07-04-2024, 12:51 PM
(07-04-2024, 12:33 PM)Smitty Wrote: I agree and we already have enough evidence now to know that Kidd doesn’t really take the regular season all that serious. 50 wins is still a reasonable goal imo.
I agree that the West will be a bloodbath again, and maybe even tougher sledding than last year, so we shouldn't have any hopes of the Mavs running away with anything. I doubt the win total will approach 60.
But, regardless of what we think is likely, I hope you're wrong about Kidd (or the team, really) taking the regular season seriously. I get what you're saying, but beating three 50-win teams on the road in the playoffs was brutal. The easiest team to beat was Minnesota, but the other two series could've easily gone the other way. A little more experience from the Thunder or a healthy Kawhi Leonard and we might be in a totally different mood around here this summer.
Personally, my expectation level is that the Mavs get into the top 4 seeds this season. I don't mean that as in I think they're deserving of that or it will be easy, necessarily, that's just the bar I have for a good regular season. Following up success with improvement is tough, but that's what they'd need to do for me to feel they've made progress. Once they get into the playoffs, things are so dependent on health and matchups that there are scenarios where they lose in the 2nd round or the Conference Finals I might be ok with, but if they're serious I think they need to go hard to get home court in at least the first round.