Lineup Discussion: Good on Paper Vs Good on Court

[Scott41theMavs]

The issue is THJ and DFS are both almost soley reliant on 3pt shooting efficiency to remotely be capable NBA starters. MAYBE they keep up the trend, but they are both in their late 20's and just had complete anomoly career shooting seasons. The potential for them to revert somewhere back to the norm is pretty high. I'd want a minimum of 2 proven quality NBA starters, or one NBA star.

I don't think their reliance on the 3 is in issue. They're playing within their roles. NBA starters have roles, they aren't all "do everything" players, and three point shooting is a needed and accepted role in the NBA. So I don't buy that as an argument that THJ and DFS aren't capable NBA starters, however, if you want to argue that the Mavs starting lineup could use another ball handler and playmaker, I can get behind that.

Also, I know others have been concerened about their career years not being sustainable. I'm not concerened about that because of what we know about each player. DFS's career year was a result of years of had work and incremental improvement. Before the season started I even posted that DFS's hard work and develoment were paying off, that he's now starter material, and that his three pointer had finally arrived. Then he proved it. For THJ, he had shown that he could shoot and that he was starter material in Atlanta. Then he spent his New York years in an awful offense taking bad shots.

I think two new starters would be great because of our need for a second ball handler and playmaker. But if we can't make that happen, I think DFS and THJ are starter material.

My take (prior to the playoffs, when THJ was outed as a defensive cataclysm) was always that DFS and THJ were always fine if one of them was your fifth best starter, but that you were in trouble if you didn't have four better ones. The Mavs currently have two.