Looking back on...stuff (a possibly recurring thing)

This may or may not be something I try to do regularly; I don't know. Obviously, there are plenty of places to get recaps of the previous night's games, and I'm not really going to bother trying to do every game. So, brief, faulty analysis on a portion of the previous night's games. How could you resist?!

WASHINGTON V DALLAS (the return of zero)

So, this. It was..interesting, in that it seemed way more significant than an early regular season game really ought to. I mean, both teams had key players out, they've both got new pieces they're trying to integrate...this isn't likely to be real indicative of what these teams will look like later on.

And yet, you got the idea that you really did learn a lot about these teams from this game. For one, and you may have heard this mentioned, Gilbert is back. And somewhat reformed. He really did play as a sort of quasi-point last night, and it worked. His decision making was very good, he ran the offense superbly, and dealt with the double teams Dallas threw at him very well. From a health standpoint, even if not 100%, he was still quick enough to blow by the Dallas defense with relative ease, and maybe at a later point in the season that would have ended up being an even better performance from Arenas. But, as it was, very encouraging.

The help was better than you'd expect, without Jamison, and considering that Caron Butler didn't have a great game. Blatche and Foye both showed real ability to contribute, right now, and even if I don't expect them to be as (somewhat) awesome as they were last night, if they can be legit fifth or sixth options...well, that certainly adds another dimension to that team. Saunders seems to have already made a clear imprint on this team, as the spacing was great, and there was a legitimate offensive philosophy in place, instead of...well, what we saw in Cleveland.

For Dallas, it was just a very "blah" performance. They'll make more shots than they did last night, sure, and given that their outside shooting is a big part of their essence as a team...it's perhaps harsh to judge them on an offnight. But you really didn't see much spark there. Dirk got a lot of points, did some nice stuff, but Marion wasn't particularly inspiring, Terry took way too many shots to get just 12 points, and otherwise there just wasn't too much help. It was very...slow. Too slow to deal with Arenas, or really run the court, and not enough offensive firepower to really do that much in the halfcourt. It will be different with Howard back, clearly, and I don't want to understate that, but I came out of this game with a somewhat dimmer outlook on the Mavs' season.

LAL-LAC

So, this...happened?

I don't know, not too much to say about this one, but I wanted to touch on it just for the Artest factor. I thought it went pretty decently. He missed some shots, he wasn't 100% comfortable in the offense, but his contribution was positive on the whole. He'll obviously play defense, and I didn't really get the feeling that he's ever going to even have much of an opportunity to play outside the offense, and perhaps the possible disruption caused by his presence was overstated.

Outside of that, not much to learn. The Lakers were always going to win, but didn't ever really show the desire to pull away for good. Kobe was Kobe, Bynum was pretty nice, and Lamar did well (sort of) in Pau's spot. Pau's absence sort of fucked with the rotations, and so the bench unit was weaker than normal, perhaps contributing to the inability to really jump out (and stay out) to a big lead. But we know what the Lakers will do, they know what the Lakers will do, Reggie Miller...alright, he has no clue what's going to happen, but most sane people know what's more or less going to happen with this team. Not many worries.

The Clippers seemed pretty lost without Blake, and almost didn't look like they realized this one counted. Baron was hurt/awful, but at least Kaman and Gordon looked nice. Dunleavy's rotations seemed...weird, but I don't think he's ever inspired great deals of confidence. Anyway, not much to really gather about this team without Griffin, other than to say they really do need him back, for all kinds of reasons.

So, there we go. Tonight, there are...games? LOTS OF GAMES. A few will end up interesting, I'm sure. And perhaps I will write about one (or two. or three. or twelve, I don't know) of them tomorrow. Until then!

Amigos' NBA Previews: Dallas Mavericks

Recent Past They've been pretty damn good for a while now, haven't they? Usually get past the first round, occasionally to the conference finals, and they even made it to the finals that one time. But they've not gotten Mark (or Dirk, for that matter) his ring, and the window seems to be sort of closing.

Offseason
The big move was Marion, a potentially very nice add that ought to see them play Dirk at the 5 quite a bit this season. Not much else, really. Quinton Ross, Tim Thomas, and Drew Gooden joined up, and Jason Kidd stayed. Nobody notable left, as far as I can tell, but I'm usually wrong.

Probable lineup Jason Kidd, Josh Howard, Shawn Marion, Dirk, and Erick Dampier. JJ Barea, Jason Terry, Quinton Ross, Drew Gooden, and Tim Thomas as key subs. Or some variation on this, anyway. I'm interested to see how this works out.

General Overview Since making the finals, the Mavericks have seen the crop of elite teams sort of drift away from them, and now they're pretty firmly in that crop of sub-elite damn good teams. But the Marion move has brought new optimism, in that it sort of allows Kidd, and really the Mavs as a whole, to return to their roots.

Kidd's fucking old, and definitely not worth...whatever his contract is...but the Mavs weren't really going to bring in anyone else, despite the very quiet Chris Paul rumors. And Cuban's made of money, so...whatever. Kidd's alright, as long as you don't expect too much out of him. And Barea's proven to be a very competent backup, and a guy that can occasionally get hot and really kill teams. So, while I wouldn't say they're anywhere near the NBA's elite at the point guard spot, they aren't awful. The big issue here is on the defensive end, where anyone somewhat quick is going to kill Kidd at this point. Oh, I didn't mention Beaubois. Yea, Beaubois is sort of cool. I don't know how much he'll feature, but I'm pretty sure I'd like that guy if he didn't play for Dallas. But oh well.

At the two, you have a number of options. Howard can play there, Terry can play there, Ross can play there. I'm not really sure how they'll work out the rotation, in terms of how much they'll end up with Marion at the 3 (and Dampier at the 5), and how much they'll decide to sort of bump everyone up a spot and put in Terry (which seems like the best lineup). But that sort of versatility is definitely worthwhile, and a coach like Carlisle seems likely to be able to utilize that to his advantage. Howard and Terry obviously give you different things here, and that will rotation will likely depend on matchups and such, but this is definitely a pretty strong spot for this team.

Small forward and power forward are almost blurred together here, with both Marion and Dirk as sort of in between guys that have played from 3 to 5 in their career. Howard can play here as well, and so you figure this is where the Mavericks are going to win a lot of games. But, then again, when they aren't able to maximize production from these spots, you sort of worry about their chances. And then there's the question of how the Marion-Dirk lineup is really going to guard some of the stronger offensive fronts in the league, particularly the Lakers. And then you realize that this is sort of why the Mavs are sub-elite.

Oh, center, again, they're versatile here. Dirk will get a lot of minutes at the five, in the more interesting, offensive lineup. And then you'll have Dampier here, who can be alright. Am I going to write a whole paragraph about Erick fucking Dampier? No. No I am not. So, I'll just sort of wrap shit up here, and say: Dallas Mavericks=nice team. There. Fin. Okay, not "fin".

If they were a hip hop act Because they're held in pretty high regard by a lot of people, but then you sort of check the stats and realize they didn't really end up doing all that much, despite..everything. And because, other than Hasselhoff, I'm pretty sure Dirk really digs the Beastie Boys.

Guessing how they'll do They'll get out to a pretty nice start, then sort of fall back, finishing somewhere between fourth and sixth in the West. I'll say they get knocked out in the first round.