03-26-2024, 11:57 AM
Latest from Iztok
https://www.dmagazine.com/sports/2024/03...heir-soul/
For someone who has closely followed and covered the Mavericks ever since they drafted Luka Dončić in 2018, I am having a hard time comprehending the team we’ve been watching since the trade deadline. For five years, we observed various iterations of the same template: a relatively small team with some shooting around Dončić’s otherworldly talents, which enabled him to function as a methodical half-court surgeon. They played deliberate basketball, spreading out opponents by playing five-out, pick-and-rolling defenses to death, and punishing any collapse on Dončić by hitting a ton of threes.
Now, however, we’re in uncharted territory. Over the last 19 games, we’ve watched something entirely different: a team winning with size and speed instead of precision and patience. A team that feasts at the rim, rather than bombing from downtown. A team that almost broke the rims in the American Airlines Center last Thursday when it blew out the Utah Jazz, 113-97, while putting up a franchise-record 18 dunks.
While this new brand of basketball is undoubtedly more entertaining to watch, the logical question is: how far can this new style take the Mavs?
https://www.dmagazine.com/sports/2024/03...heir-soul/
For someone who has closely followed and covered the Mavericks ever since they drafted Luka Dončić in 2018, I am having a hard time comprehending the team we’ve been watching since the trade deadline. For five years, we observed various iterations of the same template: a relatively small team with some shooting around Dončić’s otherworldly talents, which enabled him to function as a methodical half-court surgeon. They played deliberate basketball, spreading out opponents by playing five-out, pick-and-rolling defenses to death, and punishing any collapse on Dončić by hitting a ton of threes.
Now, however, we’re in uncharted territory. Over the last 19 games, we’ve watched something entirely different: a team winning with size and speed instead of precision and patience. A team that feasts at the rim, rather than bombing from downtown. A team that almost broke the rims in the American Airlines Center last Thursday when it blew out the Utah Jazz, 113-97, while putting up a franchise-record 18 dunks.
While this new brand of basketball is undoubtedly more entertaining to watch, the logical question is: how far can this new style take the Mavs?