My Dallas Mavericks 2005-6 Season Preview
Off-season changes:
Gone:
Michael Finley - Cut under the NBA's one time "amnesty clause" which allowed NBA teams to cut one player and not have to pay the luxury tax on that player's salary. This move will save Mark Cuban at least $51 million over the next 3 years.
Shawn Bradley - Retired, because he probably doesn't like basketball all that much.
Allan Henderson - Signed as a free Agent with Cleveland - the Mavs felt they had no need to keep him.
Tariq Abdul-Wahad - Cut and bought out by the Mavs, hasn't played since the 2002-3 season.
New Players:
Doug Christie - The Mavs signed this former Kings and notably whipped player as a free agent. He's expected to start at the shooting guard position. He basically replaces Finley.
Desagana Diop - Signed as a free agent, formerly with Cleveland. The Mavericks are hopefully that he can play the majority of minutes available at the backup center position.
Josh Powell - a free agent two years removed from North Carolina St, has yet to play in an NBA game.
Rawle Marshall - Undrafted rookie free agent from Oakland University (which of course is in Michigan).
Philosophical changes:
Once again, the Mavericks are promising to play with more focus on the defensive end, but this time Johnson really means it (as opposed to former coach Nelson). On offense, one change is that Jason Terry is expected to play more time off the ball and look for his own offense more with Christie and Marquis Daniels expected to spend more time handling the ball. Another change is that Johnson wants to use Dirk as more of a post up player.
Overall:
It was a relatively quiet off-season for the Mavs. Basically, Christie replaces Finley and Diop replaces Bradley and Henderson. The biggest changes may perhaps come from it being Avery Johnson's first full year as head coach.
Player development:
The Mavs are counting on continued development from the younger players (Josh Howard, Devin Harris, Daniels, and Diop) in order to improve.
I'm not sure Howard can improve all that much as he's already a good player and has played two whole seasons (and all four years in college).
Harris has a lot of room for improvement and does have the natural ability to suggest he can be a good NBA player, but I don't see him making a much bigger impact that he did last year.
Daniels is an interesting case though, as he showed at the end of his rookie season that he can be an effective player, but he had a sub par season last year. If he could return to form it could make a big difference for the Mavs.
Diop has had very little success in his time in Cleveland, but there is some hope for improvement from the young center. The fact that they did sign him shows that the Mavs probably do not have much faith in their other center projects: Didier Mbenga and Pavel Podkolzine.
Thoughts:
It's true that Michael Finley has been in decline the last few years, but he was still one of the Mavs' best shooters. His departure leaves the Mavs with only two above average shooters - Dirk and Terry.
I'm not sure how much a mere commitment to defense will help the Mav's defense, giving the relatively small roster changes. The Christie of 2 or 3 years ago would have been a defensive upgrade for the Mavs, but I'm not convinced that he has all the much left in the tank in what will be his 14th NBA season.
I'm even more skeptical of the plan to have Christie handle the ball and to have Terry playing the off-guard more, as that simply hasn't been a big part of Christie's game before.
Another worry is that teams have seemed to finally figure out that Dirk can be guarded by smaller players, thus offsetting his mobility advantage against most NBA big men. In the past, Nelson helped to offset this by playing Dirk at center, which was decidedly negative on the defensive end, and not something that Johnson seems likely to do. It remains to be seen if Dirk can develop the needed post game to make teams pay for guarding him with smaller players.
I wouldn't be surprised if the offense struggles early in the season, but hopefully it'll be worked out in time for the playoffs.
Predictions:
Record: 53-29
Seed: 5th
Outcome: First round playoff loss.
Gone:
Michael Finley - Cut under the NBA's one time "amnesty clause" which allowed NBA teams to cut one player and not have to pay the luxury tax on that player's salary. This move will save Mark Cuban at least $51 million over the next 3 years.
Shawn Bradley - Retired, because he probably doesn't like basketball all that much.
Allan Henderson - Signed as a free Agent with Cleveland - the Mavs felt they had no need to keep him.
Tariq Abdul-Wahad - Cut and bought out by the Mavs, hasn't played since the 2002-3 season.
New Players:
Doug Christie - The Mavs signed this former Kings and notably whipped player as a free agent. He's expected to start at the shooting guard position. He basically replaces Finley.
Desagana Diop - Signed as a free agent, formerly with Cleveland. The Mavericks are hopefully that he can play the majority of minutes available at the backup center position.
Josh Powell - a free agent two years removed from North Carolina St, has yet to play in an NBA game.
Rawle Marshall - Undrafted rookie free agent from Oakland University (which of course is in Michigan).
Philosophical changes:
Once again, the Mavericks are promising to play with more focus on the defensive end, but this time Johnson really means it (as opposed to former coach Nelson). On offense, one change is that Jason Terry is expected to play more time off the ball and look for his own offense more with Christie and Marquis Daniels expected to spend more time handling the ball. Another change is that Johnson wants to use Dirk as more of a post up player.
Overall:
It was a relatively quiet off-season for the Mavs. Basically, Christie replaces Finley and Diop replaces Bradley and Henderson. The biggest changes may perhaps come from it being Avery Johnson's first full year as head coach.
Player development:
The Mavs are counting on continued development from the younger players (Josh Howard, Devin Harris, Daniels, and Diop) in order to improve.
I'm not sure Howard can improve all that much as he's already a good player and has played two whole seasons (and all four years in college).
Harris has a lot of room for improvement and does have the natural ability to suggest he can be a good NBA player, but I don't see him making a much bigger impact that he did last year.
Daniels is an interesting case though, as he showed at the end of his rookie season that he can be an effective player, but he had a sub par season last year. If he could return to form it could make a big difference for the Mavs.
Diop has had very little success in his time in Cleveland, but there is some hope for improvement from the young center. The fact that they did sign him shows that the Mavs probably do not have much faith in their other center projects: Didier Mbenga and Pavel Podkolzine.
Thoughts:
It's true that Michael Finley has been in decline the last few years, but he was still one of the Mavs' best shooters. His departure leaves the Mavs with only two above average shooters - Dirk and Terry.
I'm not sure how much a mere commitment to defense will help the Mav's defense, giving the relatively small roster changes. The Christie of 2 or 3 years ago would have been a defensive upgrade for the Mavs, but I'm not convinced that he has all the much left in the tank in what will be his 14th NBA season.
I'm even more skeptical of the plan to have Christie handle the ball and to have Terry playing the off-guard more, as that simply hasn't been a big part of Christie's game before.
Another worry is that teams have seemed to finally figure out that Dirk can be guarded by smaller players, thus offsetting his mobility advantage against most NBA big men. In the past, Nelson helped to offset this by playing Dirk at center, which was decidedly negative on the defensive end, and not something that Johnson seems likely to do. It remains to be seen if Dirk can develop the needed post game to make teams pay for guarding him with smaller players.
I wouldn't be surprised if the offense struggles early in the season, but hopefully it'll be worked out in time for the playoffs.
Predictions:
Record: 53-29
Seed: 5th
Outcome: First round playoff loss.
posted by Freethinker at 7:14:00 AM
6 Comments:
My random thoughts on the little mav's....
*shawn bradley is a waste...the mere fact he is gone this year has made this season so much more enjoyable for me
*finley was overated from the day MJ decided to use him in his Air Jordan line. MJ missed it then, the mav's missed it for years and once again Cuban is a genuis for letting him go (saying all of that...he will finally get his championship ring in San Antonio this year and he will have a nice role in doing so as a 6th or 7th player)
*avery johnson is twice the coach that nellie was...and we will see it this year, again. defense will be soooooo much better. it will result in us going one more round deeper in the playoff's, if not two.
*ticket prices are still too high...dang it!
*dirk is still one of the most under appreciated players in the NBA...it's a pleasure to have him in Big D...now if he can just get some "d" (defense) it would be nice
*mav's will not win 53 but 63 games...just kidding...i think they will win 50, maybe 52...first round win in playoff's then second round defeat..then we start all over again next year (looking for that holy grail called the NBA title!)
Sounds like you and Stephen need to go to some games together this season.
Sure, do you have any tickets?
Stephen - I don't know how much the defense can improve, it was actually fairly good during the regular season last year. The Mavs were 8th in adjusted fg% defense last year (a best better way to gauge defensive performance than points given up, imo).
okay you can quote all those stat's about being ranked 8th in the league all day long. here is all i remember....NASH going right down the middle to drain a floating jumper WHENEVER he wanted in the playoff's. regular season aside- what they gave up offensively in the playoff's was simply offensive!
but i will hand you this- you have good insights here that are worth mentioning.
by the way- who do you think has to step up to help the Mav's get to 50 plus wins and a second or maybe even third round playoff situation (besides the obvious- Dirk)?
My pick- Dampier. If he is ERIC Dampier we could go to the Western Finals. If he is ERICA Dampier we are screwed. Gotta have a big man to make it in this league my brother!!!!
True, their Mavs' defense didn't show up in the playoffs. If Dampier can avoid foul trouble and still play aggressive defense that would help alot.
I don't think it's anyone player that needs to step up as much as it is that the team as a whole needs to find a way to have some decent ball movement on offense and create a few easy shots.
Mavs won their first game (I didn't see it - no cable). They did hold Phoenix to 90 points (in regulation) on 43% shooting, so perhaps the defense will be better. Though obviously the Suns were without Amare.
No offense.
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