Can this Dallas Mavericks team win a championship

Can this Dallas Mavericks team win a championship

That’s what That’s what I’m saying to you. That that it’s it’s such a preposterous thing that you’re saying like No, no, no. Let me talk. Let me talk. I don’t quite get what you’re trying to imply. Anthony Davis is in a top 15 player. What metric are you [ __ ] going off of? That’s just preposterous, man. Like, I don’t even understand what it is you’re saying at this juncture. Oh my god, that’s low. Even for you, Eightton. Seriously, Domin, you’re falling for that [ __ ] You really are an idiot. No. Hey, hey, hey. I don’t think you can say that, by the way. Just letting you know. Durk would dominate the rest of the league today if he was still playing. With modern spacing, [ __ ] would be a joke with how they talk about Trey Murphy. Top two player easily.
Yeah, that we agree on. That we agree on. I love you, Scoot.
Love you too, bro. I mean, look at this guy. This guy will tell you the Dallas Mavericks can win it all. Wouldn’t you? Wouldn’t you say that, buddy? Sh. I’m talking now. Shh. I’m talking now. It’s me. It’s my turn. Okay. No. No. No. Okay. The Dallas Mavericks win it all, folks. That’s the question that we embark on today. The journey that we embark on is to answer that very their question. And I’ve created something. I’ve created a PowerPoint. You guys know you love the PowerPoints. I know you love the PowerPoints. Let’s not, you know, waste time arguing about the power points. You guys are doing them. You guys like them. You guys love them. So, I’m going to give them to you. Uh, and I made one today. Can the Mavs win it all by the I’ve discussed this briefly, but I do prefer going by the If I had to pick a name uh for myself, just the. So, if you guys can refer to me that from here on out, that’d be nice. If you’re watching this on YouTube, leave a like, leave a subscribe, leave a comment. And and I actually do want you guys to comment something before you embark on this video any further and before I give my reasonings for what I believe and what could happen and what I think the possibilities are. I want to know what you guys think. Can this Dallas Mavericks team win the whole thing? And I think it could be a pretty fun exercise between now and the start of the season to do a rundown of a lot of these different teams in the NBA to see who really has a chance. Uh today I’m going to look at, you know, we’re going to look at the Mavs as a team. you know, what style of play they can use to achieve championship status and just historically speaking, what history tells us about this Mavs team and their realistic chances. Okay, now let’s start here. Okay, what puts this Mavs team in an interesting predicament? First and foremost, they’re one of the deepest rosters in the league. I think they’ve had an A+ off season. All right, bringing in Cooper Flag by itself is an A+ off seasonason no matter what else happened. Bringing in D’Angelo Russell for $5 million, I like it. Angel Russell a frustrating player? Yeah. Would I be, you know, questioning what the hell’s going on? If D’Angelo Russell is making $14 million a year or more, yes, I would question why we were making that decision. But $5 million a year, so be it. Like, we can live with the headaches at $5 million a year. Just similar to the Eightton signing. Same opinion I have there. Do I like DeAndre as a player? No, not really. At $8 million, will I live with the headaches if it means um Jackson Hayes isn’t my starting center? Yes. D’Angelo Russell at $5 million. why I live with the headaches if it means we’re not just throwing out two-way guys all year long to try and figure something out. Yes, I’ll live with that. So, uh, it does make sense in that regard. Um, bringing XM back, I think it’s a great decision. I think they’ve made good moves. Okay, so I I like their team. I think they’re very, very deep. Where the Mavs find themselves in an interesting predicament, of course, is they traded away a consensus top three player in the NBA and somebody who’s proven he can be the lead guy on a team, a team that’s contending for a championship, be the lead guy on a team that makes the NBA finals, right? That’s the biggest step is to make it to the NBA finals before you can win it. Uh, and the reality is is Anthony Davis, while incredible, hey, was first team allNNBA guy the the year that the Lakers won it all. Like was a consensus top five player. In fact, was consensus top two. like the after 2020 is LeBron’s the best player in the world and AD is second best. Um, but the reality is is AD hasn’t really solidified the fact that he can be the guy on a championship team. Now, if we go back to the year 2000, that just reminded me of that Jonas Brother song. I’ve been to the year 3000. You know, that song pisses me off. Not much has changed, but we live underwater. What the [ __ ] do you mean not much has changed? You live underwater. I say a lot’s changed. Um, so anyways, looking back through 2000, I wanted to go through and look at the best player on every championship team since then because, you know, the idea is, and this isn’t groundbreaking news, is you got to have a top five guy to win in the league. And if you look at it through the years, um, MVPs, you’ve had one, two, four, five, six MVPs since the year 2000 have gone on to win a championship. So, the best player in the league that year goes on to win uh the finals. I mean, it’s kind of rare. There was a 10-year gap between when Steph did it in 2015 and when Shay did it in 2025. That’s actually kind of crazy to think about. And then there was another damn near 10ear gap between Timmy Duncan in 03 and LeBron in 2012. So, MVP is not always, you know, an indicator that you’re going to win the finals. I mean, we know that, right? But, uh, it does show that you need some star power to win it all. First team AllNBA. I mean, this is almost a prerequisite. So, go just going back to the year 2000, the amount of times a team has won the finals without a guy on their roster, uh, making first team AllNBA, not just an allNBA team, first team AllNBA. You have the 2022 Warriors, Steph Curry was second team all, and it’s Steph Curry, let’s be honest. Kawawaii in 2019, I believe Kawawaii only played 60 games this season. Um, this was before the 65game rule. Uh, but you know, it’s Kawhi Leonard consider I think at this time considered by everybody to be a top five player. Uh the 2017 Warriors, which is kind of funny to think about because they had Steph Curry and Kevin Durant. So I don’t know, you know, both of those guys consensus top five players at that time. The 2014 Spurs, which is an interesting one. You have Tim Duncan on the tail end of his career. Kawawaii is not Kawawaii yet. Interestingly enough, uh I think you would guys see this and you would assume that’s Tim Duncan who made the second team all. No, no, no. That was Tony Parker who was second team allNBA that season. Um they’re kind of an interesting one because I think in some ways that team was that team was dominant. Now, of course, the Mavericks took him to seven. It was rigged against them after the horrible suspension. You guys know what I’m talking about. I don’t even need to speak on it any further. Um, the Mavs pushed them to seven games and no one else was even really close to that, the Spurs team. That’s an interesting one because there’s a blend of older talent, talent that might not even be in their prime anymore. Like really good talent still and young talent on that team as well as just a very deep deep roster that I I think if you were to make a best case scenario for this Mavs team and them winning it all. Some interesting parallels there. The 2011 Mavs, Dirk Nitzky, obviously, and then the 04 Pistons, Ben Wallace uh was second team all NBA. It has never happened since 2000 at the very least. This was the furthest I wanted to go back cuz I’m not I don’t I don’t want to spend two hours rambling here. Uh oh my god, my cat is going absolutely insane. I know. I I trying to tell them you have to have a top 10 player. That’s exactly what I’m saying. Um it has not happened since 2000 that a team has not had a second team all player or better on their team and won the NBA finals. Um, now I’m I’m interested to see if that changes as time goes on with the 65game rule and um if we get, you know, an exception to that cuz I I believe if the Pacers went on to win this year, they would have broken this rule right here and they were one win away from doing it. So, I don’t know how rock solid this is, but this this just goes to show you have to have a solidified top 10 at the very worst player on your roster to to win the NBA championship. uh and the Pistons, you know, might be pushing a little bit, but Ben Wallace was voted uh second team all NBA that year, would you consider him a top 10 player at that time? I mean, I don’t know, maybe. But it’s it’s consensus. And when you look at Anthony Davis, uh historically over over his career, going back to, you know, when he really started to blossom into his zone, I mean, we’ll get to the injury stuff here in a second, but the reality is if this guy plays 60 games, he’s making first team all certainly. uh throughout since 2014 2015 he’s he’s played 60 games. Let’s count. Let’s do some math. One, two, three, four, five, six times. That’s not that’s not a number. That’s great. Uh six times since 2014 or 2014 2015 season that he has played 60 plus games. Five time all-NBA first team guy and a second team guy. I’m sorry I did horrible math. Four team first team. Four time first team AllNBA, one time second team AllNNBA. if he plays 60 plus games, um, he’s almost certainly a top 10 player in the sport. And I think that’s true even now, right? The problem is getting to 60 games. So then I wanted to rack my brain and think, all right, we already know Kyrie Irving’s out until January, February, uh, at the best best case scenario there. How often cuz you know NBA injuries happen especially last 10 years or so where there’s been an added emphasis and um load management making sure these guys are healthy and not pushing the boundaries too much. What’s like the limit for games? Like is there like a certain limit for your best player where it’s like if this guy doesn’t play 50 games you’re just not going to build the continuity? Because that’s going to be a very important thing for the Mavs next year if you want the Mavs to contend for a title next year. not just be a playoff team contention for a title. They’re going to have to build continuity over the course of the season. They’re going to have to be healthy next year. Okay? It can’t just be like a played 50 games, but he really came on in the second half. They have to learn how to play together on the fly cuz they were not able to do so last year. And Kyrie’s already coming back in January, February. So, that’s you’re already up against it there. Anthony Davis has to be healthy next year. Okay? And if we just go back and look uh over the course of the last 25 years or so, um the fewest games I could find outside of shortened seasons. Uh think back to like 2012, there were 66 games and then the co years. Um outside of those years, the lowest I could find was 2018 Steph who played 51 games. And of course that was the 2018 Warriors. KD played 68. They were they like that team was beating anybody no matter what. They could roll out roll out of bed there. In fact, go watch the videos of them warming up. They literally rolled out of bed. It was a joke how they were treating the rest of the NBA. Um 2019 Kawawaii 60 games. Uh 2022 Steph 6405. Duncan had 60 played 66 games. I mean that’s like you know that’s not missing a lot of games. I I hate to say it but for Anthony Davis 68 games we’re feeling really really good about that, right? Um but this just kind of shows that there is a standard that you know you need your star player to be out there and playing games. And that sounds obvious, right? Because if your star player misses a lot of games, you’re probably going to lose a lot of games. You might miss the playoffs entirely or your playoff seating will be so low that you’re just going to be up against it. Uh playing, you know, homec court advantage and no series that you play in. I think it also is just more it’s more of a continuity thing and that is more important than ever for this Mavs team. They’ve never played together. They’ve played what nine games with Anthony Davis total. Uh not including the playin games. I just hate how you you can’t find the playing stats anywhere. What do we do? Like, why is that? Why are playing stats impossible to find? Make it make sense. Doesn’t make any sense to me. I mean, you want to say that the play’s like this really important thing, I can’t even find the [ __ ] stats anywhere. That just makes no sense to me. All right. Um, so Anthony Davis is going to have to be healthy this year. Like, like I It’s only been one time since 2000 outside of shorten seasons. one time that a team’s best player played under 60 games and went on to win the NBA finals. And if you want to do the Steph versus KD thing, like I don’t even want to have that discussion. And it was 2018 Steph Curry who was on a God team. If you go back and you look at Anthony Davis, it’s been one time since 2020 that he’s played in 60 or more games. Going to have to buck that trend this year. Going to have to buck it. All right. How about this? So, we know you know you you need a top 10 player to win the NBA Finals. That’s not a secret to anybody. But what about your supporting cast, right? What about your supporting cast? I wanted to go back and look in all the recent champions, last 25 champions or so. How many of them had an allNBA teammate, an all-star teammate, or I put other here, that’s an award recipient of some sort, right? Defensive player of the year. Uh, all of these guys are all defensive teams in this list right here. You have Drew, you have um uh Kauaii, you have Bruce Bowen, you have Tyson Chandler. Okay. So, those those guys are all all defensive team uh recipients. Uh it’s only happened three times since 2000 that a team has not had another AllNBA player all-star or reward award recipient on their roster. You have the 23 Nuggets, the 2016 Cavs. Interestingly enough, Kawi or Kyrie I think only played 50 games that season or something like that and the 04 Pistons. Um which isn’t really a surprise at all. But only those three instances where a team has not had somebody else that was, you know, considered a top 20, top 25 or so player on their team. Um, and you see, I mean, most of these champions since then have had another allNBA teammate, right? Obviously, you had JDub this year. You had AD and LeBron were both first team players in 2020. Stephan KD dwade with the Heat. Uh the 15 Warriors. I think Klay and Draymond both made all all NBA teams. I could be Clay for sure. Pal with with Kobe. Uh Shaq and Kobe in the early 2000s. So Paul Pierce in08. Um Shaq and Wade in 06. Like most of these teams have at least another AllNBA player on their roster. And that that does lead me to to ask the question, um, what do you think that looks like for this Mavs team if you were to pencil them in as a champion or championship contender? Historically speaking, very rarely, but historically, very rarely that you don’t need it, but historically speaking, you need another guy on the team on the roster who can make an all-star game, can make an all NBA team, can make an alldefensive team, something. And you know, obviously the Mavs do have that, right? Kyrie Irving. Kyrie Irving was playing at an allNBA level last year and you know um so was Anthony Davis. Neither of those guys got to the 65game limit. But if both of them did, then they both make all NBA teams. And then you have that checked off right there. Kyrie’s not going to play 65 games this upcoming season. So he is, you know, out of contention for that entirely. It does raise the question, do the Mavs have anybody else on their roster that is capable of making an All-Star game, making an allNBA team, you know, receiving uh an alldefensive team? Nod, I think Lively could be an alldefensive player this year. I think that that’s 100% a possibility. You know, I I think Flag could win rookie of the year, obviously. Uh we’re going to get to that here in a second. I think there could be some like six man of the year love for some guys like Naji Marshall maybe. Um was interested to see like how often six man of the year like had a real impact on championship teams. Not very often. Not very often. Um, so the second fiddle aspect of this, you know, um, it does give me pause whenever I’m sitting here trying to like convince myself this Mavericks team can go on to win a championship. It gives me pause a little bit because the Mavs second fiddle and and Kyrie Irving, absolutely top 30 player in the league, absolutely all-star level player, absolutely all NBA level player if he’s healthy and playing. Um, won’t return until February, best case scenario, and is coming off an ACL tear. So to expect Kyrie back 100% Kyrie I think is you know wishing on a star basically no pun intended. So I think the Mav’s best chance is like Cooper Flag having an unreal year and making the All-Star game. That shit’s not happening in the Western Conference. I’ll tell you that much. I think it would be like Derrick Lively making an alldefensive team or something like that. Uh which is which is possible. Absolutely. He has to stay on the floor. Derrick Lively’s never really even come close to 65 games. So he has to stay on the court. But I think that’s your pathway right there. I mean, it’s crazy. Look at this roster. This roster is deep, man. It’s deep. But history has shown us. Um, yeah, you you probably need to be deep, but you need at least at least one solidified second guy. And again, the Mavericks do have that in Kyrie Irving, but it’s it’s hard with the ACL recovery to pencil that in, right? To pencil that in. It’s it’s difficult. How about Cooper Flag? Just going back and looking at uh champs since 2000. How often have rookies had real legitimate impact on championship teams? The answer to that question is hardly ever, right? 2003, Manu Ginobi, different thing entirely. 25 years old as a rookie, he plays 27 minutes per game. You’ll notice a trend with all these rookies. 2023, Christian Brown, 13 minutes per game, 21 years old. 2017, Patrick Macau, 12 minutes per game, 21 years old. 2005 Bino Udri 11 and a half minutes per game 22 years old 2018 Jordan Bell 10 minutes per game 23 years old um as you can see and those Warriors teams are a little bit wonky because I mean they were just annihilating teams so those guy those guys just got to go out there and you know have fun for for a while uh and 30 point leads but uh you’ll notice that all these guys are older right Cooper Flack will be 19 years old by the time the next playoffs start. I mean that’s insane to me. All of these guys are older and only one of them gave you like real legitimate minutes in Manu’s case. Um, you do have some other cases of like rookies coming in and playing under 10 minutes but being very impactful. Think of like Glenn Big Baby Davis on that Celtics team that won it all. Um, oh, uh, Norse Cole on that Heat team. Those guys were impactful but didn’t get like a ton of minutes. It’s not that common. But I will say this is a very different situation here. you’re getting an all-time rookie pro. I’m always saying this and bringing this up because I have seen people say stuff like this and use stuff like this as an argument as to why like the Mavericks won’t be a good team because you can’t rely on rookies. Uh there’s there’s not really a situation that’s all that comparable to this. The comparable situation that people have brought up is Tim Duncan. You know, I I don’t I don’t want to expect Tim Duncan’s rookie season for Cooper Flag. That’s very high expectations. Anthony Davis isn’t really David Robinson, right? Um, so I don’t know how I don’t know how one to one those comparisons are, but the reality is is, you know, this is a flawed way of looking at things and I just again I just wanted to bring it up cuz I’ve seen other people bring it up. Um, I think Flag is incredible. Flag’s better than all of these guys, right? At least coming out as a prospect. Imman who’s a Hall of Famer. I want to give him some props. But, um, it’s just you very rarely do you have the first overall pick, one of the better prospects you’ve seen in a while go to a team that’s competitive, right? The lottery, right? The lottery. I see you, Nico. I do see the vision, Nico. I see it 100%. The lottery. Um, the lottery, you know, works to where usually terrible teams are getting the first overall pick. So, this is a rare occurrence. And, you know, I wouldn’t people who use this as an argument. It doesn’t matter. People said the same thing about Derrick Lively a couple years ago was that Derrick Lively, you can’t rely on a center going into the playoffs. You can’t rely on the center on a rookie going into the playoffs. Um, and it was like, well, this is kind of a different situation. You know, this team desperately needs a guy like that. And wouldn’t you know it, Derrick Lively ended up becoming a key point, key focal piece, ginormous piece on a team that made the NBA finals. So, I don’t know. Anytime these type of rookie comparisons come up, it it’s just context is always so different with all these guys, right? Uh, and I don’t think we haven’t seen a situation like this, at least in a long, long time, where a rookie, especially rookie of Cooper Flags caliber, is going to a team as talented as this. It’s been a while. Um, another important thing to note, this kind of goes, that being said, you have to be elite, preferably on both sides of the court, right? Um, going back to 2004, it’s the longest cleaning the the glass goes back their database with offensive rating, defensive rating. It’s only happened uh what what is that? Four times that an NBA champion was not top 10 and both offense and defense. Uh again, only happened four times. You had the Golden State Warriors and in and these four teams, right? Uh it’s not like they were dead last in offense, dead last in defense. No, these teams were, you know, about middle of the road in the other side of the floor in a lead on one. So, for example, Denver, right? They’re the only team to win since 2004 that’s not been top 10 in defensive rating. That’s usually like a guaranteed prerequisite. Um they were fifth offensively in elite offense. One of the best offensive players we’ve ever seen in Nicole Joic and uh a very easy playoff run. I’m just saying it was a very easy playoff run, right? That’s what they had going for them. They were the best team in the league that year and deserve the win though. U the three teams that we’ve seen that have been top 10 defensively and not offensively, you have the Golden State Warriors in 2022. They were the second best defense in the league that year. You have the Raptors in 2019. They were the second best defense in the league that year. You have the Pistons in 2004, the second best defense in the league that year. These three teams are important right here because I’m going to be honest with you, especially with Kyrie missing time. It’s very possible the Mavericks are not a top 10 offensive team this year. As I mentioned with these three teams that went on to win the NBA finals, despite not being top 10 offenses during the regular season, uh all three of them were top two defensive teams, elite defensive teams. The Mavericks, this Mavericks team is going to have to be top two defensively, top three defensively to make up for what I’m thinking they will probably lack offensively. Not to say that I think they’ll be terrible offensively. And I and again, I want to point out no team has since 2004 has won without being a top 10 offense or defense at bare minimum, one of them. Uh, and no team’s won being like bottom 10 in any of these categories. So, you have to be at least middle of the pack and uh elite on the other end. And, you know, that’s the idea, I think, for this Maverick team. You can be 13th to 14th offensively while producing a top two, top three defense. That’s going to be the benchmark for talking championship caliber. That is going to be the question for this team. Um, again, AD played what, eight regular season games with the team. guys in and out of Kyrie was in what the the first half of one of one of the games. Um, so it’s it’s difficult to like look at the Mavs numbers last year, but in games that Anthony Davis did play when he was on the floor, they had a 114 offensive rating, which would have been 21st in the league, and a 112 and a half defensive rating, which would have been top seven. So, I I do think there’s a pathway for this Mavericks team to be an elite defensive team. I I mean, that goes without being said. your rim protection is going to be incredible, right? With Anthony Davis, with Derek Lively, Cooper Flag lineups with those three on the floor together and then potentially even jumbo lineups where PJ Washington’s on the floor together on the floor with those uh three guys as well. And then you could swap out Lively with Gaffford. You’re going to have elite rim deterrence, right? Rim deterrence and rim protection. You’re going to generate a ton of blocks. I can’t, you know, uh, you know, hopefully the block numbers aren’t like stupidly high, but I do think you’ll, you should probably lead the league in blocks only because you have so many great shot blockers and your perimeter defense is not that good. So, I think you’re going to get beat quite a lot on the perimeter. So, there’s going to be a lot of opportunities to block shots. Uh, fortunately, you have some of the best shot blockers in the entire league on your team. Derrick Lively is one of the better rim protectors in the league already at his young age. Anthony Davis, obviously, all-time great rim protector. Cooper flag I think is already entering the league as one of the best weak side help defenders in the league day one. So you’re getting all of that off the jump. Um to pair with, you know, Exom coming back. Exum missed a lot of times this past season. Max Christie is a talented defensive player with some juice offensively. Obviously we’ve seen that right Shake Gilder Alex. It’s a Shake Gildish Alexander trade. Remember that. Remember that when life was good for those seven games. Um he is a good defensive player entire year with the team. to see how that benefits him. You know, D’Angelo Russell is one of the best perimeter defenders in the NBA, full stop. So, that’s going to help the Mavs immediately day one, you know. Um, so I do think that they could be a top three defensive unit. It’s going to be difficult to pencil them in as like number one. The Thunder will be incredible again. The Spurs should be fantastic defensively, assuming Wimby stays healthy. The Rockets will be fantastic defensively once again. Um, the Magic will be great defensively, but I I do think the Mavs could be one of the best units in the league. And and [ __ ] could be, they have to be. Okay, they have to be one of the best defensive units in the league because I think this numbers, this number is pretty close to your reality. I think I think 21st offense is pretty close to your reality. Can you get that up to 14 or 13 with second or third defense? If that’s the number by January or so, um, which is, you know, that’s not fair to say because Kyrie wouldn’t be playing in any of those games. Let’s just say March. If if that’s your number in March, you’re the second best defense in the league and the 14th best offense. I I could squint and make an argument for you to make to to win the finals. I could, right? If we’re talking the sixth best defense and the 23rd best offense, no chance. Okay? So, that’s that’s what is required. Right? Now, here’s here’s something that concerns me. If I if I were to this is the biggest concern for me beyond on ball creation, beyond guys who can generate offense for themselves, beyond point of attack defense, beyond health, you know, health is actually the most concerning thing to me. But beyond second to health, the shooting stuff. The shooting is alarming to me. The shooting is concerning. One, I think you’re going to run into spacing issues just with a lot of the lineups. the fact that you probably are going to put Cooper Flag out there as a guard in certain lineups. Um, it’s a lot of pressure on him to knock down his threes at a high clip. Your spacing is going to be a little bit wonky and we’ve we saw this at times last year, especially when you wait for Kyrie to come back. But I also think your production is going to be bad from three. And we’ve seen a no noticeable trend lately, and this really shouldn’t be much of a surprise, but uh the last five champions have all been top 10 in three-point shooting efficiency. Uh, and most of the time they’re they’re elite, right? OKC was fifth this year. Didn’t not a high volume of threes, but they knocked them down. The Celtics obviously in 2024, second, uh, which with their volumes insane. Denver, again, kind of similar to OKC. They don’t shoot a lot of threes, but efficient when they do shoot them, third. Golden State ninth in 2022, and Milwaukee sixth in 2021. Um, why do I say this is concerning? Well, because the Mavericks were 21st in three-point percentage after the trade. And you know, DLO will help with that for sure. Um, Cooper Flag should help with that. I mean, he was a 40% three-point shooter in college. I think his three-point shot looks great. I’m not concerned about his three-point shot whatsoever. Um, but I just I I really do struggle to see a world where you’re an elite three-point shooting team. I think that’s like the the things that would have to happen for you to be an elite three-point shooting team just seem so far outside of the realm of possibility that’s not even really worth discussing. Like you’d have to have a DLO shoots eight threes a game, nine threes a game and is 40 plus percent. Right? Uh and he’ll help out with that. Like let’s be clear, DLO will help out tremendously with the Mavs um three-point shooting and their both their three-point shooting accuracy and the frequency in which they shoot threes. Um but in order to get like into the top 10 or top five even, I think like Cooper Flag would have to be a knockdown three-point shooter as a rookie. Not only that, but he’d have to like show flashes like, “Oh, he’s got to step back three.” Like, he he can go to the three-point shot a lot if he if he needs to and create it for himself. Clay’s 40% from three. PJ has a great year from three. Max Christie pulls his head out of his ass and remembers how to shoot the basketball. Like, these are all things that would have to happen for you to achieve that. And a few of those things probably will, but all of them, I don’t know. So, this is the thing that scares me the most about the Mavs in terms of them being realistic championship contenders, right? Is the fact that I just don’t think they’ll be a good three-point shooting team. But you know what can they do? Like here’s the thing, and this this is obvious, but the teams that win it all at the end just have more than any other team. That’s really it. Yeah, of course you’ll get lucky with runs and going up against injuries, but the fact of the matter is you had more problems for other teams than other teams had problems for you. How can you push that? How can you impose your will? What is your advantage? What is your matchup advantage? What is it that teams are circling when they see you on the roster like [ __ ] man this guy’s going to have to play 30 minutes that night like we can’t play him? Do you have that? Do you have a matchup nightmare this Thunder team this year? They had depth, right? They could they could pressure you defensively for 48 minutes, fly around for 48 minutes. They were athletic, they’re young, and they could do that because they had depth top to bottom. They had a rotation of guys that could cycle in and out. Uh they’re they are similar offensively in some ways to the Celtics and 24 as well where all guys are smart playmakers as well. Can pass, can drive, um some of them can shoot, right? Um flop in Lug Dort’s case. The 24 Celtics obviously shooting just a matchup nightmare. If you’re a team that’s not going to shoot a lot of threes or make a lot of threes, your back is up against the wall against the 2024 Celtics. They also had one through five playmaking, space the floor. If your defense is not on a string, you’re in a lot of trouble, right? 23 Nuggets all time. Twoman game. Does not matter how good you are defensively as a team. Does not matter um you know what personnel you have unless you have Alex Caruso um or Rui Hachimura. Remember like the Nuggets destroyed the Lakers. But I I think in a lot of ways Rui Hachima deserves a ring from the Thunder in some ways. And let me explain why. because when the Lakers discovered that when they switched Ru Hatchima on remember it was basically a win for the Lakers even though they lost the game because they switched Ru Hatchima on um he deserves a ring for that cuz the Thunder probably saw that and then put Caruso on. Just something to think about but an alltime two-man game in 2023 the Nuggets have and it was why was it a matchup nightmare? Well, it’s Joic of course but also uh you had to be on your P’s and Q’s late in game cuz you knew they you knew they were you knew if the game was close and Murray were going to go get a bucket so you had to be on your P’s and Q’s. the 2022 Warriors. I mean, Steph Curry’s a matchup nightmare. Obviously, they’re able to space the floor, play defense at a very high level, force turnovers at a very high level. 21 Bucks that just had incredible size with Giannis and Brooke and and Ibaka and um all the size that that they had positionally as well and just had elite rim defense that year. Um it was just kind of a nightmare to go up against. Pretty similar to that 2020 Lakers team. ton of size, able to put pressure on the rim, able to play ginormous jumbo lineups again with positional size, rebounded well, blocked shots, um just kind of a a a problem that no team really had a solution to. So, my question is, what is that? What is that problem that this 2026 Dallas Mavericks team would present to other teams to go on and win the NBA Finals? Um size, obviously. Um they’ll be one of the biggest teams in the league size positionally, right? Uh they don’t have like a jumbo guard anymore with Luca off the roster. Um they’ll always have like a smaller guy being a league ball handler, but hey, Cooper flag 99th percentile outcome comes in and is like, “Oh my god, this guy’s like this guy’s a point forward for real.” Then you could have lineups where you’re just gigantic, right? Um but yes, this team will be big. This team will have very similar to like the 21 Bucks elite rim defense. I don’t want to compare players or anything like that, but you have your elite sort of anchor defensively. Um, rim protecting center in the form of like Derrick Lively, Anthony Davis when you go small. Then you do have, you know, not Giannis’s level obviously, but you do have that elite helpside rim protection in the form of Cooper Flag, in the form of Anthony Davis if they use him as a ro as a ror at any point, in the form of like Derrick Lively or Gaffford if they use them as rors, uh, in the form of PJ Washington even. So, you do have that going for you. Um, now our guy Kevin Gray Jr. did point out that teams are teams aren’t scared of the Thunder, they’re scared of the Mavericks. Uh Kevin Gray tweeted out that a an inside source an NBA source told him that teams are building teams are building and this was in reference to Clintela signing with the Hawks or I’m sorry the the Rockets teams are building and getting big getting huge to combat the Dallas Mavericks. What do you have to think? What do you guys have to say about that? Huh? You guys trying to see the vision or what? But this is how they would have to beat teams is just overwhelm you with size. Another thing the Mavs have that all of these teams have. All of these teams. We talk about how you build a roster. We talk about what’s the answer. What’s the answer to beating a team like the Thunder? You build your team to beat the Thunder. There’s not like a specific lineup. And I think people get lost in this sometimes. It’s not like a specific fiveman lineup. That’s it. It’s versatility and it’s having answers to other teams questions. And I do think that’s something the Mavericks have. And I do think the Mavericks are one of the few teams in the league that can say they’re as versatile as they are, right? There’s a lot of different directions they can go with their lineups. They could play gigantic and just dominate a team on the glass or just swallow teams up that are just heavy driving driving teams. Just swallow them up with rim protection. They have that at their disposal. They have your more traditional looks, right? Like they could just throw 80 at the five. um play PJ or Flag at the four and just kind of play a more traditional group. Um they could go if they ever wanted to small. I think PJ is a guy who could play small five. I think Flag might develop into something like that at some point. Not not for huge spurts, but lineups where Flag’s essentially playing the five as he gets stronger and bulks up. I don’t think you’ll get that this year, but um like they they have the personnel, I think, and the positional size elsewhere to make a lineup like that work. The only lineup that I I look at and I I don’t know if the Mavericks possess is the Okay, we’re down by eight. Like, we have to put all of our shooters on the floor and like space the floor and and bomb threes. It’s funny cuz the honestly the Thunder didn’t really have a lineup like that this year. In theory, they do, but a lot of their guys shrink in the playoffs from three. That’s just the truth. Um, so those lineups kind of went away, but that’s like the one lineup I like I wish the Mavericks had just a a better three-point shooting focused lineup. Um, but they have a ton of versatility. They do. They have lineups for teams that, hey, you can’t play big against this team, right? They’re just going to pick you apart. They have the lineups that can answer that. They have the lineup where it’s like, hey, this team’s playing Giant. We have to play Giant, too. They can achieve that. They have a lot of answers. Um, and that is interesting to me. That makes them a very interesting playoff team through and through. Through and through. That makes them a very interesting playoff team. In a playoff team, I don’t think a lot of teams would be all that excited about playing if they were healthy. Um, but we’ll have to wait and see. My conclusion here, my synopsis, I’d be very pleasantly, don’t get me wrong, very pleasantly surprised if this Mavericks team are able to make a real like not even winning the championship and making a real real run in the playoffs. Uh, only because I have so many questions about their shooting. I am worried about their health. That goes for every team, but I am worried about the Mavericks health uh in general. And three, the ball the on ball creation stuff is a little, you know, it’s hard not to be concerned about it. Now, they can make a move at the deadline. We know how aggressive they are at the deadline. We know how aggressive they are at the deadline. Um, that could shore up some of those problems. So, we’ll see. This has always been a team that that performs better in the second half than the first. But, uh, I do think they’ll be a good team. I really do. They’re deep. They have so much size. Their defense should be elite. Um and and and you know this talk about the Mavs needs need this and Mavs need that. Guys, there’s a very realistic outcome where Cooper Flax just immediately a top 50 player in the NBA. Uh that alleviates a lot of problems because his pathway to getting there means there’s real onball juice. Um he’s a great connective playmaker with real point forward flashes that he can do right now. And the just kind of defense out in space is is a little bit better than maybe you thought that it would be immediately at least. And that leads to him being a top 50 player. that that exact player I’m talking about is like really kind of fits what this Mavericks team needs in a lot of ways. So, um I mean that’s a very realistic outcome and that does change things a lot for them. Wait, are they a championship winner? I might have just convinced myself that through all this, everything leading up to I was like, “No, they’re probably not.” But I just convinced myself maybe they are. I wouldn’t want to see them in the playoffs. How about that? Right? Because if you’re a team that’s just um like last year’s Lakers team for example that’s not very versatile. We got one way to beat you and that’s really it. Like you’re not going to see a lot of different looks from us. I think a team like that would hate to play the Mavericks. They could beat you in a million different ways. If the Mavericks went up against say, you know, uh the Thunder for example, well, that’s where things start to get a little bit spooky. And I think that’s where a lot of your a lot of your faults as a team would start to really really show. or a Nuggets team that’s, you know, not not necessarily versatile, although they’re trying to build towards that, not necessarily versatile, but uh are just incredibly elite at what they do with Jokic in in that twoman game and their their half court for offense. Let me know what you guys think, man.

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