What is going on with the Mavs?

[Kammrath]

It seems that across the board the Mavs are looking disjointed and out of sorts. What is going on with them?


My take:

1) Luka: The Mavs best player is overweight and out of shape. He is the tide that lifts all boats and so all the boats are "underperforming" compared to what we are used to.

2) KP: The Mavs 2nd best player is out with injury. KP is the tide that lifts all the boats defensively and with spacing, and so all the boats are "underperforming" defensively and spacing is suffering.


So everything below assumes that the tides of Luka and KP are not helping to their full extent....

• JRich is showing himself to be the Mavs 3rd best player. It is promising to me that he still looks solid in his role with no KP and with Luka not being himself.
  
• DP was the Mavs 3rd most impactful player at times last year and he is now coming off an achilles tear, adding to him looking really poor.
  
• THJ seems to be suffering from knowing this is a contract year (shot hunting).
  
• Maxi seems to be really down, even more than what the impact of KP or Luka might make, but maybe not.
  

I think if we are patient and let Luka get into shape and let KP get back, then I suspect that most everything we are seeing that looks "off" will start fixing itself. 

The question is: What will be the Mavs record by the time that happens? Will the chance for home court in the playoffs be long gone at that point?