2021-2022 MAVS NEWS: 4th in West | WCF loss [ARCHIVED]

[mavsluvr]

I listened to the Locked On NBA and it was weird hearing how they thought the Mavs had taken a step back and would be worse and how they dealt with any reason the Mavs might be better...

Luka improving - how long can that help happening
KP healthy - can't trust that
Bullock an upgrade - no he's a wash with Richardson
THJ back - he was in a contract year last year so he won't be as good.
Rick's chemistry issues offset because Jason Kidd isn't as good a coach
No mention of Brown or the winning pace before and after COVID.

Both hosts picked the Mavs to be worse than 47.5 and even worse than last year.

It is possible to view the glass as half-empty, half-full, or at other measures. Personally, I wouldn't say for sure the Mavs took a step back (although it's possible they did, if Kidd doesn't pan out). I don't think they got better, either, other than maybe marginally at positions where they already had decent capacity. 

But, in a bigger sense, I think this is an example of why we Mavs fans tend to find it so bewildering when it is hard to recruit players here. As fans, we sometimes view ourselves as pretty close to contending, or at least progressing well on the road. I think other people around the league, viewing it more dispassionately, don't see the team as anywhere near that vicinity. 

We want to believe the team got better as a result of this summer's changes, and maybe it did. But, looking at the offseason objectively, I can see how people would see it as a tossup at this point whether the team has improved a little, stayed the same, or even gotten worse.