Category Archives: NBA

The Mavs Need to Get Better at 3-on-3

Filed Under: '09 - '10 Season, GM Consultant, NBA by KraverWP — Leave a comment
04/29/2010

Watching the Mavericks gets confusing.  Sometimes, when I watch them, they look like the greatest team in the history of great teams.  They roll out a starting lineup of 4 guys who are regularly in the All-Star game (Dirk, Kidd, Butler, and Marion).  They have Jason Terry, who consistently competes for the Sixth Man of the Year Award.  And more.  They have this little sparkplug dude who sometimes checks in and just sets the arena on fire (Barea).  They have some rookie from France who is capable of dropping 40 on a given night (Beaubois).   I haven’t even mentioned Brendan Haywood, DeShawn Stevenson, and Eduardo Najera, each of whom has played significant minutes for competitive teams in the NBA.  When I watch the Mavs and they are clicking, I feel kind of like I’m watching the Globetrotters: part of me is amazed at what they can do, and part of me remembers that they are not as good as they seem.

Given how good they can be, their inability to win begs the question: Why aren’t they better in the playoffs?  The easy answer is to say that they are “inconsistent,” or that they aren’t built for the playoffs, but neither of those is really an answer — those are just things people say about any team that underachieves.  Here at Hoopservations.com, we dig deeper.

I think the reason the Mavs aren’t better in the playoffs is that having the best 6th, 7th, 8th, or 9th man (or even all of the above) is not the way to win in the playoffs.  The teams that win in the playoffs have guys who marry girls who look like Eva Longoria  are the teams with the best “top 3.”  Check it out:

Bryant / Gasol / Bynum are better than Durant / Westbrook / Green.  The Lakers are up.

Nash / Amar’e / Richardson are better than Roy (especially when he’s injured) / Aldridge / Miller.  The Suns are up.

LeBron / Jamison / Williams are better than Rose / Deng / Noah.  The Cavs won.

Rondo / Allen / Pierce are better than Wade and whoever the other two best guys on the Heat are.  The Celts won.

Howard / Carter / Lewis are better than Wallace / Jackson / Felton.  The Magic won.

The only clear exception is the Hawks / Bucks series, because Johnson / Horford / Smith are better than the Bucks’ best 3 guys.  But the reason the Bucks are beating the Hawks is… um… actually, I have no friggin’ idea how the Bucks are beating the Hawks.  Whatever the reason, I don’t think it disproves the hoopservation that depth doesn’t matter all that much once the playoffs roll around.  A team is only going as far as its top 3 guys can take it.

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Final Thoughts on the Regular Season

Filed Under: '09 - '10 Season, NBA, Season Predictions by KraverWP — Leave a comment
04/25/2010

Now that the playoffs are starting to heat up (as much as it is possible for them to heat up with multiple days of rest between the games), people will have very little reason to think about the 2009-10 regular season moving forward.  Before we get to the point of forgetting the regular season entirely, here are a few hoopservations to keep in mind when the time comes to predict what will happen next year.

1.   The Lakers finished #1 in the West, but they looked much more dominant in the beginning of the season than the end of it.  The truth is that they’re an old team, and, unless they shake some things up, it’s hard to see them dominating next year.

2.   The Clippers finished with a better record than seven teams in the league.  That’s hardly impressive, but it means that they showed glimmers of hope (and raises some serious questions about those seven teams).  They’ll be adding Blake Griffin, another lottery pick, and probably a free agent or two.  If we can overlook the fact that they are the Clippers, there is reason to think they will be scary.

3.   Cleveland is a good, but aging, team.  Contrary to popular belief, LeBron is not surrounded by a bunch of stiffs.  But they are getting older.  If that aging roster stays the same, I won’t be picking them to win the East.

4.   If we imagine that no teams make any roster changes, the three teams that should make the biggest jump next year are the Thunder, Clippers, and Blazers (the Thunder because they’re getting better by the day, the Clippers and Blazers because they’ll be getting their injured players back).  The teams that should take the biggest falls are the Lakers, Cavs, Suns, Celtics and Bucks (the Bucks because they overachieved, the others because of age).

Of course, there is no reason to think that most, or even any, of the teams in the NBA will go into next season with the exact same rosters they have now.  We’ll obviously have to look at the moves that get made and evaluate them once they are done.  For now, it’s time to shift the focus back to the playoffs… Go Thunder!!

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