Thoughts on Dallas so far

 Yep. I’ve been a fan since they made that Playoff run to beat the Heat and win in the Finals. The following year Dwayne Casey the Mavs assistant coach at the time became the Raptors Head Coach which had me studying the Mavericks formula. Pretty much everything that Casey built in Toronto was copied and pasted from Rick Carlisle’s teachings and quite honestly alot of that has been embeded into the Raptors culture and passed down to and someone expanded on by Nick Nurse. Carlisle is the one man that hasn’t been credited once in the Raptors 2018-2019 Championship but I truly believe that he deserves some props and is an unsung hero for Toronto.

Mavs develop roles they dont just plug in talented players and hope that they fit. They find guys and work with them to fit certain roles. Wright and Finney-Smith can gaurd three positions which allows Dallas to hide Doncic on defense at all times. Kleber and Powell are developing very nice as 3 and D energy bigs. Brunson will end up one of the steals of the draft. 

Anyways I’m a big fan of the Mavs and will be until the day  they meet the Raptors in the Finals.

 If they can stay healthy I see them going 500 and fighting for the 8th spot. 

 Spots 6-10 will be separated by about 5 games and they fall in there. Doncic is a beast and will get an all NBA team spot this year, whether 1st, 2nd or 3rd. I think we end up still talking about this guy as one of the best in the league 15 years down the track, just like Lebron. I have very high expectations and I think he’ll exceed them. 

Dallas has a better than expected bench. I had Delon Wright as a possible MIP candidate. Porzingis has no visible issues but has been out a long time. He really needs to rebound the ball – 4 or 5 a game happens in the box score too often. 

As a Mavs fan i watched every game of the season, but I don’t share the optimism tbh.
We are a team of 2 starts and 8 or something bench players, of whom we need to start 3 guys.
We lack players who aren’t a liability on either ends. KP is the only true 2 way player we have.
Maxi and Dorian Finney-Smith are supposed to be 3&D type of players, but they can’t shoot the 3 consistently and are just hustle athletic players on offense.
Powell,Brunson,Hardaway are good on offense but not good in defense despite the effort they put.
Wright is good defender and not bad on offense, but is he gonna sustain his 3PT shooting? Curry lacks playmaking skills to contribute more on offense as a guard.
There is a reason we don’t have a certain starting line up till now. No one knows who is gonna start next game.
We are bad shooters and we love to shoot the 3 a lot.

West is more open than advertised before the season (which I expected) with GSW out of the race along Kings taking a step back rather than forward. But Suns/Wolves/Mavs have all stepped up.
That is a team race for 8 spots

The Mavs have had 3 years out of the play offs and in some ways they have gambled their future but with Porz looking to be back to his best and Doncic putting up Greek Freak type stats so far this season their future looks bright.

Plus with a proven top tier coach and respected Front Office they will be an attractive option for future FAs.

Luka is going to be mega superstar for many years and lead the Mavs to multiple championships. His defense has improved and his condiditioning is much better. If he continue to improve his defense, he is going to be unstoppable. He reminds me so much of a faster version of Larry Bird.