GAMETHREAD: MIL @ DAL, Oct 11, 7:30 pm (111-118 loss)

[omahen]

there's little evidence as of right now that the Mavs are a better shooting or rebounding team.

These are my two big concerns for sure.

Giving big roles to THJ and Barea (love the guy, but come on we have better options or need to develop better options) will be the death of this team.

THJ definitely could turn into a Matthews situation where you just play a guy because he earns 20% of your cap. I do hope though that JJB is going to mentor the team more than play. One of the more obvious observations through the preseason is that you have to give Brunson all the minutes you can find.

THJ actually played two decent games now. Definitely much better than some other guys. Yesterday I actually liked what I saw. He was aggresive, made a couple of nice passes to open people. Played like something I would expect from Wright, accompanied by better defense. 

Wright can't be just a catch and shoot guy, that is not his role. He should be a secondary playmaker, which means running every third or fourth offense instead of Luka so he can rest a bit. He should also be aggresive in defense and pushing the ball in the counterattack off opponents misses and lost balls - I thought he was good in this kind of situations. Unfortunately, he looks totally lost. Even when he tried with a drive he looked like a random guy they picked from the street. Lost, no courage, no vision, no solution. 

Hate to say it, but up to now it was just proven that we don't have a credible starter outside of Luka and KP. Either they are offense only (THJ, Bobi), or they are not very special both offensively or defensively (Curry, DFS, Jackson, Kleber, Wright). Brunson so far was the third best player by far, but I still wouldn't put him higher than back up PG role. Guys around Luka and KP should be either lock down defenders of Pat Bev or PJ Tucker caliber - Wright, Kleber or DFS are no where near that at this point. The alternative is that they are very efficient attackers - none proved to be capable of that - bad shooting, bad decision making, turnovers.

It has to be said Milwaukee had a very good shooting night. Freak, Ilyasova and Bender were way above their averages. On the other hand they were missing half of their starting five and still outperformed Mavs. It was real difficult to watch how they let Freak do just about anything he wanted to. That was just awful team defense.

[Kammrath]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGbpvcfVtzo

[scottsp]

This was a vintage last season game called "Luka and the scrubs". I agree it's preseason and the team still needs time to gel, but tbh. there's little evidence as of right now that the Mavs are a better shooting or rebounding team. These are key things to potential improvement. I don't want to sound too down, I think the team will eventually figure it out and has the pieces to make a run at the playoffs. Might need a little more time than I had hoped for.

I am all for optimism, so I'm with ya. The years have probably jaded me, but until I get a glimpse of improvement in these areas they're in question.

We are watching opposing teams convert more shots from beyond the arc despite attempting far fewer. I think they can rebound better. The defensive end scares the living [  ] out of me. So at the very least, they'll have to shoot the three at a reasonable clip or it's curtains.

I don't believe this is breaking news or anything. And, believe me, I am not of the playoffs-or-bust mindset, because the West is as much of a minefield now as it's ever been. This team may not be in the top eight on its best day, but  that's tough to know at this time. My hope is the club develop an actual identity that is something more than "fun to watch" and not much else. Plenty of not-so-good teams fit that mold.

We should be beyond that now, but how it plays out is anyone's guess.