Tag Archives: Jason Kidd

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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NBA Playoffs Vol. 2: Hold Onto Your PG

Filed Under: '09 - '10 Season, GM Consultant, NBA by KraverWP — Leave a comment
04/12/2010

As I blogged recently, ain’t much changin’ in the NBA playoffs on a year-to-year basis.  The minimal amount of movement of teams into or out of the playoffs is remarkable, and (I failed to point this out in my previous posting) becomes even more remarkable when one considers that injuries to guys like Yao and T-Mac for the Rockets, CP3 for the Hornets, and D-Wade for the Heat, have a lot to do with the movement that we actually have seen.

One hoopservation about the minimal movement of teams into and out of the playoffs is that, given how little movement occurs, it can’t be a coincidence that, when movement does occur, it often involves a playoff team losing its PG and then falling out of the playoffs.

The clearest example is Detroit.  The Pistons were the #2 seed in the East as recently as the 2007-08 season.  Then they traded Chauncey Billups, and now they are an afterthought.  I know that lots of terrible executive decisions have been made in Detroit over the last two years — for example, the decisions leading the auto industry to the verge of collapse — but the decision to trade Chauncey Billups for no perceivable reason has to rank amongst the worst.  The Pistons need a bailout of their own if they’re going to make it back to the playoffs.

Detroit is the clearest example, but not the only example.  This year’s 76ers are 27-54, and do not even resemble a playoff team.  Last year, they were a playoff team.  Then they got rid of Andre Miller, and completely lost their mojo.

Not too long ago, the Wizards were a young, exciting playoff team.  Then Gilbert Arenas injured his knee.  Then Gilbert Arenas injured his brain.  Now, the Wizards are a joke.

In ’06-’07, the Warriors not only made the playoffs, but won a series, led by Barron Davis.  Now Barron’s gone from Golden State, and the Warriors are gone from the playoffs.

Lastly, the Nets — yes, the Nets — were a playoff team in ’06-’07.  They traded Jason Kidd in the middle of the following season and, well… you know what happened.

In sum, one pattern we can perceive when we look over the minimal movement that has happened into and out of the playoffs is that often a team in the playoffs screws things up when it gets rid of its PG.

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