The official 2015-2016 Dallas Mavericks season watch thread

[Big333223]

I'm starting to think that the Mavs aren't that good and it's just that the West fell off a cliff this year.  Seriously, the 7-8 Clippers are the 8 seed right now? 

been saying that since the summer in terms of the Mavs.  they'll be out of the playoffs looking in before the all-star break

This is the best case scernario, so far, for us. If the Mavs looked bad early they could've dismantled and tanked and the pick wouldn't have conveyed this season. It's better that they get convinced that they are a playoff contender early so they stay out of the bottom 7 teams.

I'm confident they'll slip to .500 or worse by the end of the season when some of these Western teams that were supposed to be better wake up. It's also pretty likely that Nowitzki missed some time to injury and without his spacing, I think they can go on a pretty ruinous losing streak. So we've got that to look forward to.

[Neurotic Guy]

The only downside to winning too many early would be the belief that they have a legit shot and thus make a solid win-now trade in January.

[trickybilly]

The only downside to winning too many early would be the belief that they have a legit shot and thus make a solid win-now trade in January.

Haha..Like Rondo?

Helps that Dallas are in the weaker Western Conference. (just love saying that)

[trickybilly]

Not sure im happy about today's loss. does cuban dare trade wes and deron (and maybe even Dirk???) for picks and projects? Is this possible?

[e4sym0de]

Not sure im happy about today's loss. does cuban dare trade wes and deron (and maybe even Dirk???) for picks and projects? Is this possible?

Dirk is going to retire as Maverick. If he wants to make this rebuilding trades, its after Dirks retirement.

[colincb]

They're better than I thought. Middle of the pack rebounding and towards the back of the NBA in 3P%, blocks, and steals, However,  they have a very good 2FG%, they minimize TOs, they get to the FT line, and they defend well, if not aggressively like the Cs. They have a lot of older players who have a lot of experience and can still play.

They're not a contender, but they should be able to make the playoffs (from 4-8) easily enough and I don't see 8 teams better than them in the West.  Obviously, if Dirk goes down, that's a big problem, but he's been very durable his whole career and throwing out his rookie year where he was brought along slowly, he's averaged 76+ games per season in the past 16 years. A better bet for injury is DWill who has had a bounce-back season, but has averaged 68 games played over the last 7 years. Zsa Zsa is having a career year and may revert back to form, but Parsons has been on a minutes limit and as the season wears on he'll get more PT and boost a weak spot in their lineup.

As for getting a lot better, I don't see how an in-season trade gets them to contender status, but a guy like Ryan Anderson may become available if NO wanted to blow things up and he would help them a lot beyond the arc.

[Evantime34]

They have currently played the 27th most difficult schedule. Their schedule is going to get harder later in the year. I predict they will scuffle at some point this year, dropping them out of the playoffs or at least to the 8 seed in the west.

[GC003332]

With tonight's loss to the Hawks the Mavs have dropped into a tie with Memphis for the 17th pick, Ainge's assets collection mode going gang busters, that pick is way ahead of those late first rounders that the Philly freaks get all excited about.

[kraidstar]

been a strange year so far. i don't remember there ever being so many mediocre teams.

dallas has been a bit better than i expected, but i expect that their limited athleticism and dirk's age will catch up with them at some point.

with the sea of mediocrity that is the NBA right now, though, hard to know where that pick will fall. would be sweet if they got into the lottery, though.

[saltlover]

been a strange year so far. i don't remember there ever being so many mediocre teams.

dallas has been a bit better than i expected, but i expect that their limited athleticism and dirk's age will catch up with them at some point.

with the sea of mediocrity that is the NBA right now, though, hard to know where that pick will fall. would be sweet if they got into the lottery, though.

One man's mediocrity is another man's parity, I guess.  Taking away the Warriors at one end and the Sixers at the other, it seems like every team can beat any other team they face.  It's made for a lot of exciting games.

[Big333223]

Although I do think the league has a stronger middle than usual, it's still early. The rest of the season will seperate a lot of this parity/mediocirty and we'll find out who the really good teams are.

At some point, Dirk is going to have to miss a string of games due to old age and the Mavs are going to look awful whenever that happens.

[GC003332]

With tonight's loss to the Wizards the Mavs have dropped to 13-11 ,losing 7 of their last 11.
Considering they have had the easiest schedule in the league.

http://espn.go.com/nba/stats/rpi/_/sort/SOS

When it starts catching up with them they could will struggle to win more than 35 games all season, if the Suns get their act together the Mavs could very well end up lotto bound.

[chambers]

With tonight's loss to the Wizards the Mavs have dropped to 13-11 ,losing 7 of their last 11.
Considering they have had the easiest schedule in the league.

http://espn.go.com/nba/stats/rpi/_/sort/SOS

When it starts catching up with them they could will struggle to win more than 35 games all season, if the Suns get their act together the Mavs could very well end up lotto bound.

Yeah they had a hot start while other teams were adjusting, but it's going to be very hard for them to get 40 wins. We are probably looking at a late lotto pick. It's a shame they didn't cop a few earlier losses with Parsons out but they are going to have a tough period from Christmas through Feb.

[trickybilly]

Teams who should finishe below dallas: phil, la, denv, bkn, phoenix. They may well keep the pick unless i forgot some other lock..

[Big333223]

Teams who should finishe below dallas: phil, la, denv, bkn, phoenix. They may well keep the pick unless i forgot some other lock..

Minnesotta and Portland aren't necessarily locks but they're both less talented teams with less organizational pressure to win now, so I think they're a safe bet to finish below Dallas as well. I also feel like at least one of these Eastern teams will fall out of this huge pack of mediocrity.

Plus, I wouldn't be surprised to see a Rondo-esque midseason trade to try to get better from the Mavericks. I feel confident we're looking at a pick in the 9-15 range.