Posted by Rob Mahoney on August 22, 2010 under The Grapevine | 
- Neil Paine of Basketball-Reference.com used offensive and defensive ratings to determine team offensive performance relative to the league average. From there, he determined which players (with a 15,000 career minutes qualifier) have played in the best offenses throughout their careers. Steve Nash topped the list. Dirk Nowitzki came in at ninth. Those rankings may not mean much to the role players on the list (Raja Bell, for instance, is eighth) but for stars like Nash and Dirk? It’s a testament to just how incredible they are as offensive centerpieces, both together and apart.
- Kelly Dywer’s positional rankings continue, with Jason Terry coming in as no. 20 among shooting guards while Rodrigue Beaubois trails him slightly at no. 25. Pretty fair. Dwyer concedes to a conservative ranking on Beaubois in fear of a minutes mirage, and rightfully so. Plus, as Beaubois gets more and more playing time and is featured more and more prominently in the Mavs’ offense, he’ll face a series of increasingly difficult tests. We should all be pretty excited to see how Beaubois responds.
- Dwyer has also begun his small forward rankings, but there’s no sign of Shawn Marion in the first intallment.
- Maurice Ager is in serious discussions to sign with the Knicks. Color me curious.
- Bookmaker.com seems to think there’s a 15% chance of Dirk Nowitzki converting to Judaism during the 2010-2011 season. He trails Chris Bosh, Kobe Bryant, Rajon Rondo, Kevin Durant, Deron Williams, and Steve Nash in that regard. DIRK CAN’T GET NO RESPECT.
- Kurt Helin of ProBasketballTalk on Caron Butler giving back: “Caron Butler this summer did his annual ‘Bike Brigade’ in his hometown of Racine, Wisconsin, where he gave away hundreds of bicycles to area youth. He hosts annual back-to-school drives like he did in Washington DC last year, he has hosted numerous charity basketball games, he went to Johannesburg, South Africa, to conduct free basketball clinics. I could probably fill up the Internet with Butler’s charity endeavors. He’s quick to tell you that he does all this because he wants to, because he wants to give back to the community. He’s sincere and he cares. He isn’t organizing and attending events for the publicity or to save some money come April 15. And he said there are a lot of players out there like him. ‘I think there are other guys out there doing it,’ Butler told PBT last week. ‘This is something I’ve been doing since day one, since I got into the league. I probably just had a camera crew out after four or five years of doing it… after a while people just started paying more attention to what I was doing and understand that what I did was from my heart and I was passionate about it. That wasn’t just a once a year thing, this was something I was committed to year in and year out. And I do believe there are other guys out there like that.’”
- Jeremy Lin does New York.
Posted by Rob Mahoney on August 11, 2010 under The Grapevine |
- Rodrigue Beaubois’ injury is as bad as initially feared, and he will undergo surgery on Friday to have a pin placed in his broken left foot. We’re looking at two to three months off the court, and while Mark Cuban has made it clear that such an event is not the end of the world, it’s unfortunate and inconvenient at the very least. Also, check out my post from Friday for how Beaubois’ injury may impact the Mavs’ rotation during the initial stages of the regular season.
- I’m not one for schedule-gazing, so the allure of schedule release day is somewhat lost on me. Still, if you’re into that sort of thing, Mark Followill broke down the Mavs’ sched at DallasBasketball.com for your convenience.
- Tim Thomas and the Mavs are inching closer and closer to an agreement on a one-year deal, and word has it that the signing could be official later today. I’ve already touched on the possibility here.
- A kind reminder from Donnie Nelson that Rodrigue Beaubois is not a horse. Good to know.
- Kyle Weidie from Truth About It dug up a pretty bizarre account courtesy of Lola Natisa, a friend/acquaintance of Brendan Haywood. This anecdote is very much of the unconfirmed variety, but worth noting regardless (excuse the lengthy quote and the non-basketball subject matter). Natisa wrote on her blog: “Brendan Haywood is an uncomfortably tall basket ball player who has recently signed with the Dallas Mavericks. When he was traded from the Washington Wizards to the Dallas Mavericks earlier this year, my friend Daylon (who knew Brendan from Charlotte) thought it would be cool to show him what Dallas had to offer. It was a Sunday night right after my gig at the House of Blues and the only place that was really jumping in Dallas was a night club called Wish. Brendan is a guy who enjoys muliti-cultural environments because they tend to be much safer, and the women seem to be much much nicer. After going out with him a few times, I can’t disagree with his preference. I’m not sure why…… but black women plus a night club, can add up to rude/bitter/unattractive results at times (lol) FYI: the black woman reading this and is offended, is the black woman that produces these unattractive results. Anyway, we warned him that this night for this club sometimes can become a little hood. Brendan listened to what we had to say and he asked, “Now, is this club just a little hood or is it Josh Howard hood”? I had never been to a Josh Howard party nor had I met him personally, so I wasn’t sure exactly what he meant. That was until I recently sang the National Anthem at Josh Howard’s Celebrity Softball Charity Game. All I can say is Josh Howard is sooo much more hood then just hood. His staff of hometown homeboys who sometimes need to ’smoke one’ when under pressure were an interesting trio. The after party at the House of Blues looked like a Big T’s Bazaar fashion show. There were over sized gold chains, discount baby phat outfits and ass…just a whole lot of ass (tragic just tragic). Needless to say the night at Wish with Brendon and Daylon wasn’t Josh Howard hood. Hood is just that hood…Josh Howard Hood is hood on steroids, everything hood times ten.”
- Say what you will about Jason Terry the player, but Jason Terry the person is about as endearing as they come. It’s from a bit of a fluff piece, but here’s Terry, via Gary Herron of the Rio Rancho Observer (H/T DOH at Mavs Moneyball): “I’ve been blessed and fortunate just to be in the business as long as I have. The ‘life expectancy’ of an NBA player is four years; I’ve been in the league now 11 years. I’ve been primarily healthy throughout my career, haven’t had any major injuries. Blessed with some big contracts; I have a beautiful family.”
- Mike Prada of Bullets Forever applied the Cannon positional model to the Wizards with a spotlight on the John Wall-Gilbert Arenas tandem.
- From Jeff Caplan of ESPN Dallas: “Cuban said Mavs head athletic trainier Casey Smith, a member of the Team USA medical staff, has reported that Chandler appears to have regained the explosion he had prior to ankle injuries that ruined the past two seasons.”
Posted by Rob Mahoney on August 5, 2010 under Commentary |
Positional certainty has never been a luxury the Dallas Mavericks could afford during the Dirk Nowitzki era. Yet year after year, the team’s flaws are diagnosed according to the standards of a conventional lineup. Dallas needs a better center. A better shooting guard. A better point guard. Hell, anything that isn’t power forward. Dirk has been the one constant, and despite his unconventional and unique talents, the success of his team is ultimately measured by way of an antiquated tradition.
No longer. Or at least as minimally as possible in this space.
It may be naive to think that the mainstream basketball audience will soon abandon the five conventional positions, but that doesn’t mean those of us in this corner of the universe can’t strive to be better, smarter basketball fans. I’m ready to take a hop (more than a step, but well short of a leap) in the way we classify players. With that, I’ll cue Drew Cannon of Basketball Prospectus:
But what do you really need from a lineup?
On defense, you need to be able to guard your opponents. This means you have to be ready for speeds and heights of all kinds. You need to have a player capable of guarding each of the five traditional C-PF-SF-SG-PG positions. We’ll call the players capable of defending each position “D1” through “D5,” respectively, with speed/athleticism on the x-axis and height/strength on the y-axis:
And on offense what do you need to be successful? You need to be able to make shots (from the field or free throw line), avoid turnovers, and clean up the offensive glass–at the very least to the point where you aren’t handing over points by doing the opposite. This means that you need someone who can take care of the ball, someone who can put it in the basket, someone who can get the ball to that guy, and someone who can get the ball back when someone misses. We’ll call these four characters the Handler, the Scorer, the Creator, and the Rebounder.
Quick point. The Creator and the Handler have to be the same guy. Because you can’t have your Creator losing the ball all the time before he can feed your Scorers, and you can’t have your Handler with the ball all the time but unable to get it to the Scorers.
…It boils down to this: On defense, you have to be ready for whatever the offense throws at you. But on offense, you really just need to rebound and protect the ball enough to let your scorers go to work (or protect the ball just enough that your dominant rebounding can keep putting points on the board despite below-average scoring, etc.). Really, how you put points on the board is your business. The defense is just reacting.
This is more than just a quaint idea.
I’m sure Cannon’s model isn’t a perfect one, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s a start, and nothing more. Just as the traditional formula yielded point-forwards (or even point-centers…word up the the Antoine Walker experiment), combo guards, and other atypical cogs, I’m sure that this framework will allow for a few more offensive player designations yet. What matters is that we move away from a nondescript and misleading method of classifying players in favor of something — anything — that actually manages to advance basketball discourse.
To those still clinging to what they know, I’d ask this: what’s a power forward? What characteristics link Dirk Nowitzki, Tim Duncan, Rashard Lewis, Lamar Odom, Reggie Evans, Tyrus Thomas, and J.J. Hickson? Not rebounding. Not scoring. Not skill set. Not height relative to their teammates. Not even the spaces they occupy on the floor. I’m at a total loss as to the criterion that would group that bunch together, which makes the assessment “Player X isn’t a real power forward” pretty much worthless. I think I know what it means, but without the ability to define the contemporary power forward, how could I really know for sure?
Conceptually, this is nothing new. Players like Dirk have been bending positional bounds for years, and the basic tenets of fluid positionality have been preached by a number of NBA scribes. Yet this system makes enough intuitive sense to work, and gives the thought a more practical and literal application.
If you’d like to join me on this little adventure, I’d love the company. If not, that’s fine, too. This post isn’t meant to convert, but primarily to do two things:
- Inform as to what the hell I’m talking about when I write that “Jason Kidd is a D2,” in the future.
- Bring the idea to the forefront. Even if you’re not ready to buy into an overhaul of positional classifications, I hope this at least gets you to think about what those classifications mean (or don’t mean).
This could be fun, but I’m going to need a lot of help. Here are the initial offensive and defensive positions for all of the current Mavs according to my own assessment, but they’re not infallible. Are there offensive profiles that aren’t represented? Is it fair to list Shawn Marion strictly as a rebounder? Or Jason Terry as a D2? Let me have it. Rip this idea to pieces. Tear it down so we can build it back up with stronger and smarter ideas, making our collective analysis that much better in the process.
Alexis Ajinca - D?, Large body
J.J. Barea - D1, Scorer-Creator/Handler
Rodrigue Beaubois - D1, Scorer
Caron Butler - D3/D2, Scorer
Tyson Chandler - D5, Rebounder
Brendan Haywood - D5, Rebounder
Dominique Jones - D2/D1, Scorer
Jason Kidd - D2/D1, Creator/Handler
Ian Mahinmi - D5/D4, Rebounder
Shawn Marion - D3/D2/D4, Rebounder
Dirk Nowitzki - D4, Scorer-Rebounder
DeShawn Stevenson - D2, Abe Lincoln tattoo
Jason Terry - D2 (I guess?), Scorer
Tags: Alexis Ajinca, Brendan Haywood, Caron Butler, DeShawn Stevenson, Dirk Nowitzki, Dominique Jones, Ian Mahinmi, J.J. Barea, Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, Positional Revolution, Rodrigue Beaubois, Shawn Marion, Tyson Chandler
Posted by Rob Mahoney on July 12, 2010 under The Grapevine |
- Jason Terry on LeBron, Wade, and Bosh uniting in Miami (via Rey Moralde of The No Look Pass): “They gotta come through Texas first. We’ll see what happens. I’m still mad about the ’06 Finals. LeBron just walked into a fire he doesn’t know about.”
- Udonis Haslem, to whom the Mavs had reportedly offered their MLE, will re-sign with the Miami Heat for a significantly lesser salary. Hard to blame him, especially when he’s choosing both loyalty to the franchise/fan base and a better shot at a title over the extra coin.
- Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas makes an interesting note about Ian Mahinmi’s future development with the Mavs: “One issue with Mahinmi: He’s played two years in the D-League already, so he can’t be shipped to Frisco. That means he’ll have to develop without getting many minutes.”
- Mark Cuban doesn’t seem too happy with the way the Superfriends assembled.
- The Mavs are apparently growing more amenable to the idea of parting with Erick Dampier’s contract to acquire Al Jefferson…as long as Minnesota is willing to also take on DeShawn Stevenson’s $4.2 million expiring contract and the $11.7 million left on Matt Caroll’s deal. If anything goes down regarding Jefferson and the Mavs, it will almost certainly a package of draft picks headed Minny’s way (likely with a few first rounders). However, Marc Stein reported a bit later that the Utah Jazz have moved to the front of the pack to acquire Al, which puts quite the damper on the Mavs’ plans.
- Dirk will officially sign with the Mavs later this week.
- Rick Carlisle on John Wall’s debut (via Kevin Arnovitz): “He has fantastic ability and tremendous upside. He’s a different version of Derrick Rose, a little different kind of player, a little different body type and a little different style of play. They both have a great ability to defend. As they learn more, they’ll both get better and better. Wall is a little longer athletically and maybe a little more of a scorer.”
- Mark Deeks/Sham Sports parses through the Mavs’ Summer League roster.
Tags: 2010 Free Agency, 2010 Summer League, Al Jefferson, Chris Bosh, DeShawn Stevenson, Dirk Nowitzki, Dwyane Wade, Ian Mahinmi, Jason Terry, LeBron James, Mark Cuban, Matt Carroll, Udonis Haslem
Posted by Rob Mahoney on July 10, 2010 under Commentary, Rumors |
Al Jefferson wouldn’t have been a suitable replacement for Brendan Haywood, nor is he a particularly wise usage of Erick Dampier’s instantly expiring contract. But what if he could be had for something far less? That’s apparently what the Mavs are asking of the Timberwolves, according to Marc Stein of ESPN Dallas:
Dallas, meanwhile, is determined not to ship out Dampier’s fully unguaranteed $13 million contract just to take back someone else’s long-term deal. The Mavs are telling teams that they have to furnish a clear roster upgrade if they want the ability to acquire Dampier, cut him instantly and wipe $13 million off the books.
Sources say Minnesota has been urging Dallas to part with Dampier’s contract and draft considerations in exchange for Al Jefferson, who has three years left on his contract at $42 million. The Mavericks keep telling the Wolves that they won’t surrender Dampier’s contract in a Jefferson deal because they have it earmarked for a Gasol-type trade, such as a theoretical sign-and-trade arrangement for James or as the centerpiece of Dallas’ longstanding pursuit of Paul. The problem? It’s a steep drop in terms of difference-makers that might be available after LeBron and his good buddy CP3.
The Mavs’ hard-line stance could always change if they miss out on their other summer targets. For now, though, look for them to take a measured look at their options on the trade market for the next month or so, disappointing as it would be if they can’t turn their best asset into tangible help for Dirk Nowitzki after so much hoopla. Just to be clear, though: Sources say Dallas does remain interested in Jefferson if the Wolves prove amenable to a deal that does not involve Dampier’s contract.
The Mavs would understandably want to pick up Al Jefferson for expiring contracts and Matt Carroll while holding on to their most valuable trade chip, it just seems awfully unlikely that Minnesota would ever agree to such terms. Al’s contract is rather large for a player with such glaring holes in his game, but he’s not enough of a burden that he warrants unloading for cap savings alone. If Dallas really wants to add Jefferson, it’s most likely going to take Dampier. Expecting anything less is just a part of the negotiation, but hardly worthy of anything more than a rumor.
There are only a few core deals that the Mavs could use to trade for Al Jefferson without using Erick Dampier’s contract, assuming that the only player coming to Dallas is Jefferson:
- DeShawn Stevenson’s expiring contract, Matt Carroll, and Eduardo Najera (with his partially unguaranteed 2011-2012 salary) for Al Jefferson
- DeShawn Stevenson’s expiring contract, Matt Carroll, and J.J. Barea for Al Jefferson
- Jason Terry (and his partially unguaranteed 2011-2012 salary) and Matt Carroll for Al Jefferson
- Jason Terry (and his partially unguaranteed 2011-2012 salary) and DeShawn Stevenson’s expiring contract for Al Jefferson
Terry and Stevenson make the most sense for the Wolves, but only if their intent is to clear as much salary as possible. They would trade Jefferson’s $13 million salary for $5 million guaranteed if they opt to waive Terry, and Dallas could include cash and draft picks to sweeten the pot if they so choose. Would all of that be worth it to earn the right to pay Jefferson over the next three seasons? Perhaps, but only if the Mavs don’t intend to force him into an uncomfortable role: playing center alongside Dirk Nowitzki.
Dirk is a unique cat, and his game isn’t easy to build around. It takes a particular set of players that can complement his strengths while making up for his weaknesses, and in that regard Jefferson disappoints. They’re not comparable, just familiar; even if Nowitzki and Jefferson aren’t the same in form, they are in function. It’s a neat diversion, but wouldn’t work as a starting pairing.
Now, a big rotation of Dirk, Brendan Haywood, and Al Jefferson? $13 million is a lot to pay for a big off the bench, but yeesh. Diversion turns to full-time fancy, and concerns about fit are obliterated. It would likely be painful for Mark Cuban to absorb both Jefferson’s deal and the tax implications, but considering it’s salary the Mavs would have been paying out to benchwarmers (and possibly Terry) this season anyway, the financial difference this season would be rather negligible. It’s all about how optimistic the Mavs are in their ability to move under the tax line (and conceivably the cap) in the coming seasons. With Nowitzki, Haywood, Marion, and perhaps another player yet to be determined all eating up space until 2014 at least, it may not be as financially liberal as it seems to throw in Al.
Posted by Rob Mahoney on June 11, 2010 under xOther |
Basketball is an industry. Goods are bought and sold, players are reduced to commodities, and there is money to be made on every conceivable level of the operation. Some of those (professional athletes hiring agents) are more palatable than others (college athletes receiving an envelope under the table), but regardless of varying perceptions of the ’student athlete,’ there seems to be a general distaste for the exploitation of minors.
That’s pretty much the modus operandi of the old world AAU, the world guys like our own Jason Terry are trying to eradicate. JET, among a number of other players including Jason Kidd and ex-Mavs Devin Harris and Brandon Bass, have begun to repave the roads that have become so treacherous since their basketball upbringing. Controlling the perils of the AAU system is a great way to start cleaning out the muck resting in the game’s lining, the shadows behind the game that allow for all sorts of unseemly profiteering.
There will always be a never-ending stream of “professionals” waiting to siphon money whenever and wherever they can, but limiting their access points to athletes (especially at a young age) is important, and not just to JET. As long as we can appreciate these efforts for their intent, commitment to change, and progress (even if it is minor) toward a cleaner basketball system, their value is not lost on us. Obviously there are no absolutes here; some players could just as well use the AAU system for their own personal gains, be they monetary or otherwise. Still, guys like JET ooze a genuine enthusiasm for the nobler aspects of running a program, and that should be celebrated.
From the Associated Press:
Jason Terry has all sorts of fond memories from his AAU basketball days, like finishing fourth in the national tournament as an eighth grader and taking his first plane ride to get to other games. So when his oldest daughter was ready to play organized basketball, he wanted her to have a great experience, too. He just wasn’t sure AAU could provide it.
…Its most high-profile efforts are in boys’ basketball, sanctioning teams, tournaments and camps that give top players a chance to show off their skills outside of their school programs — and, according to critics, also provide a fertile feeding ground for shadowy middle men to steer top young players to a particular agent, college program or athletic equipment company. AAU basketball has changed since Terry’s days in the early 1990s. With NBA salaries skyrocketing from around $1 million then to more than $5 million, the organization is much more of a juicy target for people who want to latch onto kids in hopes of getting a piece of the action.
Terry knew about those problems and more — players jumping squads during a tournament, kids lying about their age, parents who encourage such things — because besides playing for the Dallas Mavericks, he helped train four players who recently came through the AAU system. So of course he was leery about signing up his daughter. Then he had another idea. Why not start his own AAU program? Terry is now among dozens, perhaps hundreds, of current and former NBA players with their own clubs, guys like LeBron James, Lamar Odom, Devin Harris and Mike Bibby.
Their motivation is simple: Giving back to the program that helped turn them into multimillionaires, while trying to improve things for the next generation — which, for guys like Terry and Bibby, includes their own children…”Once it gets to high school, it starts to get tainted — kids are trying to get scholarships and you’ve got agents and stuff involved,” Terry said. “By the time they get to ninth grade, we’ve already alerted them of what to expect.”
…Kidd became hooked by talking to Terry and Robert Hackett, the Mavericks’ strength and conditioning coach and a dad-coach in Terry’s program. Instead of starting a program, Kidd came up with a concept: Gathering every eighth-grade-and-under AAU team run by current and former NBA players for a weekend packed with tournaments for kids, seminars for parents and brainstorming sessions for the NBA guys. With Hackett’s help, Kidd secured a Dallas-area facility in July, a few weeks after the national AAU tournament. During pregame warmups, Kidd, Terry and Hackett sidled up to friends on opposing teams and asked if they had an AAU team or knew who did.
Bibby, Marcus Camby, Kenyon Martin and Brandon Bass were among the verbal commitments. Even if only a handful of local teams show up, it’s a start. “As the years go on,” Kidd said, “we’ll get it bigger and bigger.”
…The fifth-graders became the first tournament winners. Although Terry missed it, a picture of the kids and their trophy hangs in his Mavs locker. He was there a few weeks later when the sixth-graders won their first title, rallying from 18 points down against a team they’d lost to by 40. “Jason sprinted around the court like he’d just won an NBA championship, he was just so proud of the girls,” said Christie Foy, whose oldest daughter has been involved from the start. “I get goose bumps thinking about it. To have a coach — whether he’s an NBA player or not — have that much faith in you and support for you and enthusiasm in what you’re doing, it’s gone a long way with them.”
Posted by Rob Mahoney on under The Grapevine |
- We already knew this was going to happen, but the Mavs have announced they will pick up J.J. Barea’s $1.8 million team option for next season. Michael Dugat of DallasBasketball.com compared Barea to other reserve point guards around the league by using base statistics, and the results show about what you’d expect: we’re all far harsher on Barea than we should be.
- The Mavs plan to bring in Brian Zoubek for a workout, likely as a prospect for the 50th pick.
- Eddy Rivera reviews Brandon Bass’ 2009-2010 season for Magic Basketball: “In retrospect, it’s fair to wonder why general manager Otis Smithsigned Brandon Bass. There’s no question that Bass is a good player but he’s the equivalent of being a round peg trying to be inserted into a square hole. Bass’ strengths as a player are completely the opposite to what makes the Magic successful. For instance, even taking into account his efficiency on offense, Bass is the lone player on Orlando that bases his game around the mid-range jumper. Add to the fact that Bass was never able to learn the Magic’s defensive schemes and there shouldn’t be a surprise that he barely saw minutes this year.”
- We should know by the end of the day whether or not Dwane Casey will be the next coach of the Atlanta Hawks.
- Andris Biedrins is a very attainable non-free agent that the Mavs could score this summer, but doing so would mean Dallas struck out on a number of fronts beforehand. If Nelson and Cuban end up using Dampier’s contract to grab Biedrins, it’s merely consolation. Still, better something than nothing, right?
- UPDATE: Jason Terry, on Nate Robinson’s performance in Game 4 of the NBA Finals: “What a game from 1 6th man to another nate way 2 show up and show out town bizness”
- UPDATE: John Hollinger ranked the top 50 single-game Finals performances of all-time, and Dwyane Wade’s Game 3 and Game 6 in 2006 ranked 9th and 19th respectively.
Posted by Rob Mahoney on June 4, 2010 under The Grapevine |
- Draft profiles will begin next week, all for players that the Mavs may have a shot at taking with the 50th overall pick. As was announced earlier in the week, the 57th pick, which technically belonged to the Mavs, will be sent to the Indiana Pacers as an aftereffect of the Eddie Jones-Shawne Williams trade. Isn’t it just grand when Dallas doesn’t have a first rounder? Still, there are some interesting prospects that could fall, and there will be plenty of content here next week about the ones that could make sense for the Mavs.
- Jason Terry, expressing his Finals preference on the Colin Cowherd Show: “I had my green-and-white Boston Celtics shorts on last night. Wore them to bed. You know I’m superstitious. … I like Boston.” He also made a mini-pitch for LeBron, and wouldn’t mind having an Andrew Bynum around.
- In Kelly Dwyer’s epitaph of the Phoenix Suns’ season, he spells out a handfull of reasons why Dirk won’t be riding into Arizona atop a white horse. It’s nothing that hasn’t already been explored, but Dwyer makes everything crystal clear for the few who still think of Phoenix as a possible landing point for Nowitzki.
- Count Seth Pollack of Bright Side of the Sun among the few, although he argues more that it’s possible that Phoenix could create the space required to land Dirk rather than it being likely. If the Suns can shed Barbosa’s contract for picks, they could use the combination of space and a trade exception to put together some kind of sign-and-trade package for Nowitzki. I agree with Seth in that’s it’s possible, but stand by my original point that it’s a virtual impossibility. Even if Phoenix gains the flexibility needed, I just don’t see Dirk bolting or Mark Cuban letting Dirk bolt.
- Danny Ferry is resigning as the GM of the Cavaliers; does he know something we don’t about LeBron’s future (or lack thereof) in Cleveland?
- Mark Cuban on whether there’s any question he won’t answer, in light of his $100,000 fine for his “tampering” comments on LeBron (from 790 The Ticket in Miami, via Sports Radio Interviews): “As long as it doesn’t get me fined by the NBA, I’m usually pretty cool about it. There is no reason to repeat the same mistakes. If you ask me about players prior to July 1, I’m not going to answer. And when I did get fined, that was one of the few times that I didn’t get fined on purpose. They caught me on a weak moment. It was the last question in an hour long interview on technology and business that went into detail. My guard was down. I tried to talk around it, but I didn’t do a good job.”
- It’s less concerning the Mavs and more concerning professional athletes in general, but Dan Devine’s piece on the mental and physiological effects of pressure situations on athletes is a great read.
Posted by Rob Mahoney on May 25, 2010 under Commentary |
Jason Terry is the most important non-essential Maverick.
Although this year’s playoffs proved that Terry’s game is anything but unsolvable, he remains one of the few Mavs capable of creating their own offense. That’s a valuable skill regardless of team context, but given how stagnant the Dallas offense can be at times, Terry’s skills remain a crucial part to unlocking this current roster’s offensive potential. Had JET been a productive scorer in this year’s playoffs rather than handcuffed and tossed in the corner, it’s possible the Mavs would still be alive. He can’t do everything on his own like Dirk Nowitzki can, but you have to believe that Rick Carlisle, Jason Kidd, and the rest of the team can do a better job of enabling one of the team’s more efficient scorers. He may need a little help reaching that level of production, but the fact that it can be reached makes him valuable.
Then again, should the Mavs acquire an effective shooting guard in free agency, Terry’s impact is minimized. It’s clear that finding minutes for Rodrigue Beaubois will be a priority for Rick Carlisle next season, and with at least Shawn Marion and a scoring 2 taking up minutes on the wing, it’s easy to imagine a world in which JET’s role is diminished. Suppose Dallas hangs on to Caron Butler beyond this summer as well, and you’re looking at four high-minute players vying for for playing time on the wings (though Beaubois will certainly see some time at the point next year).
Terry averaged 33 minutes per game this season in 77 games for the Mavs, but that number could soon fall. In itself, that may not be earth-shaking news, but JET’s minutes could have a substantial impact on his future with the team, as noted by Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas last week. Should Terry’s minutes next season fail to break the 1,500 mark, only $5 million of his 2011-2012 salary ($11.16 million) would be guaranteed. That could potentially make JET an incredibly interesting trade chip going into the new CBA. Donnie Nelson and Mark Cuban were able to turn Jerry Stackhouse’s similar contract — albeit with less guaranteed money — into Kris Humphries and a signed-and-traded Shawn Marion, which is pretty good return value on a player that had limited basketball effectiveness at the time and had only played in 10 games the previous season.
There’s too much to be determined before we know Terry’s role on the 2010-2011 Mavs for sure, but a drastic change would be necessary for JET’s minutes to duck under the 1,500-minute mark. Jason has never played fewer than 1,500 minutes in a season and has played fewer than 78 games only twice (77 and 74 games in the last two seasons). Barring a major acquisition, an unfortunate injury, or a supernatural occurrence that would transform Matt Carroll into a rotation player, we should expect Terry to meet that number rather easily.
Then again, the fact that we’re even having this conversation says a lot about the evolution of the Mavs as a franchise. Since the team evolved from the ‘Big Three’ model to a more Dirk-centric design in ‘04-’05, Jason Terry has been an integral part of the team. He started off as Nash’s replacement at point guard, but ultimately became the league’s most effective scoring reserve, and it was Terry’s success at the 2 that helped to elevate the Mavs in 2006 and 2007. Though Dallas’ top defense have more or less operated in spite of JET’s deficiencies, the iso-heavy offense employed throughout most of this Maverick era only works because of a player of Nowitzki’s unique talents and due to the supplementary contributions of a player like Terry. His game may not be perfect, but no one Mav (aside from Dirk) has been more valuable over the last five years.
Yet now, superlatives all fall in the past tense, and this very post is discussing the possibility of shipping out Terry in the Stackhousian method of player marginalization. JET is merely a season removed from being named the Sixth Man of the Year, and yet many Mavs fans are hoping that in twelve month’s time, Terry will be reduced to a tradable contract. It’s off-putting to think about in those terms because of what it means about the nature of both the NBA and the Mavs’ offense.
If Terry, whose skills really haven’t diminished all that much from his most successful NBA seasons, is no longer a viable candidate for major minutes on this team, is the Dallas offense as we know it truly dead and buried? Is that a condemnation of Dirk’s style of play, or an evolution of his supporting cast to better fit his needs? When the Mavs assembled Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Terry, and Caron Butler — three of the best mid-range shooters in the league — in the same place and the template flunked out of the first round, does that make the Dallas model flawed beyond repair or in desperate need of personnel upgrades elsewhere on the roster?
It’s difficult to say. There are so few easy questions in team construction, especially for a team like the Mavs that need to be fixed but isn’t necessarily broken. Terry epitomizes the issues Dallas faces moving forward, and the questions of how best to use him in the offense, how to hide him on defense, and whether or not his production is worth the effort moving forward are all valid. They’re just not easy, and whether JET hits the 1,500-minute mark in ‘10-’11 or not, what the Mavs choose to do with Jason Terry will greatly influence both their immediate and long-term futures.
Posted by Rob Mahoney on May 19, 2010 under The Grapevine |
- Annnd we’re back. A little delay following the Mavs’ playoff exit due to my non-blog commitments, but look for things to get slightly closer to normal starting today. Obviously there isn’t a ton going on aside from free agent speculation at this point, but there’s still plenty to go over in analyzing the roster, breaking down off-season strategies, etc. The summer may be slow on news, but that doesn’t mean it has to be slow on analysis.
- Jason Kidd was sick during the playoffs, has no (public) problem with Rick Carlisle, and has not spoken with LeBron James recently. Jeff Caplan of ESPN Dallas clears up a few things in a Q&A with Kidd.
- Basketball Prospectus’ Bradford Doolittle, in a measured response to the venomous criticism of LeBron James’ Game 5 performance last week, declared the embarrassing 88-120 Cavalier loss the most stunning playoff result aside from Golden State’s series-clinching win over Dallas in 2007. The Mavs-related analysis is only a blip compared to Doolittle’s excellent analysis of LeBron’s night, and the post is really worth noting for that coverage above the Dallas stuff.
- According to Tom Haberstroh, the smallest lineup fielded by any team in the NBA this season was a Beaubois-Barea-Terry-Butler-Marion unit trotted out by the Mavs against the Warriors. The average height of that lineup? 6′3.2”.
- There’s nothing wrong with building around a power forward.
- Jeff ‘Skin’ Wade offers a purely hypothetical scenario in which the Mavs swap J.J. Barea and DeShawn Stevenson (or really, DeShawn’s expiring contract) for Marcin Gortat. Dallas’ courtship of Gortat ended somewhat tragically, although if the Mavs end up with Brendan Haywood locked up long-term, was it really a net loss? Regardless, I don’t see that package as being attractive enough to entice Otis Smith; back-up point guard play hasn’t really been a concern this season for Orlando, and the sample size really wasn’t big enough for Brandon Bass this season to get an accurate take on his potential to play back-up center. I just don’t see it.
- A short interview with Rodrigue Beaubois from the PanCan/Dallas Mavs ping ponging pancreatic cancer benefit.
- A big, delayed welcome to the newest blog in the TrueHoop Network, A Wolf Among Wolves. I’m expecting great things from Myles and Ben, so hit them up via RSS, bookmarks, or whatever.
- Just a friendly reminder that even when the Mavs are eliminated from the playoffs, you can continue to read my work (and watch my videos) at Hardwood Paroxysm and ProBasketballTalk, and you can follow my assorted NBA (and non-NBA) ramblings on Twitter @robmahoney.