with one way that juwan would become a positive defensive factor because of the rule changes?
if you can, i'd love to hear them

TheKid · 09-05-2001, 10:39 AM

No really I can't but the way I see it is he can't be any worse than he is now. He will probably have more weakside help therefore he can probably be more aggressive. Who knows, but the changes can only help him I HOPE!