Sunday afternoon a hard fought game vs. the Spurs and Ime Udoka is on a fast break as Dirk is chasing him down. He blocks the shot and then season over. His knee just sort of buckles as it goes away from his body. He just laid there motionless and you knew from the second it happened it was bad. The crowd just laid there motionless, you could hear a pin drop as everyone in the building even the Spurs fans just sat there sort of in a state of shock.It was pretty obvious who was going to win that game from there on out, the Mavs had blown a 12 point lead thanks Avery's "stellar offense" and then Dirk goes down.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3309429
The above was written on Monday the day after the Dirk injury, it's now Friday because I always get lazy to write these things.
Anyways I'm still unsure on if the Mavericks will make the playoffs or if I even want them too. If we miss the playoffs we get a 1st round pick since the one we traded this year is lottery protected and there is some real talent this year that could fall to our pick. On the other hand the amount of close games the Mavericks have played against top teams makes me think they can hang with any team in the league, maybe not win but give some teams some real problems and go to 6 or 7 games.
All I can say is I think it's almost safe to say that the Jason Kidd trade was a failure, there's only 2 reasons it could be considered a good trade, Erick Dampier and Dirk Nowitzki. Dampier is playing the best basketball of his Maverick career (maybe entire career) and has taken advantage of the extended playing time and has done a good job staying out of foul trouble, he's looked real motivated. As for Dirk, he looked like he's in another zone since the trade, he was still playing top basketball for the most part prior to the Kidd trade but his field goal and 3 pt. % have raised as has his Points per game. And then you see the intensity in his eyes it reminds me of when he carried the Mavs to the Finals 2 seasons ago.
The problem is just about everything else has made the trade look like a failure. I thought it was a panic trade from the time it was made just because the Mavs had lost 4 of 5, all without Devin Harris and they were really just reacting to the Shaq and Pau Gasol trades. Jason Kidd and Avery Johnson's styles of play are polar opposites, Jason Kidd is best used when in transition where Avery loves to play isolation with Dirk, Josh Howard and Jerry Stackhouse. And of course I have to mention not beatin a team over .500 since February 13th. And then there's the 2 1st rounders we gave up (It's weird how everyone thought it was crazy to make this years pick lottery protected and the 2010 pick unprotected but now it's looking like a half decent move, but what if we decided to rebuild? That pick could set us back assuming we blew it up.) This team would have been so much better off trying to find a decent 2 guard like Mike Miller or Corey Maggette then they ever would have been trading for Kidd if you ask me.
I always wonder why I hear experts say we didn't have a chance to win a title this year so the Kidd trade wasn't bad at the time. I wonder how many of these "experts" knew that we were 28-11 when Devin Harris was in the lineup.
I'm going to guess as of right now we aren't going to make the playoffs, it really just depends on if Dirk comes back soon and we somehow manage to beat some teams vying for playoff spots. And Dirk may be back sooner then expected because earlier this week he was in a boot and has already removed it and started doing underwater exercises.
But this next stretch of games is just brutal, we have enough trouble scoring but now we have to play Golden St. twice in the next 3 games, Phoenix and the Lakers, and tonight we just lost the season series with Denver as our defense got torched and they now have a tie breaker over us. If we can win 1 game vs. the Warriors we'll have take the season series versus them.
And speaking of the Denver game I just love how we can hang 70 on a team and then score 35 points in the 2nd half, the end result may look Ok (though we were still beat handily) scoring wise but how we got there makes it seem totally different. Them scoring 70 and then 35 in both halves reminded me of on Tuesday when they played the Clippers for the 1st game without Dirk and they scored 22 points in the 1st 5 minutes of the game and over the next 12 minutes scored 11. It's pathetic how inconsistent we are.
Also I'm curious what will happen if we miss the playoffs this season, I'm thinking Avery Johnson is gone regardless of us making the playoffs, unless we make it past the 1st round. Donnie Nelson (Mavericks GM son of Don Nelson) may be on his way out but I've always loved his ability to find diamonds in the rough in the draft and in free agency (Josh Howard, Brandon Bass, Desagana Diop) I just think this team would be better off missing the playoffs and picking either a 2 guard or future PG or a center like Hakeem Thabeet or Roy Hibbert. And though he'll go in the late 1st round I've always loved Brandon Rush's game but for some reason he isn't viewed that highly for the next level. Before the season Kevin Love was projected to be a surefire top 10 pick then slipped to the middle of the 1st round and now with his great tournament run at UCLA continuing it appears he'll be going before the Mavs will have picked (assuming they miss the playoffs and all but likely losing the lottery they'll be picking 14th) I also wouldn't be shocked to see Jason Terry traded but his value is very low I'd imagine. Maybe trade Josh Howard and try to get a better 2nd scorer but I wouldn't have a clue off the top of my head. Also maybe by some miracle we can actually sign a half decent guy for our Mid Level Exception. I'm curious what a player like Ron Artest would fetch on the open market, he's certainly worth more then the 6 million the MLE is but you have to factor in the personality and possible locker room cancer.
O well until next time I'll just be soaking in my sports depression
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