MAVS NEWS: Luka Wins Community Cares Award! | DLive's Mom Passes Away| Maxi OUT

[DanSchwartzgan]

watching the dress rehearsal, my first thought was we are too Luka dependent.   It is tough not to be, but it would be great to have other ways to attack defenses consistently.  Hopefully other options are up to the task. 

I don't think we see 80plus game from Luka.   Look at most of the stars.  They miss games.  I am going to account for 10-15 missed games from Luka and Dinwiddie (hopefully not more).   Those 10-30 games making up for missing either is what troubles me.  

One thing that would increase my optimism is if they prove last years top 10 defense was not a fluke.  When I look at our personnel, I don't think it is top 10 defense worthy.  But if they are good on defense, their offense is more than good enough.

I also worry about are the games Luka takes “off” while he is actually in the lineup.  We have lost some ridiculous games during his tenure when we were still trying to create credibility.  Now that Luka has tasted the conference finals I could see his effort against weaker sisters going one of two ways.  

1. He could show effort and make sure we win all of the games we are “supposed to” win, thus helping seeding and home court.

2. He could be even worse at showing full effort against weaker sisters knowing the only season that really matters is the post season.

I hope the strong bench comes into play here and they are able to overwhelm the benches of other teams.  The top three in the West seems fairly set (though it rarely works out the way it is projected to, even when the projections seem obvious).  I could see an argument for any order of finish among Dallas, Phoenix, NO, Minn and Memphis.  It wouldn’t shock me if any of those teams finished 4th, but I’d be least likely to put money on Minnesota.  

The prediction part of this is further complicated by looking forward to second round opponents.  Is there anyone from among the top 3 that you’d prefer to share the bracket with?  We won’t know until we see what teams look like after the deadline.  With so many more teams tanking this year, someone is going to make one of those trades that a fantasy football commissioner would veto and it could change everything.