Game 67: Dallas Mavericks (33-33) vs. San Antonio Spurs (26-37)

[Chicagojk]

Tough to get excited about what happens on the floor.  They continue to play hard but someone needs to score...even on bad teams.  Marshall continues to be a zero from three.  That needs to improve.  Shooting 19% over the last 10.  It can't go lower right?

Max is struggling.  He struggles to get easy baskets but he has gotten some good looks from three.  He has a slow release but his misses are all over the place.  He just needs to settle down.  He is a smart player, but his value long term is going to be someone who consistently hits open threes.

I have liked what I have seen from Caleb.  He does a lot of the little things that I really like.  His offense will be his swing skill.  If he doesn't make shots, he is another iffy shooter on the team.  Speaking of this, watching Boston and OKC last night it is interesting to see the top teams filled with shooters and Dallas appears to be going the other way.  I just not sure how this works (even if they play good defense) with two bigs in the game mostly.  They need people to spread the floor.

Spurs Suck.  Not impressive at all.  Looking from the exterior, picking up one of the top rookies, getting Fox and picking up some future picks this offseason seems like a nice haul.  Although, it goes back to what I said earlier that they should have had a better offseason.  Wemby was ready for more.  There future is still bright if Wemby can stay healthy, but I was not impressed with them at all these past two games.

from Iztok.   I agree Marshall has a great touch inside.  Totally unexpected from me entereing the season.   Just think this is less important when we have a healthy team.  We need people to stretch the floor.

Big big picture most important thing imo for Mavs from these games is how real Naji Marshall jump as a paint scorer is.
At 56% Naji ranks 7th on non-rim, paint FG%. Only bigs Vucevic, Allen, Jokic, Zubac, Giannis & KD ahead of him.
I'll write more on my substack mailbag today