Mavericks Roster: Championship Caliber?

Are the Mavs good enough to repeat? With a healthy Dirk Nowitzki the answer is emphatically yes. He proved last year that he is quite capable of carrying a team to a championship and elevating the level of play of his teammates. When healthy he is one of the best players in the NBA and the best clutch player in the game.

The problem is there might not be enough talent around him to keep him healthy. Rick Carlisle is doing his best to limit everyone's minutes to keep them fresh for the playoffs. After dropping three straight and sliding to 6th place in the west you begin to wonder if the team has what it takes to make it back to the finals. Dirk Nowitzki left the game vs Memphis early with a "tight back". 

Part of the health issues may lie with the lack of supporting cast around him requiring Dirk to carry most of the load offensively. Another might be with the absence of Lamar Odom (personal reasons) and Delonte West (finger), or the ineffectiveness of Ian Mahinmi a player who showed a lot of promise early but has faded as the season progressed. Other players such as Brendan Haywood and Roddy Beaubois have been up and down with their performance. Haywood's production in the middle is key to the Mavs with the departure of Tyson Chandler. Haywood has always been capable with more than enough talent to be a productive big, but it doesn't always show. Brandan Wright and Yi Jianlian have been pleasant surprises off the bench but not big time performers, and Brian Cardinal provides his custodial duties.

Dallas does boast one of the NBA's best benches so the real problem may lie with key players Jason Kidd, Shawn Marion, Vince Carter, and 6th man Jason Terry. Vince Carter has been solid as the starting 2 guard. Shooting the three pointer very well and providing nice post game work on smaller guards. However, he tends to disappear in the second half of games at times. It might be conditioning or lack of playing time in the 4th quarter with Jet getting the bulk of those minutes. 

Shawn Marion has been the man on the defensive end of the floor, but on the offensive end his offensive game is no where to be found far to often. He needs to produce offensively to provide some relief to Dirk and Jet down the stretch. His offensive in the post and his floaters are plenty effective to provide more offensive output.

 Jason Kidd is under a strict minute cap that Rick Carlisle is monitoring very closely. However he has been a dreadful shooter for most of this season. Not to mention almost all of his shots come from behind the arc. He is going to need to become more of a threat in the post and driving to the hoop the rest of the year. He still provides his smarts and passing abilities night in and night out.

Jason Terry has had his struggles shooting on the road, but his scoring this year is his lowest PPG since he joined the Mavericks in 2004. He is still a clutch performer and one of the best the Mavericks have ever had, but teams are finding a way to defend him a lot better. He likes to spot up shoot, shoot off the dribble going right, and shoot floaters in the lane. It seems that he may need to add something to the offensive arsenal. 

The Mavericks have enough talent, but a lot of things are going to have to go right for them to repeat as champions. A lot like last year when the team gelled at the right time. Without a healthy Dirk Nowitzki forget it; No player means more to his team.

Unrealistic Expectations of Lamar Odom

Coming to a franchise in Dallas fresh off their first NBA title and losing several fan favorites to free agency, lofty expectations were placed on Lamar Odom. Fans and Media wanted him to have the same impact Center Tyson Chandler had for Dallas last year. That wasn't fair to Lamar Odom, a very good player in his own right but he wasn't going to be playing a critical position for Dallas. He came to back up Dirk Nowitzki the face of the franchise. In all reality there are not that many minutes to play behind Nowitzki and Marion the two starting forwards.

With limited and spotty minutes coming his way Lamar Odom has had a tough time finding his grove on the floor. He originally struggled with his fitness, now it is his jump shot. He has also dealt with a lot of off the court issues regarding family members. He is in a fragile state that's why you hear nothing but encouragement from Rick Carlisle and the gang.

The real problem here is not with Lamar Odom. It is with over zealous inpatient fans who are not understanding the big picture. This team is able to be successful with out Lamar Odom at his best. Sure it would be nice to have him putting up 14 points 9 rebounds and 3 assists per game. However, when he's only playing 20 minutes per game he is doing a nice job as a reserve.

The best thing Dallas fans can do is look at the team as a whole instead of scrutinizing Lamar. He fills a role better than any of the previous suitors to the Nowitzki back up role. It is not an easy job to back up a superstar. Look around the league at the superstar players and look at the numbers of their back ups.

Lamar Odom is a good player off the bench. His most valuable asset is being able to play long enough to keep Nowitzki fresh and not being under contract for next year when the Mavs are expecting to be major players in free agency for the first time in a very long time. Don't expect 6th man of the year numbers from him; He's not getting 6th man of the year minutes.

2002-2003 Dallas Mavericks Playoff Run

Dirk should have won his first championship in 2003. This team was built perfectly for Don Nelson's style of play. The top players on this team were Dirk, Michael Finley, Steve Nash, and Nick Van Exel. Up until his injury Dirk was averaging 25 points and 11.5 rebounds in the playoffs, Finley averaged 18 points and 6 rebounds, Steve Nash averaged 16 points 7 assists, and Van Exel averaged 19 points 4 assists. The Big Three of Nash, Finley, and Nowitzki had been a force in past years but never enough to get over the hump. The addition of Van Exel at the trade deadline the year before really helped take some of the pressure off the stars. Van Exel was not afraid of the spotlight as he stepped up to knock down countless big shots for this team.

Other than Nowitzki, Van Exel was a huge difference maker for this team. At the end of games when the Mavericks could put the Big Three on the floor with Van Exel and Raef Lafrentz teams really had to respect the shot from everyone on the court. It was a luxury that no Mavericks team had before or after. Not to mention that four of those five players were at their best when the pressure was on. Any of the big three plus Van Exel were capable of carrying the Mavericks to a victory.

In addition to the stars playing extremely well led by Dirk, the role players on the team were extremely valuable. Walt Williams provided great shooting off the bench. Raef Lafrentz was able to stretch the floor at the Center position and give Dallas scoring that Shawn Bradley hadn't been able to provide in the past. Shawn Bradley blocked some shots and grabbed a few rebounds. Eduardo Najera was high energy and hustle off the bench. Adrian Griffin and Raja Bell provided solid perimeter defense.

Dallas lost Nowitzki in the 4th quarter of game 3 of the Western Conference Finals vs San Antonio to a knee injury and he would not play for the remainder of the series. They dropped game three and game 4 as they tried to adjust to life without Nowitzki. In game 5 with their backs against the wall Dallas was able to win 103-91 on the road.  Michael Finley led the team with 31 points and Van Exel had 21. The Mavericks had hope that the longer the series went on the better chance Nowitzki could make a return. Playing game 6 at home and hoping for a Nowitzki return in game 7 just wasn't enough as the Mavericks fell 90-78. Van Exel led the Mavericks with 19 points. Dallas also got 17 points from Walt Williams. San Antonio went on to win the championship vs New Jersey in 6 games.

This Mavericks team was so talented offensively, and was good enough defensively to beat anyone. They beat Portland in round 1, knocked off the Kings in the semifinals, and with a healthy Dirk Nowitzki they would have had enough to beat the Spurs and then New Jersey Nets. Overall I believe this was the best Mavericks team of all time.

2003 Dallas Mavericks Playoff Roster

9	Tariq Abdul-Wahad
11	Raja Bell
44	Shawn Bradley
42	Evan Eschmeyer
4	Michael Finley
7	Adrian Griffin
45	Raef LaFrentz
14	Eduardo Najera
13	Steve Nash
41	Dirk Nowitzki
31	Nick Van Exel
43	Walt Williams

Dal vs Phi halftime report

DAL 37 PHI 51

There isn't much to be said about the first half of this game. Dallas is getting out hustled, out rebounded and losing the turnover battle 7 to just one Philadelphia turnover.

Dirk and Marion had an awful first half combining for only 6 points on 3-18 shooting. Dominique Jones showed flashes with nice drives and finishes at the rim, but did turn the ball over three times.

Philadelphia's bench out played the Dallas bench getting 24 points including 12 points out of Vucevic. All Star Andre Iguodala had a solid all around half with 9 points 5 assists 3 steals.

Mavs Keys to the second half:

• take care of the ball and limit turnovers.
• more production out of their bench without Jason Terry and Delonte West.
• limit hustle plays and Philadelphia fast break
• use size to their advantage
• more production out of Marion and Dirk

Ranking the Mavs

I wanted to the rank the Mavericks players 1-13 in terms of their importance to the success of the team.

1.Dirk Nowitzki
2.Jason Terry
3.Shawn Marion
4.Brendan Haywood
5. Jason Kidd
6. Lamar Odom
7.Vince Carter
8.Delonte West
9.Brandan Wright
10.Ian Mahinmi
11.Roddy Beaubois
12. Domonique Jones
13.Brian Cardinal

Dallas 96 Los Angeles 92

Dallas was able to hold on to victory number 18, their 4th win in a row, after multiple attempts to give the game away including the final seconds. With roughly 12 seconds remaining and up by 2 points Jason Kidd made an errant inbounds pass that was deflected then stolen by the Clippers. This led to a wide open three pointer by Caron Butler that just missed. With just two seconds remaining Delonte West was able to ice the game with two free throws.

During the fourth quarter Dallas sent Blake Griffin to the free throw line multiple times and he was unable to connect on most. He was 0-7 at one point and finished the game just 2-9 from the line. Dallas even fouled him away from the ball using the hack-a-shaq tactic on him. He was completely rattled.

The Clippers went just 3-9 from deep in the second half, struggling to find an offensive groove with Chris Paul not scoring much. Not to mention they got almost no production out of the 2 guard spot. Randy Foye was 0-7 from the field and finished with 3 points. He was left wide open on most possessions and unable to knock down the shot.

The Dallas bench outscored the Los Angeles bench 35 to 25. The Clippers also turned the ball over 21 times including several key turnovers with only a few minutes remaining. The Mavs only turned the ball over 11 times. Dallas was +6 on points in the paint and +12 on points off turnovers. Dirk led the Mavs with 22 points including 11 in the 4th quarter and Caron Butler led Clips with 23.

The Mavericks received some nice production out of Lamar Odom who seems to be turning the corner the last couple of games. It might not show up in the stat sheet but he has been aggressive and been making some excellent passes that aren't showing up as assists but getting teammates to the foul line.

Roddy Beaubois didn't  play for the third straight game. With Jason Kidd returning he has taken a seat at the end of the Mavericks bench struggling to find minutes with Delonte West and Jason Terry using the reserve minutes at both guard spots.

Mavs vs Clippers haltime report

Dallas leads the Clippers 55-47.

Dallas was able to beat up on the Lob Angeles Clippers on the inside, getting 10 points and 6 rebounds from Haywood and 8 points for Marion. Dirk was in early foul trouble and unable to log a lot of minutes. The Dallas bench continued to do what it does best and pick up the slack while Dirk was out. Dirk uncharacteristically missed three free throws including a technical free throw. 

The Clippers did not get a ton of production out of CP3 in the first half. They were able to stay in the game by hitting 7 first half three pointers. Mo Williams and Caron Butler led the way for the Clippers. Reggie Evans got involved on the offensive end by making a couple of surprisingly nice passes for dunks, including an alley opp to Blake Griffin.

What to watch for in the second half:
What kind of production will we see from CP3 Chris Paul?
Can Dallas continue to use their size advantage on the interior? Brendan Haywood had a huge first quarter.

Will the 3 pointers for the Clippers fall? They rely heavily on the long ball on offense. They will need to hit from deep to win.

Vince Carter vs. Randy Foye. Foye will have to stop Carter on the block despite a heavy size disadvantage.