Accurately Assessing the Mavs Recent Personnel Changes

[KillerLeft]

For an interesting thought exercise, go back and find the original thread regarding the signing of DJJ.  Crickets.  There was very little reaction in the moment.  No one knew back then what we were getting.  When people put together their depth charts as we headed toward preseason, people had DJJ as the 3rd and sometimes 4th PF.  Not a wing and a mile from being a starter.

This is so true. For me, it points to a different conversation, completely. The Mavs were so, so lucky to have gotten that season out of DJJ. There are several things that worked out for them in a "despite the odds" sort of way: rookie play from Lively, Washington fitting here like a glove on the defensive end after the trade, Exum's strong regular season play, etc, etc, but at the very top of that list has got to be the way a vet minimum signing, so close to training camp it seemed like an after thought, had such an insanely positive impact on their season. 

Without any of those pieces of luck, with DJJ being probably the most surprising, we've got a very different vibe around here this summer. We all owe DJJ a lot of respect, imo, and it's probably a good idea to realize that even when your team makes all the "right" kind of moves, a little luck is needed to elevate them.