So far, so good!

[BigDog63]

I've been very pleasantly surprised with the play of most of the Mavs so far. There were a tremendous number of 'IFs' going into the season, and most of those are turning out pretty positive.

Who knew Pachula would play this well? I certainly didn't. Makes the Mavs iffy center position look pretty solid.

Dwight Powell is perhaps my favorite Mav now! Who knew that he was the real pickup in the trade with Boston, and Rondo was the throwaway?

Wes Matthews seems like he will be able to fully recover from his Achilles injury. That would have been a HUGE problem if he didn't.

Parsons also seems to be recovering well. That also would have been a HUGE problem if he weren't able to fully recover.

Really like Felton's play. Maybe not the greatest salary for his role, but not onerous either. He has continued his run of excellent play that started at the end of last season. It makes the Mavs PG position, end to end, look fairly solid.

DWill seems to be playing solid, if not spectacular. Solid is fine, and all we should have expected at this point in his career, and with his past injury issues.

Still don't know about Javale. But as well as Pachula is playing, that isn't really that important.

Basically, there were a lot of 'ifs' the Mavs had. If they all turned out well, the Mavs looked like they could have a solid team. If they didn't the Mavs could have had major issues not just this year, for for the next several years. Almost all of the Mavs moves this off season seem to be panning out well.

Arch rival Rockets/Morey? Ehhhhh....not so much. :-)

[Robillion]

I've been optimistic from the beginning, so now, I feel like I'm noticing the bad more than the good.

I believe this is going to be a really good team. It seems like most of our players that are showing signs of excellent play are only going to get better as they heal/gel/gain confidence. That includes Powell, though I do still wonder if Zaza will keep up the performance. We should have some reason to believe he will considering his shooting % is so low.

But what concerns me is that we have a few players that seem like they aren't going to improve much. And they desperately need to. That's JJB and Harris. CharlieV has been mostly bad, but you have to believe his 3pt % is going to move closer to his usual avg.

With how bad the above mentioned have been playing all season long, I can't see why Anderson/Jenkins/Evans can't get more play time. On paper it seems like if you replaced JJB, Harris, and CharlieV with Anderson, Jenkins, and Evans, we'd be a more efficient, better rebounding, better defending team. But whuddaiknow

[mac222b]

JJB and Devin have been mostly bad. You would think their shooting would return closer to the mean soon enough too. We kind of need JJ penetration and ability to carry an offense in spurts. And we need Devin's defensive flexibilty. Someone posted advanced stats showing we're a much better defensive team with Devin on the floor. I still think he falls asleep off the ball too much though- happened again last night he got sucked in and left his man for a wide open corner three.

I honestly don't know about Anderson, Jenkins, and Evans. Have to defer on RC on this one. I would've liked to have seen more Anderson up 19 against the Sixers. But then Parsons was scorching so I think that plan was scuttled. Anderson still treats the ball like a hot potato and doesn't seem to know how to "relax" and let the game come to him. Ironically the Clippers game was the most comfortable he's looked.

I agree with most of your post BigDog63. Jury's still out on Wes Matthews and whether he'll ever return to even 90% of the player he was. I think we'll know better next season. For now he's not even been consistent enough to consider average really. No way he plays up to the contract. But it was more about keeping a promise and salvaging free agency, saving face after DeAndre anyway. Maybe they had a no DeAndre contingency contract in place?

[BigDog63]

Originally Posted by mac222b

I agree with most of your post BigDog63. Jury's still out on Wes Matthews and whether he'll ever return to even 90% of the player he was. I think we'll know better next season. For now he's not even been consistent enough to consider average really. No way he plays up to the contract. But it was more about keeping a promise and salvaging free agency, saving face after DeAndre anyway. Maybe they had a no DeAndre contingency contract in place?

Yes, Matthews will never live up to his contract. Why it is a good thing to have a contract that a player will never live up to is question that should be posed to management. But I was worried that it might be a disastrous contract, and that doesn't seem like it will happen. But not having that extra $5+M, which is a quality reserve, has to have negative implications down the road.

As for JJB and DH, I think the team will need to come together as a whole before you can really judge them. They also both could use someone like Brandon Wright, who will attack the basket for lobs on penetration. Maybe Powell? McGee would definitely fill that role...'IF'.

But, on summary, a whole lot more is working out for the Mavs than is going wrong. I'm not even sure any of it is really going 'wrong'....just not as right as we might like. Considering all the questions coming in to the season, I'll take that.

[Underdog]

@MFollowill: Didn't expect this but in 7 games of @STATS_Hoops "clutch" time (game w/in 6 pts in last 5 mins) the Mavs are outscoring opps 63-38 so far

@MFollowill: The best teams so far in "clutch" time differential: By total, DET (+29), DAL (+25), GS (+22). Per game its GS (4.4), DAL (3.6), DET (3.2)

[rimrocker]

Originally Posted by Underdog

@MFollowill: Didn't expect this but in 7 games of @STATS_Hoops "clutch" time (game w/in 6 pts in last 5 mins) the Mavs are outscoring opps 63-38 so far

@MFollowill: The best teams so far in "clutch" time differential: By total, DET (+29), DAL (+25), GS (+22). Per game its GS (4.4), DAL (3.6), DET (3.2)

Although we are much younger we are still a very experienced team...very evident in our last 2 wins.
The next several games will be a great test for us in several ways. Hope we can pull out the close ones against more veteran teams.

Kudos to Donnie and Mark for keeping this team competitive.

[mac222b]

Originally Posted by BigDog63

Yes, Matthews will never live up to his contract. Why it is a good thing to have a contract that a player will never live up to is question that should be posed to management. But I was worried that it might be a disastrous contract, and that doesn't seem like it will happen. But not having that extra $5+M, which is a quality reserve, has to have negative implications down the road.

As for JJB and DH, I think the team will need to come together as a whole before you can really judge them. They also both could use someone like Brandon Wright, who will attack the basket for lobs on penetration. Maybe Powell? McGee would definitely fill that role...'IF'.

But, on summary, a whole lot more is working out for the Mavs than is going wrong. I'm not even sure any of it is really going 'wrong'....just not as right as we might like. Considering all the questions coming in to the season, I'll take that.

Oh I agree. Very happy with things so far. Brandon Wright or someone of his ilk, would really help with Devin/JJ efficiency. Maybe MCGee and Powell can provide a sliver of that p'n'r game that worked so well.

Wright is signed for approx. 3 yrs-18m. Also has 15% trade kicker, I think. Would eat into our cap for next season and pursuit of big fish Center.

[Twenty4sevenn]

Keep in mind that we're performing this well essentially without our best scorer in Parsons. We will only get better when his minute restriction is done.

I think the biggest plus for us so far this season is Powell's improved rebounding. With him being able to hold his own on the inside (complete turnaround from last year), we're able to roll out so many different lineups at the other 4 positions.

[DevinHarriswillstart]

Originally Posted by Underdog

@MFollowill: Didn't expect this but in 7 games of @STATS_Hoops "clutch" time (game w/in 6 pts in last 5 mins) the Mavs are outscoring opps 63-38 so far

@MFollowill: The best teams so far in "clutch" time differential: By total, DET (+29), DAL (+25), GS (+22). Per game its GS (4.4), DAL (3.6), DET (3.2)

As old pappy always says...

The difference between good and bad teams is winning close games.