The Dallas Mavericks can compete with ANYONE in the West | The Dime With Josh and Kwab

The Dallas Mavericks can compete with ANYONE in the West | The Dime With Josh and Kwab

All right, listen. The first team is the Dallas Mavericks. Listen, you you made the trade for Luca Donic, who’s now looks like a freaking superhero, which is insane. I mean, that’s a whole another discussion on its own. Um, talk about winning the breakup in the sense where it’s like you get broken up with and then you lose 20 pounds and you become shredded. He’s definitely like posting outfit of the day on Twitter, on Instagram, on, you know, he’s letting him know what this is what you missed. This is but look what the mass the mass made the trade and then all a sudden they got the number one pick out of nowhere. It’s just and they also had Anthony Davis who’s no slouch. Like it’s not like they didn’t get anything. We keep forgetting. We keep forgetting. No big deal. No big deal. They have a Yeah. Uh and it’s funny when when the Mavs made this trade last year, you can go back and watch. I thought that it was a good deal for the Mavs in the short term. I thought it was a good deal for the Lakers in the long term because now you have Luca Donuch who can be your centerpiece for the next 5 to 10 years if you’re able to resign him. the Dallas Mavericks. If everybody stayed healthy, I don’t think the year would have went the way it went last year. A lot of people forget that after Anthony Davis was traded from the Lakers to the Mavericks, like I don’t know what happened, but like the plague, the injury plague at the Dallas Mavericks and everybody went out. Everything that went wrong went wrong. Yeah. I mean, so to be fair to Dallas and and and to Mavericks fans, we see you. We know we know that a a big reason why the year ended last year the way it did was because of injuries. Yeah, mass fans have been through a lot. Luca Donic gets traded. It’s It’s hard to deal with, but you’re looking at the team objectively, Quab, I think this team is deep enough to compete in the Western Conference. What do you think? Yeah, I agree with that. Um, I think a huge factor is going to be the health of the team. And I think that’s that’s one one of the main reasons why we we kind of didn’t have him in our top 10 because it’s like Kyrie’s going to be out. Um AD was also hurt, but it sounds like he should be good for the start of the season, but they went through like a myriad of injuries like after the trade. It was kind of like, hey, you traded Luca, you’re cursed. This is what you this is what you this is what you get. But the basketball gods are like, listen, just a half season of of BS of BS. But that that netted them Cooper Flag. They they were able to get the number one pick, end up with Cooper Flag. um who looked like, you know what I mean, look like a number one pick throughout the summer league and adds to already very like deep deep team, deep front line. Um you could see this team making noise throughout the course of the season if if they’re healthy when whenever Kyrie comes back even as they are like there’s a lot they have a lot of different pieces that could that could make an impact in the West. Yeah. I mean to me defensively I think they’re going to be very good. You have Anthony Davis who’s probably the best Brin protector in the league. I I know people might say Rudy Goar but to me Anthony Davis when he’s healthy actually might be the best defender in the league period like full stop. So you have Anthony Davis here and then on the back end you also have Lively and Gaffford who are no slouches as well. Klay Thompson who’s always been a really good defender throughout his career. He’s not the defender he used to be but he can still guard the perimeter. Um you know PJ Washington, Naj Marshall. I they’re just they’re just really deep and and I think Cooper Flag doesn’t have a lot of pressure to come in and be this superstar. He doesn’t have to come in and take over an offense. He doesn’t have to come in and and and basically be the focal point of anything really when Kyrie Irving’s on the court and Anthony Davis is on the court at the same time. You can relax a little bit. You can relax. Yeah. And and one thing I appreciate about Cooper Flag’s game is that he actually does have a very good and well-rounded game. He’s a good passer. He’s good playmaker. He can run the break. He’s a good defender. there’s a lot of things that he can do well that he doesn’t really need the ball in his hands all the time. To me, I think he went to a perfect situation where, you know, you don’t have the pressure of a franchise like, “Okay, we need you to be 25 and eight off the bat and carry us and show leader.” Like, you don’t need all that. You kind of just need to fit in and and do your job. Like, if Cooper Flag averages like 15 and eight this year, I think you’re happy with that as a Maz fan. And I think he’s perfectly capable of it. Cooper Flag to me is somebody who looks just as NBA ready as any rookie I’ve seen in, you know, in the past few years. So, I I have no doubts in my mind that he’s gonna have a solid season. And even if he doesn’t, you still have someone in a PJ Washington who I think fits the Maz perfectly, who has done well since he’s been back in Dallas. Nay Marshall as well. To me, this is a really deep team that’s going to give a lot of teams problems if they’re healthy. Now, would I put him over the Clippers? Would I put him over, you know, the Rockets or the Nuggets? I don’t think I would go that far. But I think you can absolutely make the case for them being better than the Lakers right now or maybe the Warriors right now or maybe maybe the T- Wolves like but they’re in that conversation and you know Quab and I didn’t have him in the top 10 because like Quab said Kyrie’s out to start the year and it’s one of those things where it’s like I kind of have to see it and you know but we do recognize how good they are for sure or how good they can be. Yeah. how good they can be. And even with all the players you mentioned, you we also missed out. What is up? They still have Max Christie. Um what is it? Caleb Martin who they another one. So they have they have defensive pieces and like you said, there’s going to be a really good defensive team. Um so you could see them being kind of in that that middle area in the in the West and could anything happens when you’re in the playoffs. We’ve already seen that. There there’s been many times where we’re like, “Oh, this team is a higher seed. They should definitely beat beat beat the lower seed.” And it it doesn’t go that way cuz matchups matter. And you have a front line of AD and a center. That’s all he want. AD just wanted to play with some centers. He absolutely that’s all he want. He got a switch, baby. Lakers were like, “Yeah, we got you. We got a center right for you.” I wish I wish. Um so that’s that’s a factor into it. Um we were talking about this before we started recording. Um, but when it comes to Mavs and and even uh Cooper Flag, I could see a scenario where Cooper Flag doesn’t start just cuz that’s how deep they are. Like you said, you could he definitely starts and which I can I can I agree on like he could definitely start, but he could also come off the bench cuz they do have PJ Washington, they do have Naji Marshall, they have a lot of like we mentioned all these players, a lot of top players like in that front line in in those positions. So they could be he could be in a scenario where they’re just comfortable like bringing him off the bench and letting him like adapt slowly or they they they can uh Jason Kidd throws him right in the fire. Either way it works out for him. But this is going to be a very good defensive team. Yeah. First of all, very good defensive team. Um I like to see I’m going to I’m interested to see how they look with instead of now without Kyrie, they have DLO at the point guard position. And DLO is somebody that’s used to playing with AD when when you’re on the Lakers. Yeah. So there’s some continuity there. This this is this is going to be I I can consider them being like the a top six team in the west. Yeah. And then and when Kai comes back, Dao goes to the bench and I think DL is a very serviceful backup point guard. I mean he’s probably one of the better backup point guards in the league, if not I won’t say the best. I can’t think off the top of my head, but I mean you would like to have Deandro Russell as your backup point guard. So for me, you know, I I guess my concerns here are like what kind of offense they’re going to run. Obviously Jason Kidd is one of the best point guards of all time. As a coach, I don’t really think too highly of him, even though I do think he deserves credit for bringing a team to the finals and he’s done a pretty decent job in Dallas, but I think a lot of their offense in the past was kind of just give the ball to Luca and let Luca cook or give the ball to Kyrie, let Kyrie Cook, and then you would have like a pick and roll with Luca because Luca does have that lob threat, you know, with Gaffford and Lively like he he’s always really good at that. Um, and I wonder if they keep that same offense, you know, with Kyrie and D’Angelo, pick and roll with AD or pick and roll with Gaffford and Lively to the rim. Um, I’m sure Anthony Davis is going to be on the perimeter more because, you know, he is playing the four now and I think that’s what he wants. So, I’m interested to see how Jason Kid incorporates that. You know, I I don’t Are you going to go like a high pick and roll um with these players? Are you are you going to have AD spreading the floor? You know, how are you going to use this lineup to your advantage? I think there are a lot of things that you can do. Dribble handoffs, AD coming off curls, like maybe being a hub at the top. We’ll see. Uh but but definitely a lot of different options. I I don’t I I really don’t know what to expect. I mean, we didn’t see Anthony Davis play last year with the Mavericks, so it is kind of like, you know, I I don’t know what to expect. The one game he did play, he got hurt in, but he was freaking awesome in that game. He was awesome. I mean, he did he did come back and play play, I think, a little bit, but it was obviously it was at that point it didn’t really matter. And like you said, that they have because of all the options that they have, they have like different type of lineup variations they could have. Would there be lineups where AD plays plays at the five and like Cooper is at the four? Yeah. like there there’s he has Jason Kit has a different type of option. So like it’s a to us we can’t wait to see what it looks like. Um yeah, it’ll be it will be interesting. Cooper’s going to have to shoot the three though because if if you if you’re going to have Gaffford and Lively on the floor with Cooper Flag, you can’t have big guys crowding the paint. Yeah. And then also Cooper’s guy playing off Cooper in the paint. Like it’s it’s going to mess up some spacing. So that’s the one thing I say Cooper’s probably going to have to be good at this year and be confident doing is shooting the three ball at a respectable rate. You don’t got to shoot 40 plus percent. Shoot 35 36%. At least be respectable from the three-point range and then I think the offense can take off. But that to me that’s that’s going to be one of the more important things whether or not Cooper Flag can stretch the floor and shoot the three ball at a consistent rate. We know we can get that from PJ, right? And and that’s what you’re saying. Maybe that’s why PJ starts in the starting lineup. I I don’t know. and and you can you bring Cooper off the black off Cooper flag off the bench with more energy running the basketball things of that nature. Um but that that to me that’s my biggest question mark. It’s like all right is Cooper going to be able to run in these lineups with Lively and Gaffford? He’s going to be one of them because one of them’s come off the benches as well. Are you going to be able to give that space? He’s going to have to hit the three ball. Not I don’t think he’s gonna be relegated to a spot of three-point shooter from the corner because I think Cooper Flag’s better than that. Yeah. But I do think he is going to be expected to hit the three ball. If he can do that, then this Mavs team is going to be pretty dangerous offensively, too. Yeah. I mean, and we can go back and look at him during the summer league. We saw how aggressively he was taking those uh those three. So, yeah. I mean, he’s going to have he’s going to have those shots like again, like you said, he has to he has to be capable of hitting it like and that’s that’s going to be a factor. So, that’s and he’s been uh he he you could tell he works on a shot. He’s a he’s he’s been an improved shooter throughout the years. So that’s that’s also going to factor in. But yeah, the Mavs have a very very interesting team in the West. [Music]

Josh and Kwab discuss if Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, Cooper Flagg, and the Dallas Mavericks have a shot at winning the NBA Finals this year

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